Two more lurkers out of the woodwork: We usually post separately - volinjo_at_juno.com and bobvolin_at_bestweb.net - but it makes sense to describe who we are together, because that's how we usually paddle and that's - in a large sense - who we are. We're in our 4th year of kayaking, much of which we do with Atlantic Kayak Tours. We also go out by ourselves, mostly on the Hudson River, and on some local lakes. We took the kayaks with us up to Lake George, where we camped on an island. Since Lake George is too large for the kayaks to be the primary means of transportation, we loaded them onto a (forgive the expression) motorboat, and brought them out to the island that way. We've also done some kayak camping in Maine, and we're hoping to go on a kayak-camping trip in Scandinavia this summer. We keep hoping to hook up with one of the trips posted on this list, but we're usually so over-scheduled that, at least so far, that hasn't happened. But we keep looking A good part of this winter has been spent in pool classes, working on rolling. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We each do different things wrong, but we're both working on it. We're looking forward to trying it in the real world of cold water, and anticipating that it will be a different experience. We both paddle Romany 16s, which we like very much. The seats in both boats have been replaced with foam seats, which we find much more comfortable for our aging bodies. That was Joan. Now Bob. We came to paddling in our 50s, and we expect to leave it -- kicking and screaming -- in our 80s, or later. Our first kayaking experience was in a double on one of those tours to the Porcupine Islands off Bar Harbor. We were on a family vacation with our two daughters. We loved the experience, but the girls, who had to contend with one another, hated it. They've come around since then, but they haven't become hooked as we did. Neither of us has ever been athletic, or even "in shape" for that matter. We've loved where the paddling has taken us, and loved the people we met through it as well. Our skills have developed, more slowly than we might have preferred, and are still developing. We expect that we'll continue to train and improve for a long time. Paddling has become more than wonderful fun: it's become an important part of our lives. I think that most of us on this llist would say the same. Although some are in it to push themselves to extremes, and others want no more than glassy calm water at 80+ degrees, there is something about this experience that has taken us where nothing else has taken us. ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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