What makes me nervous
So…
I’m walking with my dog at the Dallas Road off-leash park, and see two kids on a raft fashioned from beach logs, paddling (with sticks, not oars) in the Juan de Fuca Strait…
Yes, the waters are calm today, there’s no storm. But there are currents…
Made me nervous…
I uploaded a little one-and-a-half-minute video I made of the boys to Youtube – click here to view. The video gives a better idea of where they’re paddling. (Sorry about the short zoom-in being out-of-focus, my camera isn’t the best.)
And here’s a still photo:
Saw the video but could not tell if the kids were wearing lifejackets, or how old they might be. Frankly, if there was some supervision (ie – someone on shore watching them) and they had basic safety in mind (ie – life jackets), then kudos to them.
The imagination to envision and build a raft, and take it for a paddle is something that should be encouraged.
Comment by Mat — April 17, 2010 #
Definitely ixnay on the lifejackets, and I didn’t see any adults on shore watching them, except for curious passers-by like myself.
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I, too, like the fact that they did this, on the one hand. …And on the other I was looking at them like a parent, thinking, “This reminds me of when a friend told me about her 13-year old son getting busted by the Massachusetts state police for riding his bike on 128.”
.
(He wanted to get to a specific place & didn’t have a car, so he rode his bike on the freeway – intrepid, but not a good idea in 1993, if, that is, you want to live long enough to party like it’s 1999.)
😉
So, yeah, props to them for being inventive, but it’s a big ocean, and I happened to be filming them standing next to that stone marker commemorating the four young people lost at sea in the 80s. Brrr…
Comment by Yule — April 17, 2010 #