Have you ever had one of those rollercoaster days? One minute you’re enjoying the ride and the next minute, whether by your own actions or actions of others, it’s spiraling downward like a crazy, sadistic amusement park ride from hell. No chance of getting off – all you can do is work with it to turn it around –and the best tool you’ve got is your preparedness.

As you’ve probably noticed, the theme to most of our reviews and articles is “you don’t get a memo”. So in our EM Gear world, being prepared is just a way of life. Because into every life a little rain can fall, or flood or deluge – let’s just make sure we don’t drown.

So here’s an example; a leisurely staff outing – an easy, uneventful canoe trip down the Chestatee River in the North Georgia mountains. This should be a low stress, enjoyable outing. The river is low due to near drought conditions, but the canoe rental shop confirms there’s still enough water to navigate and we might even get the stretch of river to ourselves that day since most others are concerned about the low water levels. Just the way I like it; quiet, non-crowded, no fuss.

As we meandered lazily down the river snapping pictures of flora and fauna our good day was about to switch tracks heading south. The navigator, that’s me, wants to go left around some rapids (this is an exaggeration to anyone who’s seen this stretch of this river) but my rudder guy wants to go right. Mayhem ensues and we meet with a vengeance, what we are later told by the canoe rental shop, a rock called the Boat Breaker – 3-feet of stone that protrudes ominously from the middle of the rapids.

In the blink of an eye, we are now waist deep in rushing water watching our rental canoe flipping onto its side and wedging itself firmly into Boat Breaker Rock like a baby to its momma’s neck. Our belongings, on the other hand, are floating merrily away in our waterproof gear bag, as well as our lifejackets and CamelBak® water bottles.

We were able to flounder about in the water, quickly grabbing everything that was floating away. After bringing all the gear safely to shore, we returned to the scene of the crime, the middle of the river and Boat Breaker Rock still trying in earnest to bend our canoe into a horseshoe.

Both of us being engineers, we argued technically over what was the best fulcrum point to use to keep our canoe from following it’s current destiny of becoming a two-piece canoe. Life again continues to happen while you’re in the middle of planning and the river decided it liked our canoe better below water than above – it sank.

Arguing turned to action – with a little help from fear of humiliation – what if someone else did come along down the river and see us standing idly in the middle, no fishing gear, no boat, just smiling and waving. Plan B was let’s just walk down river to the pick up point and calmly report, “oh you meant we were supposed to bring the canoe WITH us?”

Plan B is not in our DNA so we visualized success and we thought of ways to work with mother nature rather than against her. Here our CrossFit training also kicked in (see the Ten Domains of Functional Fitness). Physical fitness preparedness goes a long way to understanding what your body can do in stress situations when proper form and technique are used. The situation we were presently in looked a lot like a sumo dead lift high pull (albeit under water). Grip strength, power, balance, and stamina are what we needed from our bodies. Understanding the currents and the awesome power of flowing water were the last parts of the equation.

We used the current to dislodge the canoe from the rock and then explosive power via our cores and legs to bring the canoe to the surface and to friendlier waters. There was a sigh of relief as we lay on the shore in the post-WOD (workout of the day) spent energy fetal position, and a whole lot of laughter.

We repacked the thankfully still intact canoe, nodded in reverence to Boat Breaker Rock, and finished the last ½ mile of our journey without incident.

We arrived at the pick-up point a little wetter and a little more tired than when we left 2.5 hours earlier. Our ride back to the canoe trip outfitter’s wasn’t there yet, so we dragged our gear and canoe up the shore and sat down for another rest. We started to take inventory of our gear and I asked “where’s the camera?” A shocked look came across my partner’s face as he reached down towards the BDU pocket of his shorts. This pocket was where he had been keeping the camera between photo ops and also the pocket that had spent 30 minutes underwater during our ordeal …

BUT the camera was in an aLOKSAK!!!

Here’s a picture of him with the aLOKSAK taken with our non-waterproof camera that had just participated in an impromptu extreme test of our waterproofing gear. The camera still works to this day and pretty much travels around in its own 4x5 aLOKSAK.

The sun was starting to drift off into the west and our clothes were now just merely damp as the canoe rental guy showed up with the van and trailer. He asked how our trip was and we thought twice about just saying fine, then agreed to relay the whole adventure to him.

He didn’t laugh too hard and even had more of an astonished look on his face. This is when he shared the name of our nemesis, Boat Breaker. And the last tidbit that really turned our bad luck day back into a good day, he told us that we are the only ones that he knew of that had successfully defeated Boat Breaker. He had many stories of people who had chosen Plan B.

So for us at EM Gear, being prepared, mentally, fitness-wise, and gear-wise ensured that our good day ended up being a good day after all. And from a broader view, this was supposed to be just a simple day out on the river, but bad things can happen and they happen quickly. Making it an everyday habit to be prepared in easy situations will go a long way towards being prepared when things aren’t so easy.

Have a good day!

p.s. Has anyone seen my CamelBak? It’s the only thing that didn’t make it home.