Boy loses arm in surfing accident

Let me start by saying Hi.. I Am Paul Snodgrass, I witnessed and photographed both incidents that occurred that day at Cape Kiwanda.

I am a father of 3 and have been married now for 28 years.
I love Cape Kiwanda, it’s great local people and for the most part easy going lifestyle, make it a very comfortable place to enjoy one of the greatest pleasure’s of life, the ocean.
My family & I have been very frequent visitors to the Cape and surrounding businesses for about the last 15 years.

My wife & I were born & raised in Kailua on the island of Oahu where some of our family and relatives still live. Two of my family members are commercial “dory boat” style boat operators. I grew up in the ocean, an avid surfer, and operating many types of “flat bottomed Dori styled” boats.
Hawaii is full of surfers and boaters and they don’t have a problem running over each other. Nowhere is it acceptable to recklessly drive faster than you can safely see and stop. Boaters in Hawaii use the boat ramps and must abide by the state laws. Common sense must always prevail when it gets too dangerous and skippers need to know when caution and alternate landings should be exercised.

All I hear is how bad the conditions were to safely land “fly threw the shallows including surfers, swimmers, boogie boarders, children, and beachcombers” and wonder why these dory men didn’t know the surf was coming up.. all the surfers knew, and in todays information society I am sure the dory men knew as well. I still can’t find any good reason why a skipper of a boat would need to out run the swells to land a boat onto the beach. It does take judgment and timing between the sets. There doesn’t seems to be point at which some skippers “just say no” as some of us surfers did.
To have two incidents in a matter of 20 minuts, is very apparent to me that the dory fleet in general feel they can do no wrong in that area no mater what the cost is to people and sea life. Could it be the thrill of the “E- Ticket” ride that may cause’ this behavior, I think so as it certainly doesn’t help the boat or the safety of the landing at all.

It was very interesting to me to see how many of the remaining dory fleet landed that day so slowly and safely after hearing of the accident and knowing everyone would be watching them come in. I hope they continue to land as safely in the future.
These are not really “dory boats” at all.. and the excuse that it is tradition is so far from the truth. If they were doing it for the “tradition” they would be rowing just like the Hawaiians do with the outrigger canoes, now there is tradition. The Hawaiians could also have put motors on board but chose the Traditional way.

In conclusion I would say after researching the laws on record this is negligence by the boat operator and by the State of Oregon for neglecting to enforce safe boating practices that are currently in our Oregon statues “seeing where you are driving a vessel that is powerful enough cut others apart is essential to being safe” how this can be anything but neglect I can not understand, and how it is not enforced by ticketing when there are clearly officers on the beach already just shows even the officers side with the boaters. It is only accountability that will prevent this in the future. In reading the posts and the news stories it is clear the attitude of the majority withing the dory “fleet” is that they can not control how they come in, when in fact they obviously to me that day can come in much safer having seen the before and after landings that day. It is up to the state to make sure all beach goers are safe from a few crazy people that have such little regard for the safety of others.