John Winters wrote: > > Elsewhere some one said that "serious" paddlers rolled. Well, I guess I > don't qualify. I patently refuse to roll and all those thousands of > kilometres I spent paddling in open water and never once rolling or even > capsizing were just a dilettante's mucking about in the serious paddler's > rightful territory. There may be other people like me too. That old hacker > Hannes Lindemann couldn't roll his kayak so I guess he wasn't serious. > According to what I have read a lot of Inuit couldn't roll so I guess they > weren't serious either. It just boggles the mind that so many people won't > take sea kayaking seriously. To quote Bart Hauthaway, a fellow esteemed boat-builder like you, writing in Atlantic Coastal Kayaker back in 1992 "If you can't roll you aren't a kayaker. You can be an acceptable person, but you are not a kayaker." So, John, at least let us take comfort in knowing that we are "acceptable" persons which may be the nicest thing any one may have ever said about us! :-) Don't you just love it when individuals set standards for who should be considered a serious or true practicioner of some endeavor? It tends to be a definition that first and foremost fits them. I think I better go around saying that somebody who cannot make a folding kayak in less than 10 minutes may be a fine gentleman or gentlelady but he/she ain't no kayaker. :-) Thanks for writing this post and all the snipped parts as well. ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Dec 17 1998 - 09:31:06 PST
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