Re: [Paddlewise] Who we are

Sharing the good reactions that others have had to this "who we are" idea ---
bemoaning the fact that I took four days off from e-mail, and am slogging
through an awful lot of stuff, but reading some very interesting responses.
Some from people who are totally reinitializing themselves in a new context
from faceless "originators"  of e-mail to real live people in my mind.

I'm Jack Martin, and, at 55, I'm probably a lot closer to the mean vintage of
those who've admitted their seniority than I'd thought I'd be.  My paddling is
chiefly on the Chesapeake Bay and associated areas, sometimes in the typically
dumping surf of the Maryland and Delaware Atlantic coasts, and, when I'm
really lucky, Monterey Bay and Baja California.  Occasionally, when I'm
feeling macho, my original waters on Long Island Sound.  Mostly sea kayaking.
Some white water, mostly lighter duty stuff on the Nanatahala and a little on
the Chatooga Rivers, but did do a two week trip down the Tatshenshini and
Alsek Rivers in the Yukon, British Columbia and Alaska a few years back.  And,
in my less reasonable moments, some white water open canoe craziness with my
son, Carey, now 29, a white water guide and instructor.

It's Carey's fault, really, this kayaking business.  And Putnam W. Blodgett,
III, the operator of the Challenge Wilderness Camp in Vermont, who was
responsible for taking a nice suburban ten year old and turning him into a
small Uel Gibbons (sp?) eating pine cones on survival trips.  It's what
happens when a ten year old picks a summer camp.  He turns your world around.
Thank God for ten year olds.

I, too, did the aluminum canoe stuff in my earlier days, did a lot of
competitive one-design sailing on Long Island Sound, travelled around the
world on big gray boats that my Uncle owned --- had aircraft on the roof that
I was allowed to fly sometimes --- for several years, but was introduced to
sea kayaking at son Carey's graduation from college eight years ago.  The
venue couldn't have been better.  The Apostle Islands!  Six months later, for
my 47th birthday, my wife --- <not> an outdoorsy person at all, had Carey
bring home a then ancient Sea Lion from the outpost at the Chatooga as a
birthday present.  Still have and love that boat.

But my boat of choice is a VCP Pintail, much modified.  Great boat, not fast,
not big, but active and a real trip in the surf.  Also, coming together slowly
now is a CLC North Bay, started by Carey and me over Christmas break --- his
first trip home from Utah in five years.  The North Bay is a beautiful, low
volume boat, and the Pintail is very jealous.  (The Sea Lion understands, but
wants a new home where she'll be taken out on trips a lot more often.)  And,
behind the extension ladder, is a neon green Ocean Kayak Scrambler sit-on-top
--- fun, wild in the bumps, but probably in need of a better home, too.

With the Pintail and the North Bay, Greenland style paddling seems most
appropriate, and is my mainstay.  But media can mix.  Did you know you can
roll a Scrambler with a Greenland paddle?  I was surprised --- and it wasn't
pretty, and the Scrambler seemed surprised, but it works.  Never pretty,
always effective.  But making and using Greenland paddles is an incredibly
karma-enhancing experience, and paddling your own home-built paddles can only
be bettered by paddling your own home-built boat.  I will not be surprised if
that's the case.

My work with the Navy in a business- and project-development role puts me
literally on the St. Mary's River in southern Maryland --- well 50 yards away
--- and some great backwater paddling, with easy access to the Chesapeake Bay
at the mouth of the Potomac.  If I'm not out on the water every day --- which
I'm not --- it's nobody's fault but my own.

Thanks to Jackie for starting this list --- I joined shortly after it was set
up --- and to Dave for thinking up this thread, and to all who have --- and
who will --- share more of themselves than what we read in PFD endorsements or
towing line tangles.  I'm enjoying the list more now, knowing a little more
about y'all.

Jack Martin
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