Opinions, musings, ideas, pearls of wisdom
SOS
By Kent Hull
SOS
By Kent Hull
On September 13th 1998, Rick VonCarnap and Dr. John Fong, two long-time and much liked members, lost their lives while fishing just offshore. They were experienced and skilled with boats, not the sort to be careless or risk-takers. As the shock of their loss ebbed, a common thought seemed to be, "They were prudent and capable; that could have been me!" In their memory, we decided to devote one Meeting's program to boating safety. The first program was in April 1999. At about the same time, the Newsletter began running articles on safety, which eventually became the Life Lines column.
After several years, the April boating safety programs became repetitive, poorly attended, and seemed not very useful or relevant to the kind of boating (or any other) activity we were involved in. Life Lines columns continued, but have seemed to lose focus. When I took over as Editor, I started strongly with Life Lines columns drawing on my experience in the Navy (Aviation Safety Officer and sometime rescue helicopter pilot), as a Human Factors Engineer, and even a chewing out by my Dermatologist. But I soon exhausted topics that seemed relevant to us as fly fishermen. When the Newsletter size was reduced from twelve pages to ten and space for articles got tight, Life Lines got short shrift, at least in part because I didn't have topics that seemed new, interesting or relevant.
A recent email circulated by past President Tom Hogye brought me up short. It's a disservice to the memory of Rick VonCarnap and John Fong, and to you as Members of SCFF for me to omit Life Lines month after month. SOS! I need your help. I need articles (sketch them out, I'll smooth them up) or just suggested topics, relevant to us, especially if they're relevant to your recent experiences. Anything that is related to risk of injury or illness while on a fishout or anything related to one is fair game. My email is hull@cruzio.com, my telephone number is on page 3, my address is in the Roster, and I'm fairly hard to miss at meetings (I'm the Secretary, too).
Be the person who saves someone's bacon by getting just the right article in print!