# lightening and kayaking.



## zhensley (Mar 12, 2004)

ok, I've asked people before but I've never gotten an actuall answer outside of speculation. Is kayaking in a thunderstorm really dengerous?

I know lightening has a tendenacy to hit the bottom of valleys and mountain peaks, and well water. However, a plastic boat really does not provided a very good conduit for electricity. I'm a golfer too and the second I see dark clouds I am off the course. Can't say I've heard of a kayaker getting struck by lightening though. So.. high risk, no risk, moderate risk?


----------



## badkins (Oct 30, 2003)

Totally uninformed opinion here: I always thought that lightning will strike the easiest path, and down deep in a river canyon is pretty unlikely the easiest path. I have paddled in some intense thunderstorms and the lightning was always way up high on the canyon walls. I don't think the plastic boat helps much 'cause you are covered in water and dipping your paddle or hand in the water constantly. :shock:


----------



## De la Boot (Apr 21, 2004)

What's up with all the signatures that have Raising Arizona quotes?
Well, I couldn't resist...

When they was no meat, we ate fowl.
When they was no fowl, we ate crawdad.
When they was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand.
-you ate what?
We ate sand.
- you ate sand?
Thaz right. 

[and one more for the road]

"ya'll here that! We using code names"

Oh yeah, I boated SBC in a hellish lightining storm and about pissed my pants. My buddy assured me we were safe but as a class VI boater, what does he know about safe? :?


----------



## gh (Oct 13, 2003)

how about this quote after escaping from prison....
"We released ourselves on our own recognizance, we no longer felt the instution had anything to offer us"

Never seen the lightening actually hit the water, just the hills above.


----------



## spencer (Oct 24, 2003)

My $0.02: Pretty much everything around a boater is taller than a boater. I say paddle.

Clerk: Son, you've got a panty on your head.
Cage: I'll be taking these here Huggies.. and whatever cash you've got in the register.


----------



## Alek (Oct 23, 2003)

Many many years ago, a friend of mine was kayaking in a canyon
and during a portage he was standing next to the rock wall with
his hand touching it and he got slightly zapped! No harm done, but
he could feel the electricity running through the canyon wall.

Speaking of freak accidents, once another friend of mine was standing
next to another vertical canyon wall and a small baby deer fell on his
head! Really! He was stunned, the deer dead, but the helmet saved him.

Alek


----------



## LSB (Mar 23, 2004)

"why aint you breast feedinyou appear ample"

i always figured that i was down deep enough in most river canyons to avoid getting struck but i still get a little spooked


----------



## badkins (Oct 30, 2003)

Ok, you guys forced me :wink: 

Leonard Smalls: You want to find an outlaw, hire an outlaw. You want to find a Dunkin' Donuts, call a cop. 

H.I.: I tried to stand up and fly straight, but it wasn't easy with that son' bitch Reagan in the White House. 

Gale: You understand, H.I.? If this works out, it's just the beginning of a spree to cover the entire southwest proper. And we keep going until we can retire. Or we get caught. 
Evelle: Either way, we're fixed for life. 

Dot: Now you take that diaper off your head and you put it back on your sister! 

Evelle: Ma'am, you don't breast-feed him, he'll hate you for it later. That's why we wound up in prison. 

Gale: I know you're partial to convenient stores, but dammit, H.I., the sun doesn't rise and set on the corner grocery.


----------



## Chris Webster (Oct 30, 2003)

I have definatly seen lightening strike on the canyon floor. 50' from me while I was paddling. You know it's close when you can see it, hear it, and smell it all at once.

Do a google seach in rec.boats.paddle about lightening and kayaking there have been numerous threads in the past.

http://www.google.com/groups?hl=en&...e=UTF-8&selm=35913BD1.41C6%40erols.com&rnum=2


----------



## De la Boot (Apr 21, 2004)

oh man, this is making my day! I thought I was alone in my obsession with Raising Arizona. Here's a quote you won't often hear,

"a-heeeeeeeeeeeeeee -eeeeeeeeee- aya eeeeee." from the soundtrack.

--the govnment do take a bite, don't she.


--I don't know, they was jammies....they had yodas and shit on em.

--That beauford's a sly one, he already knows his ABC's. Whatch this. Hit they deck boy!

--keep your damn hands off my wife. 
--your crazy.
--keep your damn hands off my wife.
---your crazy, I pity youooooo.

but there was a paycheck waiting at the end of every week, and Ed at the end of each day.
then all hell broke loose.....
the doctor explained how Ed's insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase. We tried adotion, but alas, the powers that be conspired to keep us childless. Ed was inconsolable.
She lost all interest in children and house keeping, soon after, she tendered her badge. 
even my job had become as dry and bitter as a hot praire wind...
I preminisced, no return of the Salad days.


----------

