[Paddlewise] Who we are

Named Larry Koenig, I'm a 45 y/o from Baton Rouge, LA who has recently discovered this list.  I snuck out one afternoon in 1979 during my 3rd year of med school (while my wife napped) and bought a Grumman shoe keel 17 footer and have had a love affair with the water ever since. A flood on Cross Bayou in Shreveport took that first boat ( and darn near drowned my foolish hypothermic ass) but I replaced it with a MR Explorer. I, like all paddlers I knew at the time, craved the thrills of whitewater and so moved to Oregon for ER residency. Still somehow feeling invincible and anxious to play hard I took my open canoe out into the Pacific that first summer and through the surf at Pirates Cove only to dump, flounder and ( long story short) wash up, wind driven,hypothermic and certifiably foolish on the beach 5 miles south at Manzanita from where, after a night in the ICU, I emerged with a proper fear of the ocean. 
Compelled to return (kicking and screaming) 3 years later to Louisiana by the National Health Service Corp I bought a Jenson C1W as a consolation prize for cruising the bayous and commenced to learn to cruise.  In my last month in Oregon I was led by the princes of Serendip to REI wherein I first saw a sea kayak - a sexy looking Current Designs boat.  Suddenly Louisiana with its miles of warm coastline didn't look so bleak.  
In Baton Rouge since 84, I spent three years racing solo canoes ( Advantage XL and later J-180) before, enamored by speed, I traded a Black Buck paddle for an old Olympic flatwater
kayak in which I learned to brace and go.  I knew of no Gulf of Mexico kayakers at that time so bought my first sea kayak for safety - I was, of necessity, a solo paddler.  That Nimbus Puffin took me all over the Northern Gulf. 
Later, I paddled a Necky Arluk 1 (still in love with that speed) until one day when I noticed my daughter in a Seda Impulse blithely paddling in a strong crosswind on Lake Ponchartrain without her rudder while I, battling weathercocking in the "faster" boat, couldn't keep up without using the rudder. Since rudders had thrice failed on me ( once in a  critical situation and always because of unexpected rogue waves) I knew that dependence on them was unsafe and so have been paddling boats without them for some time. The current quiver of boats includes: a solo and a tandem cruising canoes, a Dagger Response, an Orion OF boat built by Wenonah, the Arluk 1, a Seda Impulse of my own (plus storage of my daughter's), a rare original style Nautiraid Greenlander, an original Aleut Sea 2 made by Pure Perfection Custom in Wales, P & H Sirius,  Foster Rowe Silhouette and, a Findeisen X surf ski.  In order to justify having all these boats ( in which you might note there is a trace of redundancy [but don't tell my wife]) I've begun to think of myself as a paddler/collector.  My living room ceiling is as full as my garage.  
These days I paddle 3-4 days a week in the Mississippi River which, here in BR, I have all to myself. With a little bit of luck, in 2 years I'll drop back to part time ER work and spend even more time on the water.


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