Look, I understand that another loss of life is nothing short of a tragedy, but lets be real about this. If you CHOOSE to go close to the edge of those rocks when it is stormy, rainy, hell even on nice days, then you CHOOSE to accept the risk of what may happen when you tempt Mother Nature.
Putting up a fence, or barricade will do nothing to deter anyone. Fences can be climbed over, barricades can be jumped over, and forget the fact that it will take away from the serene beauty of why people even go there to start with.
All you can do is what has already been done. Warning signs about how dangerous it can be to climb on the rocks,and even more so when it is rainy, and slippery.
I really hope they don’t give in to this and start changing the face of the Cove.
I say let Natural Selection take care of those who want to look Mother Nature in the face and take her on. —Don’t temp Mother Nature – you will LOSE!!!!
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2010.
I agree with you 147% – I cannot believe the sheer stupidity of some people.
Well, since we are governed by the only political party that actually “Cares About The People” (?) which will happen first? Either Peggy’s Cove will be closed down as a safety hazard or all visitors will be required to complete a 3 hour “Rocks & Water Proficiency Course” in order to be certifed (for a a nominal fee, payable at your nearest branch of Access Nova Scotia currently located in Ulaan Bator) as competent to clamber about the stunning scenery.
I am a friend of the family of this young man, and he was not a reckless risk-taker. He was not in fact standing on the rocks, as has been reported. There is video footage from the time of the accident that shows he was well back from the edge of the water.
I agree with you, OP! There are warning signs, and those who don’t read and obey them, then they take the risk.
Putting up a fence or barracade?! seriously, halifax? that will completely ruin the beauty of Peggy’s Cove. I can’t believe people are even considering it… I really do believe there are other options.
Why would you even go to Peggy’s Cove in such wretched weather? That doesn’t make a lick of sense to me.
Because he was home for a wedding and had taken his girlfriend and friend to see this iconic Nova Scotia landmark.
Again, where they were standing wouldn’t have been considered harm’s way by anyone’s standards. It was a rogue wave and it’s nothing short of a tragedy.
Wow.
Good to know TTFN et al don’t get don’t from their collective high horse long enough to ever make a bad decision.
Shit happens. Sad but true.
You are truly a class act, TTFN.
Well, one has to think of the credibility of someone posting as ‘a friend of the family’ – but if what they said was the case, then I’m a dumbass with gravy for brains. The benefit of age is that you can own up when you’re wrong.
I don’t care whether you think I’m credible or not. I am in fact a friend of the family. I would post his name to prove it, but I don’t think that would be very respectful.
“SC” we’ll call him was living in Ontario and was back home in NS to be the best man in a wedding. As I mentioned, he wasn’t reckless, nor was he a risk taker. And the provincial webcam footage from Peggy’s Cove shows he was at a safe distance from the water just seconds before the wave hit.
But whatever. How can I expect you to sympathize? You clearly never make mistakes.
I think I did that already.
I’ve had plenty of people in my life die unexpectly so I’m not completely without an aorta and assorted chambers.
“he was at a safe distance from the water just seconds before the wave hit.”
I think the record books will list this as inaccurate.
and were he from NS prior, he likely would know how dangerous it is.
It is a shame and he likely wasn’t expecting it…
but that’s like walking right up to a volcano and not expecting to get burned.
Saying someone that was swept away was “a safe distance from the water” is a little bizarre, don’t you think?
All I can tell you is that in this weather you would not catch me near the ocean because I know better. Some do not. Some get swept away and drowned. I won’t.
I can only look after myself and I hope they don’t put a barrier up around the cove.
It’s really heartbreaking – as a Maritimer, I have a healthy respect for the waves, and am often the one nagging my friends to stay back, especially at a place as netorious as Peggy’s Cove with it’s wicked undertows. People just dont’ understand the forces of nature at work. And as sad as it is, he obviously wasn’t a “safe” distance away from the waves if he was pulled in. Rogue waves happen. It’s a tragedy, but hopefully people will learn.
