In need of a Reality Check / Security Issue at Rowing

[sahm99]

Please be nice...I really am not experienced and am wondering about how/if to handle this issue...

 

Ds13 started rowing at a local club last summer. They usually go on the lake (Lake Geneva), unless the weather is unbarable, in which case they row on machines. During the winter months (Nov-Feb) there is indoor-rowing only.

 

Ds went back for the first time since October this Wednesday. It was about 35 degrees outside, with an ice-cold wind and some snow...quite bad... We were sure they would not consider for one second to get on the water...

Well, wrong we were,...and ds ended up on a "single" (I am not sure about the English name), in spite of these being particularly unstable. They did about 5km, before ds flipped and fell into the water - at 41 degrees! He was not wearing a life jacket, or protective clothing of any kind (he actually was dressed in gym clothes). Thankfully, he held on to his boat until the lady, accompaning his group of 7 with a small motor dingy (without any special equipment), could pull him out (ds thinks she was about 500m away when he "dived", about 1.5km from the club, in obviously deep water).

 

The woman brought him back to the club house and helped him get warm (blankets, etc.).

At the end of the training, about one hour later, ds set off to come home by bus (the way he had gone there, too), with, by then, dry clothes, but still BAD weather.

 

I was quite puzzled, when ds told me of his adventure, without thinking too much of it, as ds himself did not think of it as being particularly spectacular (well, apart of when "his heart stopped beating" and he couldn't move because he was "frozen inside")...

 

Today I got a phone call from my father...who was livid, and probably as shocked by what happened to ds, as by my attitude...

He told me that this was nothing short of a life-or-death situation, that ds (small and skinny) could have had a heart attack, that talking with the coach (the woman in the boat) was useless, as she was at best utterly careless, at worst...well, much worse...

 

I have to admit that I had wondered why nobody had called when it happened, as I thought it was a bit rough to let ds wander off to take public transportations under the circumstances... Also, I think it would have been "nice" to give a ring in the evening, asking how he was doing (he is fine!).

 

So, please, help me out here...am I nuts, or is the concerned grand-father? My dh is away on a trip and will only be back next week...I'll need to wait to hear his opinion.

 

Thank you for reading that far!

 

[dirty ethel rackham]

You are not nuts. I don't know much about rowing, but I do know that your son was at tremendous risk for hypothermia and drowning, no matter how good a swimmer he is. I would research protocols from people who do open water sports and then contact the coach asking her why she doesn't follow these. Your son was VERY lucky.

 

ETA: I am puzzled by your underreaction. The coach would have gotten an irate phone call from me right away. Have you taken your child in to be checked. He may still have some residual effects from his near-freezing to death.

[Jennifer in MI]

WOWW!!!! That is HORRIBLE! I read your message to my rowing sons and they say in their club there would be NO WAY he would have been allowed out on a single being that experienced when it was that cold. Our kids are not on the water yet (but they should start in a week or so), but when they are, they will be rowing in an eight, which is next to impossible to flip.

 

My kids say that it is normal not to be wearing life jackets - nobody wears them when rowing. The boats themselves are meant to be floatation devices, as are the oars. The Coast Guard actually has exemptions for rowers and life jackets. So, that's not bad.

 

I'd definitely be calling the coaches and finding out what they were thinking.

[Myra]

My son has being doing crew for the past two years. Spring rowing on the river will begin within the next two weeks (our club started on Monday) for most of the high school and college clubs in the upstate New York area. Crew members can't wear lifejackets or heavy clothing as it can easily get stuck in the riggings/and seat of the boat and would be even more dangerous if the boat flipped. The skiff that follows the boats should be manned by the coach and should have life jackets, thermal blankets, first aide, etc. I have seen boats flip and the rower is out of the water and under blankets within seconds. The rower usually rides in the launch boat with the coach until the coach can be certain that the rower is able to continue rowing. I agree that until it warms up most crew go out in 8s or 4s - not singles or doubles. This is typical of rowing - boats flip - and so i wouldn't expect the coach to contact the parents. However, as a mom, I'm not thrilled with the cold water rowing that is the sport of crew - whether I like it or not!

 

Hang in there,

Myra

[Annie]

I would be furious. Cold water is nothing to mess around with. I had a friend die when he jumped into a pond to retrieve a soccer ball during a picnic. It was spring time in Minnesota. The air temperature was much warmer than what you're talking about, but the water was still very cold from winter. He was a perfectly healthy 20 years old who had just gotten home from a tour in Iraq. He was in good shape and not super thin. Everyone was in complete shock. Cold water like that can just shut your body down. It's no joke.

[Liz CA]

This sounds like a life threatening situation to me...and on Lake Geneva in March???

[Harriet Vane]

I'm with your dad on this one. That is a life and death situation. Temperatures and conditions should be monitored more specifically, and I think both you and your son should read up on both hypothermia and safety protocol.

[sahm99]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this!

