Zdeněk Šmíd: Why we shouldn't drown

Zdeněk Šmíd, originally a teacher and high school professor (1937 - 2011), but famous mainly as the author of a number of books on sports and pedagogical topics, became famous for his second book, published in 1979 under the title Why We Wouldn't Drown or A Waterman's Guide for Ophelia. This narrative about a group of paddlers, full of small episodes and numerous digressions, with humorous exaggeration presents paddling on domestic waters as a traditional phenomenon, as a passion and obsession to which whole generations of our countrymen who love water and canoeing are subject. The enormous success of the book was mainly due to the fact that Šmíd captured in it a large number of situations with which contemporary watermen could easily identify. No wonder, that underneath the story of a group of friends, who are called Crusader, Catfish, Bong, Lida, Lucie, readers read and perceived stories of their own, It's happening, which in almost the same, or very close, in the form of their own experience.