Kind of like the hiker killed by coyotes, right? there are a million examples. Things happen when dealing with nature. It’s a fact of life. But limiting access to nature will hurt everyone.
Well said, ralmn. When Mother Nature has PMS, no one’s safe.
This just in -“Nova Scotia Environment Minister announces $50.00 Bounty on Rogue Waves”
I feel for the family and friends of the young man in question and am not trying to make light of their loss. But the true stupidity will be seen in the hysterical over-reaction to what is, ultimately, an unfortunate sequence of events.
i have been to peggy’s cove so many times and have seen so many people get too close. i even called out people ‘like hey moron if you die it’ll be on you”. they don’t care. people will do what they want and they will die, that is natural selection. let them be. if they want to destroy peggy’s let them try. mother nature will destroy them and whatever crappy fence they put up, right back. the only people who will suffer are people who are reasonable, responsible, and tax paying, as usual…
I agree with the OP 100%. Maybe the gift shop at Peggy’s Cove can start taking nominations for the Darwin Award for these people who ignore the warnings.
Yes lets build fences around everything dangerous, with barbed wire at the top, so that nobody can get near any sort of danger. But why stop there? I’m sure given some time we can find better and more innovative ways to bubblewrap society against any conceivable dangerous situation. Maybe we could legislate that every person be assigned a government decision maker that never leaves our side, and lets us know before we make any bad decisions.
OB – the nannies tried to get rails and barriers, years ago, fortunately calmer heads prevailed.
Happy – sorry about your friend. Don’t pay attention to TTFN, she’s just a dried up self-entitled old CRUNT, whose old age senility came decades early.
Yes rouge waves happen. I’ve seen them on the shore and I’ve seen them at sea. It’s like one wave sitting on-top of another.
When I was a kid, family friends went to Peggys’ Cove for some wedding pics. Everyone there was well aware of the dangers, the rocks where they were posing were dry. Then an extremely large wave hit and took two teens, brother & sister, and pulled them into the ocean. Theirs was a happy ending, two or three swells later, another large wave dumped them back on the rocks, unharmed.
So yes, shit happens and people die. Do you folks shit on professional who die doing something dangerous? How about mountain climbers?
funny thing is, i posted a bitch the other day about this, and it did not get put on, hmmmmm. maybe i had it worded a little too strong about the fucking idiots that go out on the rocks there. but i don’t know, maybe it was that i would laugh at the next idiot that got dunked. or maybe it was about if rescued, hope the they would get jail time, or have their asses sued off by rescuers. i just don’t know.
The other reason things like this piss me off is that someone (whether it’s this guy or someone else) who ignores warnings and chooses to put themselves in harms way then puts the lives of rescuers on the line as well.
This tragedy could have been compunded by the loss of more lives.
Wow, Hugo – such hostility – I’m just as entitled to an opinion as yourself so stick that up your self-righteous ass and inhale.
‘So yes, shit happens” you say which is fucking echoing my own sentiments if you could learn to read and not just react.
I’d rather be a dried up old twat than an ageist, shallow prick.
TTFN you are a hypocritical ass. I’m tired of your crap.
Ageist? You dumb fuck, I’m just a very few years younger than you.
Well, Hugo, sorry you feel that way. Most of us actually get along here and if you want to start a flame war, you’ll be fighting it alone, boyo. It’s much easier to ignore you than give rise to your reactive bullshit. Have fun with your hostility.
I have no idea whether there was a rogue wave or not – strictly speaking no, because rogue waves are a deep water phenomenon.
All I know is that waves at Peggy’s Cove that wash with major force around the base of the lighthouse itself are not rare. Waves that come over that first ridge, that the lighthouse is on, are not rare. Getting serious water up onto the parking lot is not unheard of. Take a look at all of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lzfOJ-IkVY and maybe you’ll understand why anywhere seaward of the parking lot is undeniably stupid, and even being on the parking lot isn’t too bright.
