President's Corner
An Unforgettable Brutal Swim
By Scott Harvey
Greetings fellow club members,
First off, I would like to personally apologize to the club and it's members for the late publication of this newsletter for I have been out of commission for the past two months. Earlier during this spring boating season, I had been experiencing several months of awesome high water boating until May 14th rolled around were I was literally whacked off my pedestal. While catboating on the Wind River (which I've boated many times before), I was bucked out of my catboat at the entry to Rams Horn Rapids that lead to an extensively brutal and boulder pounding swim through several rapids. It wasn't until the top of Balls to the Wall where I was corralled to the left bank with the help of my fellow boaters. At this point I was completely depleted of adrenaline, strength, muscle coordination, and air supply and was dealing with a busted and dislocated left shoulder. After EMS arrived an hour or two later, I had to crawl and hike out of the river canyon and was eventually sent to the hospital by ambulance that same day. After spending the night in the hospital to reset my left arm, along with numerous xrays and scans, I was discharged home with fractured bones to the scapula and humerus, upper arm nerve damage, along with deep bruised thigh muscles, nerves and bruised femur bone.
I would like to thank my fellow boaters, John Meyers, Brent Davis and Dave Hemmer for helping getting my butt out of the river. A special thanks to Zach Collier and his top notch group of guide training paddlers who helped with my medical issues before EMS arrived. Also, thanks for retrieving my boat and getting my truck to a secure location Zach. Thanxks to Risa Davis for contacting family members for me at the hospital. Thanks to Cary Solberg and Steve Herring for retrieving my truck, boat and equipment and getting it back to me. Several months in and I'm still managing pain and proceeding with physical therapy to get some coordination back into my left arm. I still have many more months of rehab and even longer before I can get behind a set of oars.
I'd like to throw out there a couple of reminders, regarding upcoming OWA events. First, the September club meeting and swap meet will be at Willamette Park in West Linn on Wednesday, Sept 13th and starting at 6pm Second, the Wilderness First Aid class will be the weekend of September 23rd and 24th at Milo McIver State Park outside Estacada. We have Kingfisher group camp reserved for 5 day's. Hope you all have had a great summer!
Cheers and Safe Boating,
Scott Harvey
Hey OWA Members,
I'm not going to let Scott take all (or much) of the blame for the late newsletter. This summer has been too busy for me trying to work on getting a house ready to sell, sending a kiddo off to college, and a busy season at work - and I'm tired - too tired to beg people for content. It's time for someone new to take the Newsletter project, so if you think you would be good at it, or would find it fun, consider taking my place this coming year. This is the forth and final year of my term as newsletter VP, so we need someone new to jump in.