Viva La Revolution

The revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. George Orwell.

If you cannot keep up with what is acceptable language, know that you are not alone. The latest document out of Victoria (where else?) indicates that the most acceptable term for the race of people who were living in Australia before it was colonised by the British is Aboriginal. Are you surprised? I am, but shouldn’t be because the important thing to remember (which isn’t that “words have actions” – what does that even mean?) is that the purpose is the revolution. Aboriginal which had become a racial slur is now the preferred term. The circle is complete.

I have a knee jerk reaction to the language police because any time we begin to censor the use of descriptive words because of feelings we have abdicated our responsibility to think. Not just to think logically, but to think at all. Feelings are temporary and fleeting emotions. Feelings vary on the day, the person, the social situation. Feelings are not real or tangible. My feelings will differ from your feelings, and neither of those feelings has any empirical truth behind it. Most often the language police are deliberately trying to obfuscate reality because reality at this particular juncture does not suit the agenda. Control language and you control thought, or at least you think you do.

The key tell that people have fallen under the spell of the totalitarian regime (see Orwell’s prescient novel 1984) is when they begin to use “isms” to explain things. Ableism, racism, sexism, ageism, these are the most common isms, but the more we need to control thought the more isms will arise. The isms have spread out from the universities, where the Marxist concept of “intersectional oppression” is postulated to define all human interactions through government to society as a whole. Unfortunately, most regular folk who accuse friends and acquaintances of isms do not understand the full ramifications of acceptance and promulgation of intersectional theory for society as a whole. Isms exist to convince virtually everyone in the system that they are powerless victims of an oppressor, and to become a victim is the ultimate loss of personal autonomy. In a world where virtually everything is illegal, our only freedom is our personal autonomy.

If you need more proof of the absurdity of characterising people by isms, scan the Victorian Government page on intersectionality. There you will find 20 characteristics – only a partial list! - which reflect oppression. This list covers every single human who has ever existed! We are all both oppressor and oppressed, a concept which defies logic but supports the continuous revolution.

If you think I’m a bit tightly wound about something that does not really reflect everyday life consider this conversation which I would not have believed possible if it had not actually happened to me:

Interlocutor: “You cannot use the term “X” to describe this person.

Me: “In this group is this person “X”?

Interlocutor: “Yes but you cannot use that term.”

Me: “Is “X” an accurate description of our current reality?”

Interlocutor: “Yes, but you must describe reality in a different way using “Y.”

Me: “Is “Y” simply a euphemism for “X”?

Interlocutor: “Yes”

Me: “Then why don’t I just use “X”?”

Interlocutor: “Because using “X” is an Xism and only bad people use “X”. Worthy people use “Y”.”

 

If you feel confused by this shape-shifting conversation that is exactly the point. This kind of dialogue does not exist to bring clarity or even consensus to an issue. The point of the conversation is to show the respondent that the interlocutor occupies the unquestionable sanctity of the unimpeachable moral high ground.

For Want of a Map (or buckle up this is a long one)

I found my carefully laminated map of the Five Islands off Port Kembla under the seat of the car a full day after it was needed. Holding the map in my hands I wondered if this one sheet of paper could have prevented what followed or was that putting too much significance into a simple representative two dimensional representation of reality?

Teaching GPS navigation in the winter rain in Nelson, BC

Back in the days when I taught backcountry ski travel in avalanche terrain, I frequently exhorted my fellow travellers to “check the map.” The map allows you to recognise avalanche terrain before you enter it; a proposition far safer than continuing to ski blindly ahead until you are standing on a convex roll in the middle of a big avalanche slope under a hanging cornice with no safe exit point. With good map reading skills mysterious terrain becomes known, and known risks can be evaluated. That evaluation does not preclude knowingly entering risky terrain. The best backcountry skiing is in avalanche terrain, just as the best paddling is in wave washed locations, but risk should be evaluated as completely as possible before committing. Escape routes should be planned, and everyone in the group should enter the risky zone with the knowledge that they can cope with the worst possible consequences, not merely the best case scenario.

Pondering whether it is safe to ski out into the middle of a massive slide path,

Kootenay Pass, BC

The most difficult risk to assess is the classic “low probability high consequence” event. Most of the time snow is stable and no avalanches occur, just as most waves are smaller and manageable, but every so often, a pocket of deeply unstable snow is encountered – unstable enough to rip the entire slope - or a wave twice as high as average rolls across a rocky reef. In those instances, it is not always possible to avoid high consequence events. Risk, of course, is also a function of capacity, and capacity, sadly (no matter what the language police propose) is a function of age. Older people have slower reflexes, less power, and can be catastrophically injured by minor events.Which does not mean that older people don’t get to continue taking risks. I’m over 60, I lead climb, I ride a mountain bike at speeds where I have only modest control, I paddle on the ocean through surf and swells. These are all good things, a life with no risk is no life at all.

