Letter Writer: What Was Kayak Father Thinking?

re: CDA Press photo on front page Thursday, showing shirtless father with small boy in a kayak on Lake Coeur d’Alene

This is in response to the picture on the front page of the Coeur d’Alene Press on Feb. 22. titled “Paddling along.” Granted it is a cute picture, but it clearly shows a male adult and a male child in an improperly rigged kayak (no skirt) and neither occupant has a life jacket on. The picture also doesn’t show the lake temperature being not all that far above freezing and a lot of ice still on the lake surface. Had that kayak overturned, who is going to save who? Getting dunked suddenly and unexpectedly into that cold of water generates a shock to the system that in some cases causes the victims to gasp, thus inhaling water/ Gary Dagastine , Post Falls. More Coeur d’Alene Press letter here