True story this summer:
Setting: 4th of July 10 minutes before the parade in Oak Bluffs:
Some fellow has a 40' cigarette speed boat takes his best friend and a couple grandkids to the beach at chappy, after a couple beers he beaches the boat and *leaves it running in gear* his friend hop's over the side, slips and sucked under and his torso get nailed by the SS clever props and opens him up like a can of soup. The owner drags him back onboard (bleeding like mad) and races wide open into the harbor just as the parade was to start. It was a mad house. They got him to the hospital but he died shortly after they got him there. (He bled to death before they could do anything)
I don't think that in either case (the 2 men who went fishing in a kayak in waders at night or the boating event) that inexperience is an excuse for ignorance or just common sense. IMO both moves were dumb. Now I all know we have ALL done something stupid or dumb but generally at some point common sense kicks in and tells you stop what you are doing now....
I recall as a kid I was loading the boat and had a very heavy tackle box in my hands with one foot on the boat and the other foot on the dock. You can guess what happend.
We all do dumb things at some time in our lives...we are all human.