When assessing risk however, our first assessment needs to be of our own ability. Do we actually have the physical capacity to climb the route, ski the slope or paddle through a breaking wave? What will happen if I fall while lead climbing? Is the fall safe, on solid gear and into air, or am I 15 metres out from a dodgy piece above a big leg and back breaking ledge? If the slope rips, can I ski out to the side and escape the worst of the avalanche? More important, because most people do not ski out of big avalanches, if I am buried, can my friends quickly locate me and dig me out? If the wave breaks, can I reflexively respond as needed with a brace, or a power stroke? Can everyone in the group respond appropriately, and, if the worst happens, are we in a position to effect a rescue?

A friend triggered this avalanche and sustained

 a compound lower leg fracture

When I lived in Nelson, BC, the heart of “champagne powder skiing,” a couple of times a season, I would take a group of women backcountry ski touring. The women were less gung-ho than my usual male companions and wanted to ski good powder with low risk. The trips were great fun, and, in truth, a nice break for me from continually skiing big slopes with the big boys with big consequences. But, there was a difference in how I approached those trips. I never expected the women to be able to either find me or dig me out in the event of an avalanche. I skied as if I was alone. Which means that I was as absolutely sure as you can be that the slopes we skied were safe.

Ladies ski day

What does all this mean and what does it have to do with the Five Islands and a lost map? Simply, it means if you plan to paddle a route, you and you alone are responsible for your actions and you must be willing to wear the consequences alone. I am more than willing, within the limits of my ability to stand by and attempt to render assistance if something goes awry; but if you commit, you should commit with the full knowledge that you and you alone are responsible for the consequences.

Effecting a rescue in easy conditions 

after an unintentional capsize

Below are a couple of images showing Red Point (on the mainland) and the Five Islands. This is the view you would get if you had a map! Or could even remember the map which you had glanced at the night before. A bigger island (handily called Big Island) separated from the mainland by two ocean gaps – one between a small rocky islet (also very handily called Rocky Islet) and Big Island and one between Rocky Islet and Red Point. The imagery indicates that, in most conditions, the most easterly gap, between Rocky Islet and Big Island has the deepest water. In fact, even in bigger conditions (the second image) there is a safe passage between Big Island and Rocky Islet. Depending on skill, a safe passage may also be effected through the gap between Rocky Islet and Red Point, but a cursory glance indicates this is the riskier option.

Satellite imagery in average conditions, 

blue line is proposed route

The nautical chart – a snippet of which is shown below – is less clear. Both passages are shown as having a similar water depth and both passages have bomboras marked. The eastern most passage, is a little bit wider and might be preferable as a kayaker can point straight into the prevailing swell, but the final assessment will need to be made on the water; the chart can only provide so much information. Our route is marked in red (it’s my track from my Garmin watch). The blue track indicates the route that was proposed as we bobbed in our kayaks a couple of hundred metres to the northwest of Rocky Island.

Big conditions at the Five Islands

Why were we making this assessment from such a distance? I’m not completely sure! I was the last to launch and simply paddled out to meet up with the pod of paddlers at the intersection of the blue and red lines where they had been bobbing in the swell for some minutes. The reef between Rocky Islet and Red Point was breaking and, at times completely “closing out.” The passage, after all is less than 90 metres wide and has a bombora slap in the middle. Possibly the paddlers felt safer grouping up a fair distance from the reef rather than closer in where our viewpoint would have been better, but this may be splitting hairs.

Actual and proposed route,

as best as I can determine

Immediately upon my arrival at the “paddle pod,” one paddler proposed that we paddle the route of the blue line. We would, she told me, probably have to back paddle or hold our position while a few larger waves rolled over the reef to avoid being caught in breaking swells. Additionally, after crossing the line of breakers, we would have to turn and paddle beam on to the ocean swell for a distance before turning again and pointing into the ocean swell. However, I could be assured that where we would be beam on, the waves would be merely cresting not breaking and this particular paddlers risk assessment was that the proposed route was well within the parties capability and, additionally, this one paddler would take full responsibility for another member of the paddling party.

