A horrible way to bring these points and questions to light, but there are some solid perspectives to absorb in here.

The only thing I learned from that post is that guy is an asshole. Elitism needs to leave this sport, particularly when commenting on someone's tragic and untimely death.

They layout of the forum is complete garbage, making it very difficult to quickly follow in a cohesive timeline.

I do think there are some valid points in there.

Obviously there are better ways to get info out there and I'm not sure that the best time to be doing it is while the guy's friends and family are google-ing  (sp?) everything and anything about the run he died on. That being said, this stuff only comes up when there is an issue and something goes wrong.

I was pretty put off at first, until I read the entire thread (as of about 1pm). I think it’s worth digesting.

If for nothing else, it was worth internalizing. I've been routed down runs I had no business being on. Make you appreciate your fate so far.

Boater Talk sucks for that reason: I consider it an unuseable resource due to the design flaws of its site. Its a deal breaker for me so I never check it out.

But I can't feel like I'm missing much. Mostly sensationalist reactions to each others' posts. But if Tiziak says he found some thought provoking stuff in there, I don't doubt it.

I read the AW accident report, and it seemed as "complete" as it could be, despite the bias of the individuals present (and I don't mean any disrespect at all, just saying that the account is inevitably going to be distorted by those present- but its human nature and we can be confident they did everything they could).

For what its worth that is a spookiy drop to stare down the barrel of, if it is the one I recall (haven't paddled it since the mid 90's):
You gotta stay on the center of a huge slide that narrows down almost to a point, with gravity pulling off to either side. You know what it reminds me of? The center line of China Falls on the Cle Elum. Different consequences though. It wouldn't be too hard to let yourself slip offline to the left the way Mr. Norr did. But with some of these class V moves, you just don't have a margin big enough to afford being 6" off line.

Now I agree with you and everyone else who expressed being put off by this asshole's insensitive comments. The flaming that was spoken of on the Boater Talk thread was disrespectful to say the least.

We can't be judgemental of the victom or his qualifications if we didn't know him personally or see him boat. And people get all sensational (almost like we are at risk of doing now) when they don't have all, or any, of the info.

Bottom line is that this instant Web Yakkin we are able to do all the time lends itself to people being able to express themselves faster than they can reflect on what they really should express, and how they should express it.

As far as boating class V when you don't really got skills to be there yet, well, the cold hard truth is, most paddlers cutting their teeth in the class V realm are probably guilty of this. Why? Because they are too impatient to really develope solid fundementals before launching into class V. You need more than just a solid roll. Sometimes you can't afford to flip, or, to be more than 3-6" off line at the crux spot where ya gotta execute the critical move.

I'm not at all suggesting this was Mr. Norr's case. Didn't know him. Can't/won't try to evaluate whether he "should have been there".

Just saying to those wanting to "step it up":
How bout you learn how to "watch your step" instead? Learn to boat smooth and stay out of trouble. My love of the sport rests more in the sensation of boating smooth and in control more than in some quest to "run the gnar". Free your mind, and your boat will follow.

That said, sometimes your number just comes up. The "law of averages" is also an evil mistress of the river, and can sometimes be very unfair.