It's refreshing to know that more people paddle alone. I personally paddle solo 95% of the time and really prefer it. What I first enjoyed about kayaking was the feeling of being so much closer and connected to the water (coming from canoeing it seemed significant.) I love building up to a steady cadence & taking in the natural suroundings. Paddling solo lets me drift off unto this great state of relaxed concentration. Groups are fine, but seriously if you only paddle in groups how many times can you go out in a year? I paddle 5 or 6 days a week, starting as early in the year as possible and until the loons and coots are the only guys in the water with me. If I had to wait to paddle in a group everytime I went out I don't honestly think that I would be able to maintain & build on my skill level. I feel "off" when I don't paddle for 4 days. A couple of weeks ago I went to the Inland Seas Symposium on Lake Superior in the Apostle Islands. As usual I did most of my paddling alone. I attended lots of in-classroom sessions but didn't join the paddle group tours. I couldn't believe how many people seemed surprised that I was out alone. It was really quite bizarre. I guess what I found strange was that with 500 kayakers in town for the symposium I never saw anyone on the water outside of a mile perimeter from the symposium beach. Myself I was able to enjoy pure solitude amongst sea caves, cliffs, strands of pine and cedar & the great cold chop of Superior. Made me think, "Does anyone actually sea kayak?" ah - now I'm rambling. Enough for now. Michael Madison, WI *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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