Another view of the Five Islands

Now, I will admit that this seemed like a fine line to thread to me. Not impossible by any means and completely safe for some paddlers, but, I would hope that any paddler choosing this option would be able to react quickly, reflexively and with sufficient power to manage any breaking waves. Did this final sentence describe every paddler in our party? Not by a long shot, and that is not ageism, sexism or any other ism that the PC (politically correct) police care to throw about, that is simply reality.

I admit to being caught off guard. I was being pressured to make a decision immediately upon meeting up with the paddle pod and I had not had a chance to look at the proposed route for any length of time, and, I did not have that accursed map, which would have shown at a glance that a mere 500 metres to the north was another larger passage! I thought briefly about getting my mobile phone out, as I have both the topographic map and the nautical chart on my phone, but it was a bit bumpy to be messing about with delicate electronics. Why was my ageing brain unable to pull out of its depths an image of the map which I had quickly checked the previous night on my computer and why did I feel so pressured to make such a quick decision in the first place?

My decision was made in some haste and one of the most important lessons for me from this event is that I should, if possible, take more time to make decisions. In this instance, we were in a safe location, it was early in the morning, the weather and sea conditions were stable, and I could with ease and safety take a few minutes to evaluate all our options and make a considered decision. Which is not to say my decision would have changed, but I would – perhaps – have been able to communicate the reasons for my decision with more diplomacy. That is a perhaps because I am a very poor communicator! I can’t guarantee these are my exact words, but, it’s close enough “if we paddle that route every paddler needs to be able to put some power on if needed and I am not sure that describes our entire group.”

Busting out of Little River, Nadgee Wilderness

My paddle is in a terrible position

PC: DB

It’s probably obvious to everyone (anyone?) reading this that one paddler was very keen and one paddler was willing to follow the keen paddler anywhere but might not be able to pull out the required power and agility should things go pear shaped. The keen paddler said they would take full responsibility for the least strong member of our group. I had and have no problem with adults deciding on their own level of risk and acting accordingly. However, I also saw this as a potential low probability high consequence event (although I am not convinced the probability was actually that low) which is an instance where decisions should be made with the worst case rather than best case scenario in mind.

To say things got heated would be to say that the sun can be warm in the middle of summer, an understatement. I said I was not willing to accept that level of risk for one member of the party, but I was completely happy for the two paddlers to go through as long as they were cognisant that, as they paddled through the gap, they were responsible for themselves. I assured them that I would do my very best to effect a rescue should that be required but I could make no guarantees that a rescue would be possible or completely timely.

Rescue at the Tollgate Islands

Things got heated. I felt a great deal of pressure to accede to the keen paddlers plan. I did at one point say “I will not be bullied.” A statement that is likely too strong for the circumstances. But, there is history here and history is hard to forget even if one has long since forgiven. It seemed to me, and I could be completely wrong about this, that the keen paddler was willing to take responsibility for the other paddler as long as I was also involved but not really willing to take responsibility if only two paddlers were to proceed. The antithesis of “skin in the game,” and, to throw in another incredibly overused metaphor, the rubber meets the road when skin is in the game.

The one sensible paddler in all of this had, while discussions were ongoing, simply paddled north, noted the wide open channel between Rocky Islet and Big Island and as we regrouped preparatory to paddling around the island from the north shared with us the information that she had been watching the eastern most passage for a period of time and no waves had broken through there. It was a completely risk free route, just some bumpy water and current, and we paddled through with ease! How foolish were we to debate a course of action when we had not even made the most cursory examination of all our available options.

What can be learnt from this long, long story with too few photos and possibly no point at all:

• Everyone should have a map. Had anyone else in the party had a map none of this would have happened. With only one map in the party when that map got lost, we had zero maps!

• Assess all options before making a decision. If that means paddling 300 or 500 metres, paddle 300 or 500 metres.

• I understand completely the desire to do something, heck, I am one of the most goal oriented people around, but if you are damned and determined to do something, you might have to go alone.

• If you are unwilling to go alone or with only one other person, you don’t have skin in the game. Take responsibility for that.

• This lesson is particularly for me: take your time, make a considered decision and do your best to communicate that decision rationally and carefully.

• Agree on the rules of engagement ahead of time. Most outdoor parties have an unspoken rule that any single member has veto if risk is deemed significant. It is likely better to make this clear ahead of time, particularly if you suspect that some members of your party do not operate under the same assumption.

