[Paddlewise] weather instruction

Scott asks: << how many of you would actually
 spend your hard earned cash on a class about weather for kayakers? >>

I'm an intermediate-level paddler (BCU 3 Star) with several years of light-
duty experience,and I would gladly pay for a course like that, if it were a
good practical course. I also wonder if it wouldn't be possible to teach a
reasonable amount of weather knowledge and accident-prevention during the
course of a "strokes" course, or during the course of one of those commercial
mini-expeditions people have been writing about. It's hard for me to accept
that I'm so unique.

 I also don't understand why learning about the weather is supposed to be "not
fun", and so forth. Why is the Weather Channel so popular, both on TV and on
the net - and so forth??? Seems to me that a large part of the enjoyment of
kayaking is being in the natural world, in very close touch with it. How can
this exclude the weather?

Incidentally, I'll second Clyde Sisler's poor opinion of the "course" given at
the Atlantic Coast Sea Kayaking Symposium last summer. It was by turns way
over the audience's head, and uselessly condescending. It's a shame. The room
where the course was held was packed almost to capacity when the first hour
began. There were plenty of empty seats for the second hour (the ones who left
were a lot smarter than I was, I guess).

Bill Hansen - Ithaca NY

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