Sad news out of Norway

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Seanie
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Sad news out of Norway

Post by Seanie » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:06 pm

I've gotten word that an Irish paddler has died while paddling in Norway. Below is a link to a translated Norwegian news story about the accident.

http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... F1.8271405

No more details are available as of yet.

Our thoughts and heart felt condolences go out to his friends and family.

tiernan
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Re: Sad news out of Norway

Post by tiernan » Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:10 pm

Very sad to hear this.

Google translator doesn't always get it right (as I'm sure you have guessed), this is the proper translation of this section:
paddlealone.jpg
"The paddler should have been (paddling) with 5 other people. They were alone and not under the guidance of a rafting company"

mickeyb
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Re: Sad news out of Norway

Post by mickeyb » Tue Aug 07, 2012 2:41 pm

Just so as rumours don't start.

Paddler was with a competant group while kayaking.

They had rescue set up and everything was above board.
They got him with a throw rope but he must have been injured and could not hold on.

Thoughts go out to the family and to the group of paddlers still in Norway who are no doubt going through a very tough time.


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Seanie
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Re: Sad news out of Norway

Post by Seanie » Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:54 pm

Jesus that's heart breaking Mickey, I can't even imagine.

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Seanie
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Re: Sad news out of Norway

Post by Seanie » Wed Aug 08, 2012 3:13 pm

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 14607.html
THE DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs has offered consular assistance to the family of an Irish man who died in a kayaking accident with friends on a river in central Norway.

Colm Johnson (25), Clancoolmore, Bandon, Co Cork, was kayaking with four Irish friends on Monday at the Ridderspranget ravine on the Sjoa river when he got into difficulty while going over a difficult six-metre drop at about 2.30pm.

Mr Johnson, a student at UCC, was the first of the group, who arrived in Norway only on Saturday, to kayak over the drop.

When he went under the water, his friends tried to rescue him and threw ropes to him from the shore, but they were unable to rescue him.

The emergency services were alerted at about 3pm and a rescue helicopter spotted him in the water at about 3.30pm. However, it was a “very difficult” recovery operation, police in Norway’s Gudbrandsdal district said.

The helicopter was unable to get close to him because of the narrowness of the ravine, nor could another rescue team which saw him in the river.

Mr Johnson’s body was recovered downstream by other kayakers.

Norwegian police were last night awaiting the result of a postmortem to establish whether he died from drowning or from an injury to his head.

On Sunday the group had been kayaking on another part of the same river but along an easier route.

Police described the Sjoa river in the Ridderspranget ravine (known as the Knight’s Leap) in the municipality of Vågå in central Norway as a popular but challenging river for kayakers and said there had been previous accidents on the river.

In 2010 four Ukrainians died in a rafting accident at the ravine, while in 2007 an Estonian man and woman drowned while rafting on the river.

A keen kayaker and a member of the UCC kayaking club, Mr Johnson is survived by his parents, Maurice and Ann Johnson, his brother Alan and his sisters, Niamh and Síle.

Funeral arrangements have yet to be finalised but are expected to take place later this week.

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