Scott wrote; > I have often heard paddlers exclaim that they have paddled so many miles >over so many years without ever capsizing, like this is some sort of badge of >honor. It may be a badge of honour. For example, I knonw many people who have never capsized in open water on an expedition. Consider the paddling involved (Baffin Island, Labrador, Hudson's Bay, Lake Superior, the Atlantic Ocean etc.) one might say they were rather skilled. >I capsize on a fairly regular basis. However, these capsizes are not >exactly accidental. I believe in order to expand ones limits in a kayak you >need to first know what they are. I continually push my limits, and >consequently capsize, in order to test my boundaries and try to push my >abilities beyond them. Scott provides for us a good example of one attitude towards paddling which involves expanding skills and constantly pushing ones limits. Another attitude would embrace a different approach - that of treating paddling as a means to explore the world. Exploration need not involve pushing one to the limit. Within the context of my paddling, avoiding a capsize constitutes the objective of seamanship. To that end I would prefer a boat that resisted capsize. What I wondered, however, was whether an easy to capsize boat could be defined as a better boat simply because it might be easy to capsize. Is a Nordkapp a better boat than, for example, a Current Designs Solstice by virtue of its being less stable? >But I believe that Ari was reflecting on a capsize which occurred in >a practice situation. It seems that I read a statistic some years back in Sea >Kayaker magazine where it was found that the paddlers of narrow "tippy" boats >actually capsized less then the paddlers of wider more stable boats. If this >isn't true, then it should be :-) It does not sound like Ari was practising but I may be wrong. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Oct 07 1998 - 03:37:01 PDT
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