 

After my post I spent some time on the net...and after feeling really stupid for 5 min, I am now LIVID!

 

I'll call them on Monday and fix a meeting - I never want anything close to this to happen again.

 

In any case, ds if far from experienced enough to justify putting him on a boat that unstable, with a water temperature of 41 degrees.

Also, I want some informations about their rescue protocol (the other six boys were basically unsupervised, while ds was brought back)...

 

[Artichoke]

 

My kids say that it is normal not to be wearing life jackets - nobody wears them when rowing. The boats themselves are meant to be floatation devices, as are the oars. The Coast Guard actually has exemptions for rowers and life jackets. So, that's not bad.

 

 

Interesting. I had no idea that there could be exemptions.

 

I would agree that the coach should have called and not have sent him home on the bus, if possible.

[Nan in Mass]

Please be nice...I really am not experienced and am wondering about how/if to handle this issue...

 

Ds13 started rowing at a local club last summer. They usually go on the lake (Lake Geneva), unless the weather is unbarable, in which case they row on machines. During the winter months (Nov-Feb) there is indoor-rowing only.

 

Ds went back for the first time since October this Wednesday. It was about 35 degrees outside, with an ice-cold wind and some snow...quite bad... We were sure they would not consider for one second to get on the water...

Well, wrong we were,...and ds ended up on a "single" (I am not sure about the English name), in spite of these being particularly unstable. They did about 5km, before ds flipped and fell into the water - at 41 degrees! He was not wearing a life jacket, or protective clothing of any kind (he actually was dressed in gym clothes). Thankfully, he held on to his boat until the lady, accompaning his group of 7 with a small motor dingy (without any special equipment), could pull him out (ds thinks she was about 500m away when he "dived", about 1.5km from the club, in obviously deep water).

 

The woman brought him back to the club house and helped him get warm (blankets, etc.).

At the end of the training, about one hour later, ds set off to come home by bus (the way he had gone there, too), with, by then, dry clothes, but still BAD weather.

 

I was quite puzzled, when ds told me of his adventure, without thinking too much of it, as ds himself did not think of it as being particularly spectacular (well, apart of when "his heart stopped beating" and he couldn't move because he was "frozen inside")...

 

Today I got a phone call from my father...who was livid, and probably as shocked by what happened to ds, as by my attitude...

He told me that this was nothing short of a life-or-death situation, that ds (small and skinny) could have had a heart attack, that talking with the coach (the woman in the boat) was useless, as she was at best utterly careless, at worst...well, much worse...

 

I have to admit that I had wondered why nobody had called when it happened, as I thought it was a bit rough to let ds wander off to take public transportations under the circumstances... Also, I think it would have been "nice" to give a ring in the evening, asking how he was doing (he is fine!).

 

So, please, help me out here...am I nuts, or is the concerned grand-father? My dh is away on a trip and will only be back next week...I'll need to wait to hear his opinion.

 

Thank you for reading that far!

 

Hi - It's me. : )

 

I asked my middle son, who was on the sailing team and sailed in March, and I asked my husband what he thought.

 

Both say they would not approach the management. Both say they would talk to the coach. My son says you should tell the coach that you know what happened and say something like, "Please keep a better eye on him." My husband says you need to talk to the coach because you need to assess whether the coach is a good, experience coach or not. How old is the coach? How long has she been coaching? Was this an oversight? Or is it something that is likely to happen again? How often does this happen? What sort of attitude does the coach have towards the accident? He says he wouldn't necessarily go in to the interview angry, but just try to find out. Try to get the coach to tell her story and compare her story with your son's. My husband says if he determined that the coach was incompetent or very inexperience, then he would probably take the son off the team. Otherwise, he would probably chalk it up to an unfortunate accident. The coach got the boy out of the water before he was no longer able to hang onto the boat and did a good job warming him up.

 

I know nothing about this sport, so maybe I am way off here, but two things bother me about the story. One is that they were out rowing when it was snowing and somewhat stormy. Snow diminishes the visibility. It could make it so the chase boat (the little motor boat) was unable to see all the rowing boats. If more than one boat flipped, then the chase boat wouldn't be able to rescue them all in time. That sounds like bad judgement to me. The other thing that bothers me is sending him home on his own. A problem with hypothermia is that you can go into shock sometime afterwards (usually within 4 hours) and die, even after you have warmed up.

 

My son says that sending him home on his own is a bad idea (same thing) and that here, the parents would probably have been called. Is the coach young? Perhaps she realized she had made a big mistake and is hoping you will not find out?

 

What I usually do in situations like this is talk to my child. I would tell him that he needs to look out for himself. If he doesn't like the look of the weather, then he should come home. I would tell him the cold water survival times. One chart I found on the internet says this:

 

32.5 - 40 degrees with no protective clothing - loss of dexterity (making it hard for him to hang on to the boat) less than 3 minutes, exhaustion or unconciousness 15-30 min., survival 30 - 90 min.

