[Paddlewise] Beginners (Was Re: Pool Sessions)

Doug Lloyd wrote:
> 
> Michael,and others holding this view:
> 
> Kind of harsh, but you do have a point. However, there are a lot of easy
> beginner routes for the non athletic paddlers. Hopefully, these individuals
> will work toward a better level of general fitness as they progress and find
> encouragement and confidence. The context of my original question was that
> of a club situation, where leaders are trying to deal with these issues in a
> fair, sensitive, logical manner. If a person, any person, cannot demonstrate
> the required skills, we now restrict them from the more vigorous paddles, or
> paddles with crossings, etc. In the mean time, some of us need to remain
> committed to working toward a goal that seeks to include everyone in this
> enjoyable activity of kayaking, even if we would rather just stick our heads
> in the berm.

I have a counterpoint to this argument.  It is based on the regular
activities of the Downtown Boathouse here in New York City on the
Manhattan banks of the Hudson. While I have kittens when I see some of
the situation, it has worked out quite well with hardly any incidents. 
I certainly believe that people should have skills, good gear and
knowledge to use it, etc., but total beginners can accomplish quite a
lot.

The Downtown Boathouse started as a place for paddlers to store kayaks;
I have one there.  But it increasingly has moved toward providing river
access to the public as a community service.  It now has about 15 public
boats, and as storage spaces open up, they are no longer going to
private use but rather for storage of more and more public boats.

The Boathouse basically runs two kayaking programs.

One involves giving free access every weekend (from May to October) to
all comers to the embayment area between two piers that is roughly the
size of three football fields.  This area is out of the way of river
traffic but can get quite choppy from wind and wakes.  In 1998 some
6,000 people were put into these boats, many of them numerous
times...the 6,000 figure is based on waivers that need only be signed
once during the season.  People are asked to limit themselves to about a
half hour paddling in this area so others who are waiting their turn can
use the boats.  The place can get quite crowded since it is in downtown
Manhattan in the newly emerging Hudson River Park.  Thousands of bikers,
skaters, runners, and strollers pass by the open gate to the Boathouse
dock.  They are drawn by the kayaks they see right alongside them.  They
come through the gate, ask if they can rent a kayak and are told no,
it's free!!

The other program the group runs is quite a bit more challenging.  Every
weekend morning, trips are organized that take basically inexperienced
people across the Hudson to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. 
It's about a 5 mile roundtrip but the waters are hairy a lot of the
time.  Conditions at the tip of Manhattan are often turbulent because of
the differentials in timing of currents in the East and Hudson Rivers
and constant winds blowing down the river and through the canyons of the
city.  Moreover, on the flood, the vast volume of tide coming in from
the harbor and ocean squeezes into the relatively narrower Hudson river
(still quite wide though, about 3/4 mile wide) and the waters stack up
in confused chop.  Adding to this are the wakes of commercial traffic in
the form of tugs and barges, freighters, ocean liners, sightseeing
boats, lunch cruises and numerous ferry runs.  Then there are the hordes
of recreational motor and sailing boats crisscrossing the area.  Wakes
from all this traffic not only churn up the waters; they also reflect
off the hard seawalls lining each bank.  If you want to see clapotis at
its worse, here is the place to be.

So paddlers not only have to deal with nutty water.  They also must
dodge traffic coming at them from every direction.  The entire width of
the river is designated as channel.

The trips are led by Boathouse members who escort about a dozen to 15
inexperienced people, although as the season wears on some have
developed a bit of experience from the trips.  Generally, these
individuals are physically fit as they are drawn from the skaters,
bikers, and runners among others who earlier strolled by and found out
about the free trips across and down river to the Statue.  Some of the
people escorting the trips have some rescue skills, others, I would say,
are questionable.  Luckily, almost all the public boats are sit-on-tops
plus several double Jocyasees, open cockpit kayaks.  There are a few
boats with sprayskirts and these are given to individuals who seem to
know what they are doing or stated some kayaking experience.

Despite, what I see as sometimes scary waters, no one has gotten hurt on
these trips.  Spills are rare...the only ones I saw were of two
relatively skilled paddlers in their private kayaks who got pinned by
currents against piers and flipped.  Paddlers from other regions who
have been in these waters do see them as pretty demanding; this is not
your typical quiet paddle along some pastoral shore.  I know when
Caveman Gray was here and I went out with him in one of his double
inflatables, his hair got a bit more grey.

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."
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