MASK, the Metropolitan [NY] Assoc. of Sea Kayakers, has a web page at "http://www.terabit.net/mask/" but doesn't show its schedule of events. When you request a schedule (expressly to see if you might want to join the club) they tell you that you must first become a member to get a schedule. Marketing savvy aside, is this a legitimate and worthwhile club? Or just a membership fee collection scam? Ken Cooperstein *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net ***************************************************************************
MASK is for real. They do some worthwhile trips, the most interesting being a circumnavigation of Manhattan. I am not a member, but I have run across MASK groups while out paddling. Apparently they have been mired in political in-fighting at times, but if you stay out of the politics they are probably a worthwhile organization to join. Nick At 8:10 AM -0500 2/22/98, Kenneth Cooperstein wrote: >MASK, the Metropolitan [NY] Assoc. of Sea Kayakers, has a web page at >"http://www.terabit.net/mask/" but doesn't show its schedule of events. >When you request a schedule (expressly to see if you might want to join >the club) they tell you that you must first become a member to get a >schedule. Marketing savvy aside, is this a legitimate and worthwhile >club? Or just a membership fee collection scam? > >Ken Cooperstein > > >*************************************************************************** >PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List >Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net >Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net >*************************************************************************** Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks c/o Newfound Woodworks, RFD 2 Box 850, Bristol, NH 03222 (603) 744-6872 Schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ >>>>"It's not just Art, It's a Craft!"<<<< *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net ***************************************************************************
Kenneth Cooperstein wrote: > > MASK, the Metropolitan [NY] Assoc. of Sea Kayakers, has a web page at > "http://www.terabit.net/mask/" but doesn't show its schedule of events. > When you request a schedule (expressly to see if you might want to join > the club) they tell you that you must first become a member to get a > schedule. Marketing savvy aside, is this a legitimate and worthwhile > club? Or just a membership fee collection scam? > > Ken Cooperstein MASK is a real club with lots of trips. I wasn't aware that it is hiding its schedule as you can find it occasionally in hardcopy at local shops in the NY/Nj/CT tri-state area. There may be reasons for this however. MASK, or better stated--its head, has built up an imagined and real enemies list among many paddlers in the area, me included (me in his head, others are real and/or imagined). So any reluctance to hand out its schedule (if true) may be to make certain that awful people like me not get wind of the trips and crash them. The local scene has been marred with what I dub "The Kayak Wars". I have been in the middle of them, sometimes my own doing but more often as a victim of slander you would not believe. I have been accused of things that even our friend Tim Ingram of sponson fame never dreamed of charging anyone in his personal attacks on Wavelength. But it goes further than that. The head of MASK is acting pretty much against the interests of the local paddling environment. A case in point. The head of MASK has tried to destroy a worthwhile group here that I am associated with, the Hudson River Watertrail Assoc.(HRWA). HRWA is devoted to creating a series of camping and put-in sites along the Hudson and is a founding member of the national group of watertrail systems (several HRWA individuals serve on the national group's board or are officers there0. HRWA founders however number several people who are on MASK's head's enemies list. So last year, the head of MASK wrote a number of letters to city and state park officials condemning HRWA as a lawless group. It turns out from some of the things stated in those letters that it was this individual who earlier successfully killed a prime launch-site in the Palisades park area. It was something that was suspected but then pretty much confirmed by what was said in the more recent letters. Fortunately, most recepients of the letters have worked with HRWA and know HRWA officers and board members (some state officials are even on HRWA's board or serve as advisors!). So the charges have been largely dismissed. I give this all to you as background not to scare you off from joining MASK, it has a good list of trips and you should probably join, but rather to warn you not to say "Oh, Ralph or HRWA sent me." It would put you in the dog house real quickly. Now, aren't you sorry you asked your question!!! :-) ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net ***************************************************************************
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