Two paddle boarders battled wind, rocks, and rogue boaters at Wednesday’s Honda Celebration of Light, saying event organizers have to work harder to make English Bay safe for spectators.
Friends Avi Prasad and Erin Hunt say the V-shaped buoy barricade for the paddler holding zone wasn’t anchored in place, and winds Wednesday evening bent it and pushed it closer to shore leading up to the fireworks show.
Hundreds of paddlers were corralled in a steadily shrinking space being pushed closer to each other and the rocks near the seawall.
“It was like a stampede moment, but in the water,” Prasad said. “It was the perfect disaster where people don’t have life jackets, you have kids, people don’t have lights, the waves are getting up.”
Erin Hunt illustrates how far the paddler holding zone was blown inland. (Celebration of Light | Erin Hunt/Submitted)
Prasad arrived first around 6 pm and clipped his board to one of the buoys for a front-row spot to Malaysia’s fireworks show. Hunt joined him along with several of their friends. They’re both experienced paddlers who brought radios, lifejackets, and lights. But all that didn’t prepare them for what the night had in store.
Prasad (left) got to the holding zone early to secure a spot. But as it got more crowded and winds picked up, things became hectic. (Submitted)
Jennifer Findlay, producer of the Honda Celebration of Light, confirmed winds were challenging Wednesday and organizers will be making changes to the paddlers’ area.
“On Wednesday evening, we encountered conditions that included gusty winds and flood tide — and if not for the zone, all 300 people and their personal watercraft in that area may have been pushed ashore,” she told Daily Hive.
“Unfortunately, the conditions did push some individuals to the shoreline. We have heard and fully understand their concerns — and we will be reinforcing the anchoring system in advance of Saturday evening to ensure the support is more robust should the same conditions arise.”
The City of Vancouver heard about the concerns too, saying, “Plans have been put in place to prevent this from happening again on Saturday.”
Paddlers call police for help in choppy water
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The situation on Wednesday got so bad that Prasad called 911.
“I spoke to the police at this point,” he said. “We’re pretty close to the shore, maybe three kayaks’ length away.”
“People are getting shoved against the rocks, and people are already sitting on the rocks,” Hunt added.
Two nearby police boats came to check on them, shining lights on the crowd.
“One of the [officers] on one of the boats isn’t even paying attention. He’s on his phone recording the fireworks show,” Prasad said.
The officers told Prasad, who’d paddled over the barrier to escape the crowd, to go back into the paddling zone.
“It’s safer here,” Prasad said. “I [was] getting squished.”
Const. Jason Doucette with the Vancouver Police Department confirmed the force received a call about kayakers getting blown to shore in the wind.
“Officers quickly checked on them and confirmed they were fine and no one was injured,” Doucette said.
Prasad eventually gave up and paddled to shore, unable to enjoy the fireworks amid the mayhem.
But for Hunt, who paddled over from Vanier Point in Kitsilano, the journey home was even more frightening than the show itself.
Dark journey home among fast-moving boats
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Hunt got separated from her friends and paddled across the darkened inlet at the same time boats were leaving the area too — some without lights and paying no need to paddlers in their path.
“I hear people screaming because there’s a black yacht, no lights on, speeding through,” she said. “How is this even allowed? I’m surprised nobody got injured… our safety wasn’t first on anybody’s mind.”
Hunt recalled the woman’s body found in the water off Sunset Beach on Sunday, the morning after the first fireworks show. Authorities haven’t said how the woman died, but the chaotic scene Wednesday made Hunt think of the worst.
“I don’t want to hear another story of someone washing up on shore, this time because they were hit by a boat,” Hunt said.
Dozens of inflatables blown by wind float into the fireworks fallout exclusionary zone between the fireworks barge and English Bay Beach on July 29, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
The paddler holding zone is new this year at the Celebration of Light after winds pushed paddlers toward the fireworks barge last year.
But Hunt and Prasad say more needs to be done to make the experience safe for non-motorized vessels.
Hunt wants paddlers to be given time to head to shore before boats are allowed to move about the inlet — ideally in the form of a pathway patrolled by police. She also wants to see more paddlers bring safety equipment, and the holding zone separation buoys fastened in place. As well, she wants to see police ticket motorized boaters who travel through the inlet without their lights on.
“How are they not patrolling these giant boats when they can clearly see hundreds and hundreds of people on these little craft trying to get to land?” she said. “It was scary.”