Frequently when a life is lost due to some accident people react with veiled hostility and natter on about “letting Nature have her way” or acclaim the misfortune as evidence that Darwinian selection is weeding out the herd.
I think the reason this happens is that most of us aren’t well-equipped to deal with our own mortality. However, if we establish a psychological buffer between ourselves and the accident victim we can maintain the illusion that the same thing or something similar could never happen to us. So we label these victims “incompetent” or “idiots” and go on with our lives, secure in the knowledge that WE would never be so stupid.
But this is wrong. We are all capable of making mistakes or perhaps as in this incident just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sometimes just plain dumb luck is all that stands between each of us and the hereafter.
I think John Donne captured the central idea of the interconnectedness of all humanity in his meditation XVII in which he said, in part:
“….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Funny how watching people walk downtown hooked up to an ipod makes me wonder if some of us haven’t already become islands with mankind a mere hinderance.
TTFN,
I guess it might have come across as such, but I wasn’t intending to join some kind of ‘pile on TTFN’ or anyone else here for that matter. My comment was intended to apply more generally to this kind of situation.
I also wonder about the ‘borgs’ I see sprouting ipods and cell phones and netbooks. It’s an open question for me as to whether all this connectivity will in the long run be a good thing or not.
Geeze, Commandante, I didn’t think for a moment you were doing a ‘pile on TTFN’ – I haven’t got quite that paranoid yet. Believe me, I’m not out to make enemies with anyone on the board but it is a little disturbing to be attacked from a fellow poster for no other reason than expressing my opinion.
take a look to the sky just before you die
it’s the last time you will
Blackened roar
Massive roar fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goal
fills his soul with a ruthless cry
-for whom the bell tolls
Why is it, that everytime a tragedy occurs there is always someone who trots out the ‘Darwin Award’ label? To err is to human. ‘Darwin Award’ is an insulting term coined by those who have (gasp!) failed to achieve perfection, because if they possessed that unattainable perfection, it would prevent them from uttering something so hurtful towards an unfortunate individual. Whatever happened to respect for family and friends of the dead?
yeah, there’s a slight difference between something like this and something like
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2…
I call bologna on the “safe distance away”…obv if he was swept away he wasn’t a safe distance away! It’s a fucking monsoon out there, and this guy chooses to go out on the rocks at ALL at Peggy’s Cove?
All this has accomplished is wasting money on a search and rescue that could’ve been avoided and used when someone who isn’t a dumbass is in distress. I hate to be so harsh, happy go lucky, but you’re biased and of COURSE you’re going to say they weren’t being stupid.
Bad things happen to stupid people, and the lack of personal responsibility is scathing these days. Nothing’s anyone’s fault and everyone’s looking for someone else to blame…anyone but the person who got themselves into the mess in the first place.
THat someone has died yet again in IMO no reason for Peggy’s Cove to be fenced, closed or any other nonsence.
This isn’t in anyway reflective against the person who died. Its tragic , but so is cancer !
IF every time someone dies or gets hurt by something , & the Goverment then passes a law that “THIS DANGEROUS PLACE/THING/EVENT ” means its no longer allowed/Banned.
Means the automobile has to be banned first.
After all more people are killed in North America by Auto’s than any other source.
So if we are to be constantly babied by government, we’ll soon have to wear 3 layers of bubble wrap just to be able to leave our homes…I wonder whne they’ll be coming by my place to take my sharp knives…after all , I could cut myself !
The fence won’t be to protect people from dying, will be just to avoid lawsuits.
Who are you going to sue ?
the ocean ?
I really don’t believe the ocean gives a flying f^(#.
Posting signs that your risking life & limb IMO is all that is required. Maybe someone might think about opening, starting to rent life jackets…go to Peggy’s Cove, waves are bad today…rent a life jacket !
Sorry that makes too much sense & we all know that isn’t allowed in this society !
