Rescue in Wicklow

Irish Kayaking and Canoeing discussion forum.

Moderators:Seanie, EoinH

Post Reply
muirs
Posts:43
Joined:Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:58 pm
Rescue in Wicklow

Post by muirs » Mon Feb 07, 2011 10:31 am

Saw this in today's paper, hope all involved are ok!
http://www.independent.ie/national-news ... 28066.html

EoinH
Posts:100
Joined:Tue May 13, 2008 2:00 pm
Location:Out foreign (USA)
Contact:

Re: Rescue in Wicklow

Post by EoinH » Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:45 pm

Sounds like that lad was very lucky indeed.

User avatar
Seanie
Posts:841
Joined:Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:27 pm

Re: Rescue in Wicklow

Post by Seanie » Tue Feb 15, 2011 3:33 am

I heard that this story is BS. The guy wasn't in life treating trouble, he needed assistance because his didnt want to rip his spray deck. The 'rescuers' were passing by and may have helped out, but weren't needed.

I have experience where Air Sea Rescue claimed to rescue two canoeists in Lahinch, there was no rescue, there wasn't even a an issue, just a jumpy idiot on a body board who brought his friend who couldn't swim body boarding.

The non-swimmer lost his board, he panicked. His friend also panicked, ignored the beach full of surfers and 15+ kayakers and called air sea rescue. Kayakers actually rescued his friend, and by rescue, I mean helped him back to shore. By that time it was too late, there was a man in an orange boiler suit demanding everyone leave the surf, he seemed to be co-coordinating with the helicopter. The helicopter shows up, goes up and own the beach a few times and leaves.

When we get back to the bus its been said that Air Sea Rescue rescued two canoeists in Lahinch on RTE Radio 1. And it appeared in some news papers the next day.

Part of me blames the newspapers, but I have to account for all newspapers in Ireland being tabloids. I emailed them asking for an explanation, I got no reply. I also emailed the Air Sea Rescue folks, they didn't reply, making me suspicious that they might be padding their statistics, maybe this is the core of the issue. The news papers get their story and the rescue services aren't going to correct them.

User avatar
rlynch
Posts:66
Joined:Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:36 pm
Location:New Zealand

Re: Rescue in Wicklow

Post by rlynch » Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:12 pm

I actually said to someone I was discussing this incident with about a week ago that I thought that might be the case. I'm aware of another incident about two years ago where the coastguard were called out by a concerned party to what turned out to be a total non-incident. The media report however made it sound like a big deal.

I'm not sure if it's media exageration or the rescue services justifying their budgets. I fully appreciate the efforts of the rescue services and I'm not in any sense undermining what they do, but this reporting is curious.

Ross
We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded!

User avatar
Seanie
Posts:841
Joined:Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:27 pm

Re: Rescue in Wicklow

Post by Seanie » Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:58 pm

kernel wrote: I fully appreciate the efforts of the rescue services and I'm not in any sense undermining what they do....
Please dont feel like you have to preface what you have to say with things like this on this forum.

Post Reply