Kayaker drowns in Schuylkill

A 57-year-old Philadelphia woman drowned in the Schuylkill this afternoon after performing a routine kayak roll that went wrong.

Police declined to release the woman's name tonight, as they were attempting to notify her next of kin.

The victim was a dedicated member of the Philadelphia Canoe Club, and an experienced kayaker, said club leader Todd Zielinski. She gave lessons to many other kayakers, including Zielinski, he said.

The woman was practicing rolls in calm water beside a dock at the Canoe Club, near the intersection of Lincoln Drive and Ridge Avenue.

"Nobody would ever have expected this to happen to her. She's been a paddler for almost 20 years. She's paddled class-four whitewaters. A roll in flat water was a yawn for her," Zielinski said.

It was the first drowning in the Canoe Club's 100-year history, Zielinski said.

The victim was using a whitewater kayak, in which paddlers strap themselves into the vessel with a suit called a spray skirt. In the event a kayaker becomes trapped under water while rolling, the suits are equipped with loops which can be grabbed to quickly release the spray skirt from the kayak.

Zielinski said he thinks the victim mistakenly tucked her grab loop inside the kayak cockpit, and thus was unable to reach it and release herself from the vessel. It is a fairly common but dangerous mistake, he said.

"It was something incredibly simple, and incredibly stupid, and it could happen to anybody," Zielinski said.

Paramedics were called when other Canoe Club members spotted her capsized kayak. She was pronounced dead at Roxborough Memorial Hospital.