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'Hang on' through summer

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith
  • I.G. Brown Training and Education Center
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. --  No matter your past training or accomplishments, risk is relentless.

A friend of my father, I'll call him "M," gave me my first safety lesson when I was about 10 years old.

I was standing short and skinny, in 1978, above an intermediate rapids section of the river with a helmet, a life jacket and a big, black truck tire inner-tube, and he said, jokingly, "Hang on, kid."

It was my first run-in with danger, so I took the words of my father's best friend very seriously.

"If you fall off, remember to keep your feet up; don't drag them on the rocks or you could get them caught in a crevasse and be pulled under," he said. "You will be fine."

Looking downstream, a gauntlet of waves, eddies and irregular rocks awaited me. Some water-shrouded boulders seemed bigger than our house, but I was determined to go if M assured me I would be fine.

After all, M knew the risks. He was an accomplished white water kayaker.

Back before there was anything labeled an extreme sport, I remember traveling with M as he and my father and others I now call my "second dads" challenged some of the most dangerous rapids in the Adirondack region.

My father and M once broke a wood strip canoe clean in half on a particularly bad rapid, but managed to float to shore wearing their helmets and life jackets. Even their thick, heavy fiberglass kayaks were battle-scarred from past rapids and challenging situations.

I can now attribute their respect for safety as one of the main reasons none of them were ever injured while taking part in extreme risks of riding the rapids.

When that group first decided to try white water, they took courses through their local YMCA in Schenectady where they learned the basics. They practiced screw rolling their kayaks in a swimming pool until it became second nature, and when they were ready they didn't go to the biggest rapid around and put in. They started small and developed their skill and confidence, gaining respect for the river and its dangers along the way.

At their pinnacle, I stood in awe, watching from the river bank when they twisted and turned in the foam and boiling eddies of an extremely difficult rapids section rated for experts. It had taken summers and many weekend trips to manage that moment of risk and walk away with only great stories.

I feel so very lucky to have had their example growing up - they respected the river and the environment and the communities that supported them, and they respected risk.

But just recently, I learned yet another lesson from my second dads: No matter what you have done in your past, and no matter what odds you beat, risk is always present.

At a place he had been a hundred times - on a paved bike path near his home on the Mohawk River - where kids bike and where he and his friends go to their weekly canoe club meetings, M was biking with his girlfriend when she went over the river bank and suffered a fatal injury. It happened that quickly, my father told me.

There was no sign of danger; they were out for a casual summer bicycle ride. They were wearing helmets, their bikes were in good condition and the weather was good.

My family's and friends' thoughts are with M and his girlfriend's family. Of course, he is as injured emotionally as if he had crashed himself.

But I think that M would like that I shared his story, with the summer of 2013 in full swing, and to ask you to mitigate risks and always respect safety in all your activities, as he taught me; no matter if you are taking on your first section of expert rapids or just going out for a lazy bike ride.