 

40 - 50 degrees with no protective clothing - loss of dexterity 3-5 minutes, exhaustion or unconciousness 30 - 60 minutes, survival 1 hour - 3 hours

 

(And this sounds like what I remember from the coast guard information I've seen.)

 

I'd make sure my son understood that he won't be able to hang on for very long. I would tell him to keep an eye on the weather in case it changes. I would give him permission to use his own judgement about whether to get in the boat or not, rather than listen to the coach. I would tell him that once in the boat, he needs to make sure there is a chase boat and he knows where it is. I would tell him he needs to listen to the coach and do what the coach says about rowing, but to use his own judgement about safety. I taught mine not to make a big fuss, but to passively resist if their own judgement about the safety of something differed from the adult in charge's judgement. In other words, politely disobey, disobey as quietly as possible. If all else fails, he could develop a sudden stomach ache that caused him to have to go home. (The rest of the time they were supposed to obey adults.)

 

It doesn't sound like the safest sport in the world. I wasn't happy about my middle son sailing in March but at least he was wearing a dry suit.

 

I'm not sure any of that is any help. See what your husband says.

 

Best wishes,

Nan

[Jennifer3141]

This is the main reason why we don't do rowing. I get it. It's a wonderful sport. It's a wonderful sport that can easily KILL a child. You get one coach who panics or isn't properly trained and/or one child who panics upon hitting the water and you've lost your child.

 

Row in Florida all you want. Row in Michigan or someplace north like this in the spring? No way.

[Parrothead]

That is nuts sending him home alone. When one's core temp drops that low it is a dangerous situation. Honestly, he should have been taken to the ER and evaluated.

[reign]

As a former rower in michigan I really question her choice of putting your very young inexperienced son in a single during the winter. That was a very dangerous choice on her part. I would definently talk to the coach about it. If she is not the head coach I would contact them.

[Jennifer in MI]

I looked it up on the USRowing website. Here is what they say about being out on the water in a single:

 

USRowing: Are there specific guidelines for safe air and water temperatures?

 

Black: We get into air and water temperature guidelines mostly for people who row alone. Clubs have different formulas that they use, again depending on the body of water that they’re on. Some say it’s a combination of 90 degrees, some say it’s a combination of 100 degrees before you can go out on the river by yourself. Ultimately, it’s a combination of an air temperature of 50 degrees and a water temperature of 40 degrees. Certainly in early spring, we don’t recommend that anyone go out alone. We recommend that everybody have a safety launch with them.

 

Bolding mine. Sounds like your coach didn't follow the guidelines.

 

This is the main reason why we don't do rowing. I get it. It's a wonderful sport. It's a wonderful sport that can easily KILL a child. You get one coach who panics or isn't properly trained and/or one child who panics upon hitting the water and you've lost your child.

 

Row in Florida all you want. Row in Michigan or someplace north like this in the spring? No way.

 

 

I read this last night and have been thinking about it all night. My three older boys row (two year-round and one only during the summer), so this really hit me. Rowing really is a wonderful sport, but I don't think it's fair to say that it can easily kill a child. If proper precautions are used, rowing is an extremely safe sport. In this case, it sounds like mistakes were made. And, what sport doesn't have its share of life-threatening injuries? Soccer and football are known for head injuries. Baseball? I've seen my own child get hit in the face with a line drive. Heck, I run and my mom is afraid I'm going to get hit by a car or have a heart attack!

 

So, yes. ALL sports can kill. Easily kill? Nah.

[In The Great White North]

I looked it up on the USRowing website. Here is what they say about being out on the water in a single:

 

USRowing: Are there specific guidelines for safe air and water temperatures?

 

Black: We get into air and water temperature guidelines mostly for people who row alone. Clubs have different formulas that they use, again depending on the body of water that they’re on. Some say it’s a combination of 90 degrees, some say it’s a combination of 100 degrees before you can go out on the river by yourself. Ultimately, it’s a combination of an air temperature of 50 degrees and a water temperature of 40 degrees. Certainly in early spring, we don’t recommend that anyone go out alone. We recommend that everybody have a safety launch with them.

 

 

Bolding mine. Sounds like your coach didn't follow the guidelines.

 

Lake Geneva is not in the US. Here's the Swiss policies:

 

http://www.swissrowing.ch/index.php?q=node/3365

[Shelly in IL]

There is a Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. It's about 45 minutes from me.

[Nan in Mass]

I think all of Europe appears somewhere in the US lol.

This particular Lake Geneva is the one in Switzerland. My experience of the weather there was that it was a bit ahead of us in New England. (Could have been the particular times I visited though.

 

The Swiss guidelines should be perfect. That is exactly what she needs. She can either take them to the coach and ask that they be followed, if she wants to confront the coach, or she can tell her son that he has to follow them, if she wants to take a more non-confrontational approach.

 

Nan