Oh man, that sucks all the way around except for perhaps the 8 yr old. All trips seem to have ended on a sour note except maybe his. Lively discussions happen when "it could never happen to me" or you put a better bullseye on it. This, on the other hand, could happen to any of us - any trip.

I see two things here. Cotton kills and be prepared. Well, cotton doesn't kill and being prepared, well, that's a nebulous thing. I wear cotton all the time and even sleep in it wet. My very first trip was with jeans, tennies, and a Sears cotton (huge) bag ... shivered most of my ass off and got soaked but nothing got broken. Cotton works for me these days (not jeans though) and the degree of wet is in the eye of the beholder, adjusted by season. I've seen people in hefty bags having a great time surfing - I tend to look the other way. Breaking a leg? That's nearing slow death to me.

I'm surprised they didn't have one or two canoes haul her out or simply (quicker) go for help so close. What? No one snuck a phone in?

Theater people say "break a leg" as in 'good luck" (JW Booth). Somehow I think we should do that too. I see first solo trips way more than I'd like to 'cause it's stupid when you get right down to it - yet it happens more and more often. Had one person not been unfortunate enough to break something, they'd have all probably had a great trip. Shit happens. The really unfortunate (for you) and fortunate (for her) thing is the ~14th person was the one with the "ah crap, now what" improv.

Safety in numbers? To me, numbers simply add risk. Hey, be careful out there.