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I think ST is overthinking it.  Maybe this, maybe that, what ifs.  Maybe there's a nuke strike and the whole lake is vaporized.  <- Reductio ad Absurdium.

Every year around here, someone dies in a ice/cold water boating accident. More often than not, the person that falls in, is the one who survives and the would be rescuer is the one who pays the price :(
The media then tell everyone it was a " tragic accident".

Accident is a word that is used way to often. Too me, an accident is something that can't be avoided. Putting yourself in harms way needlessly and calling the result if poor an accident is just PC feel good talk. It's negligence, pure and simple.


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Most boating accidents are the result of poor judgment & plain honest stupidity.

I couldn't agree with you more a Preacher. And taking newbies/first time solo paddlers onto Lake Superior is the very definition of poor judgment/stupidity IMHO, over-thinking it or not.
You might not be legally culpable, but I wouldn't want it on my conscience.
MT's little voice was telling him true, or he wouldn't of mentioned it.
I'd listen, but that's just me being "Reductio ad Absurdium"