[Paddlewise] Who we are

My name is John Ware, and judging from everyone's ages I must be a middle 
age fart at 44.

Some of my earliest memories are of sailing and napping on the floorboards
of my father D scow sailboat on Lake Geneva, WI.  My love of sailing and the
water in general is based in 35 years of racing and pleasure sailing.

About 15 years ago I was introduced to sea kayaking with an afternoon of
paddling in my brothers kayak.  Unfortunately I became an overweight load
until a body reclamation project 15 months ago.  Last August I finally made
it to the range to fit in a kayak and as a reward I went out and bought the
first kayak I saw, a Dagger Sitka and have been hooked since.

I live in St. Paul, MN so most of my "experience gathering" has been on
local lakes and rivers with several trips to Lake Superior before it turned
from liquid to solid.  Most of my paddling for the past 3 months has
involved large amounts of chlorine in which I've perfected rolling on both
sides, reentry  and roll, and I've tried and accomplished the reenter -
attach the skirt - then roll, which seems to be right at my limit of that
"turning blue from lack of air" zone.

To further immerse myself in the sport and hopefully not the lakes I
recently ran for and was elected to our clubs board of directors so I need
to do a shameless plug for our club, Twin Cities Sea Kayak Association and
our new website at http://www.virtualmn.com/tcska.

I'm looking forward to Spring and as many trips as my wife and daughter will
allow me to take. I'm also looking forward to a new boat I ordered in
December, a VCP Aquila, which is due in 6 weeks.

This list and the people who contribute to it are a fabulous resource to
everyone addicted to this activity.  From equipment pros and cons to
technique explanations it been a real education, thanks to all.

jware
-- 
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/
***************************************************************************