But you know , it just might give a person washed off the rocks a better chance !!!!
wow… guys, it was an accident… the moral of the story, puttin up a fence at Peggy’s Cove will take away the beauty of the place… I am so sorry about the lives lost but there are signs, everyone goes there at their own risk… I love that place an the feelin u get just sittin there watchin the waves… everyone, i mean EVERYONE has to understand that mother nature will win… Stay back!!!
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/12…
According to this article, it could be the Agriculture Department or even the RCMP that can possibly get sued. People would sue anything and anyone pretty much nowadays, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to sue the waves.
Ignoring warnings is just simple gambling: sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. If you feel the need to roll the dice and get close to a dangerous situation then the honus is on you to “live” with any consequences. Homer Simpson said it best: “When the sign says don’t feed the bears, man, you better not feed the bears.”
Many people don’t (or can’t) read signs.
Government and society cannot be resonsible for everyone, NSNTH. Sure illiteracy is a major problem – as is apathy – but things can’t stop or change completely for either.
I am not saying the governments and society are responsible, I am just saying that probably one of the incentives for them to be putting up fences would be to prevent lawsuits. As for signs, it isn’t even so much an illiteracy issue…people just don’t pay attention to their surroundings.
Well, like More said, who could possibly be sued for accidental death like this? The village of Peggy’s Cove? The ocean? The government? The rocks for being wet?
See 6 posts above this one. Again, I am not saying they would get sued or they should get sued. I am only saying some people sue anything and anyone (remember that urban legend about a dog owner who sued a microwave company for not putting a warning that microwaving a dog would kill it), so if there is anyone who will be responsible for putting up the fences (if they decide to do so), that means those same people are the potential target of lawsuits. Does this make sense at all?
Ralmn, your statement “as a Maritimer, I have a healthy respect for the waves” is so true. I grew up on the Fundy shores, and I have a heightened sense of tides. Those of us raised that close to the ocean had the opportunity to learn from her and treat her with respect. I guess we can’t have all had that experience, but surely this man (and others who have suffered the same fate) had a twinge of hesitancy and realization of the risks if he grew up here.
I’m not a family friend or a cousin’s step-daughter’s twice-removed sister-in-law, but calling him an idiot is harsh. It’s a sad story, and it’s not fair to discount that. His actions were stupid but that doesn’t mean he was.
The danger zone for waves at Peggy’s Cove is farther back than most people think. And when the rocks get wet, they get real slippery real quick. This means the danger zone gets even bigger. This is why a fence/barricade won’t work to keep people off the highway to the danger zone. It’s a moving line depending on the weather.
I think people could attempt to file suit against the above mentioned groups, NSNTNS, but I don’t think any reasonable judge would allow it. It’s not the RCMP’s duty to police the wave-watchers. And the Dept. of Agriculture isnt responsible for what people do. It does make sense what you said but I just don’t see how any suit/charges would be upheld in a case. I agree that anybody can and will attempt to sue over anything but I dont think there’d be any grounds in this case.
I am sad to hear about another loss at Peggy’s Cove during turbulent weather. However, people have got to start taking responsibility for their own actions. Yes, it’s sad but it is no one else’s fault, not matter how you put it. Putting up any type of blockage would make no difference. People who are too close to the sea will always find a way to thrill seek in bad weather. Not implying that this casualty was a trill seeker. In relation to Oceanchick’s explanation of the Darwin Award, I understand why it was brought up. It is mentioned because when the tragedy happened they were looking at ways of preventing deaths. In turn, threatening our beloved tourist attraction, of course people are going to speculate that people should use more discretion when our beloved national landmark is threatened.. It is sad that rules must be in place to save one from his own lack of discretion. And while those rules may save one or two people in a lifetime, who’s to say those saved lives may meet another situation in life where such discretion is needed and there may be no common sense rule to protect them from their own actions-and may ultimately meet the same fate. Please do not change the national landmark, to protect people from themselves-