Incident (Safety) Database

As many of you know Charlie Walbridge maintains a very intensive database of near misses and fatalities on the rivers on the American Whitewater website.

With that the recent events on the Green River Race brought up a thought or question in the CCC Facebook page as to an incident Database that tracks all types of incidents on rivers.

There are a lot of different opinions as to whether or not this would be beneficial however due to my most recent trip on the Upper Green I think it could help some.  On my trip I went river right around Wanda’s Hole and had no issues there but got too far right afterwards and ended up clipping part of the rock cliff which sent me into the current sideways and wasn’t able to brace out of it.  I flipped which was not a concern until my helmet started bouncing off the rock bottom and I ended up jamming a couple fingers while in the shallow section.  I rolled up and did not swim but having the knowledge that there is a shallow ledge that last about 10 feet long just after the deep pool of Wanda’s Hole is a good thing to know ahead of time.  It would be good to know if you do roll after Wanda’s, you either need to roll up real quick or tuck hard as it gets real shallow with fast current(at 2 units) for at least 10 feet.  To me this is an example of hazards that could be brought to light by a database.  If you do not think a database could be beneficial that is ok as it will not be something you have to look at, but for those interested we will try to build and maintain one on the CCC webpage.

I do believe the mentality of most paddlers is to not intentionally talk about how or why their particular incident happened but we also all know it is a hazard in our sport regardless of what level paddling you are doing.  It will be hard to maintain an incident database as the reporting doesn’t usually come up for these types of incidents unless they are during a major event such as the Green River Race but as the Safety Chair I will do my best to create one and maintain it on our website for NC and surrounding areas.    If you have had an incident that you could share with me so I can add it to the database then please email me at safety.chair@carolinacanoeclub.org , I will keep all personal data such as names anonymous as that has no bearing on the report.  An incident could be a boat pin or broach, destroyed boat, entrapment or close call,  injury due to something that happened on the river or a known hazard, or anything that wasn’t normal.  Remember, information like this helps keep our fellow and newer paddlers informed and safe while out on the river so don’t be shy, flood my inbox so I have plenty of data to start the database off with.

Thank you all for your support

William Holman

Safety Chair