I understand chafing against risk assessments. I have done so my entire life, particularly when I was backcountry skiing with the women. I never took those women anywhere near an avalanche slope and yet, sometimes one woman or another would decide that the slope we were planning to ski was unsafe. I might explain the risk again – perhaps in a different way with different words - but it is absolutely not my job to push anyone to do something they perceive as risky to life and limb. We all make mistakes and, if your mistake breaks someone you live with those consequences forever. Most of the things we do in life are simply not worth that.

Old People, Young People and the Interminable Closures

There is a lot less people sitting around the picnic tables at Greenpatch campground in Booderee National Park for the annual South Coast/ACT sea paddlers Christmas event than previous years. Some regular attendees are busy elsewhere, however three friends are not in attendance due to serious health issues. We are laughing and talking and enjoying each other’s company yet there is a sombre pall over the group. It’s only when your health is gone that you realise how great a gift good health was. Don’t wait do that thing that you have always wanted to do, just don’t wait.

Doug and I didn’t even have kayaks with us, which is unusual. Most years, we do one or two really good kayak trips over the Christmas event. We’ve come up the coast in our new van that is not fully camperized – truthfully, it’s not even half camperized yet but it does have some wiring, batteries, a couple of little fans (a blessing as it is so humid), a nicely covered and insulated floor and a mattress but no roof racks.

We had spent the hot and humid part of the day on an 18 kilometre walk to Stony Creek and a couple of unnamed lookouts about a kilometre NE of Steamers Beach. These were the only tracks we had not walked in the National Park but Stony Creek Road was closed, because this is Australia and something is always closed. Instead of some driving and short walks that we would have done if Stony Creek Road was accessible, we did a long walk that included the bushwack which is mandatory when the road is closed. Such is life in the nanny state that is Australia.

We got down to Stony Creek and washed the sweat off in a small pool where cooler fresh water mixed with warmer salt water. I’ve paddled into Stony Creek and I remember the deep water (deep being a relative term) channel being very narrow. Basically, you have to paddle in right beside a rock cliff with a breaking reef on the other side. It was really interesting to look at the channel from land on a day with northerly conditions. It looked a wee bit scary and I certainly wouldn’t be paddling my composite boat in under those conditions.

The following day we drove out to Nowra to meet my newly red pilled nephew to rock climb. My nephew climbs the way he talks – quickly, abruptly, forcefully. There’s a lot a younger more dynamic climber can teach an older static climber, but the opposite also holds true. Staying alive and injury free is a pretty worthwhile lesson and leaping from jug to jug only works until it doesn’t.

Why Ideology Doesn't Help You Roll a Kayak

The central role is played by experiments…… this requires the ability to tolerate uncertainty ….. and being wrong most of the time. Dave Macleod. Clocking Up Moves Isn’t Enough to Improve at Climbing.

We’ve entered the anti-science age of ideology where expert opinion is more important than what works. Which is largely why, enshittification, is also the word of the year for 2024. Many things are getting a bit worse, mostly because ideology has trumped utility. Non-ideologues can simply dump any theory that does not work and move on to the next experiment, but, if your status and identity is wrapped up in ideology then you have no choice but to plough forwards, like a bull moose in the deep snows of northern Canada, up to your neck in faceted snow and getting hungrier by the day, but still a slave to ideology. 

Ideologues don’t care if you win, lose, or place DFL (dead fucking last), as long as the ideology remains intact. The idea never fails only the person attempting to implement the idea. It’s the classic “vegan harder” of the early 2000’s. Remember those years: when the ideologues told us veganism would save your life and health but, for the people who got sicker, weaker and even fatter on a vegan diet, the answer was always “vegan harder.”

Some of the most egregious examples of ideology come from the nutrition world where “very experienced dietitians” produce dietary plans that literally make people vomit during their race and then make the preposterous claims that the plan didn’t work because the athletes heart rate was too high. Well, wakey, wakey, it’s a race, the point is to win, not doddle around at your grandmothers pace and finish DFL. Your plan, underwritten by your ideology didn’t work. Experiment, find something that does.

Yesterday was the first surf and roll the kayaks day of the season. As happens at the beginning of every season, I was pleased to find my roll was intact, although sweep rolling with a wing blade is so much easier than using a flat blade. The wing gives so much lift that the roll is effortless. I had one failure on my off-side with my flat blade, but that gave me the opportunity to confirm I can still do a re-entry and roll. I got up, the usual slow, heavy roll and immediately the kayak was so unstable with that amount of water in the cockpit. My flat blade rolls need work, especially on my off-side. I’ll experiment with different techniques, because there would be nothing stupider than continuing to fail because my ideology rendered me incapable of logical thought.