One of the last to respond, I suppose. I'm 3 days short of 54, and living in south-central Mississippi, where there's no big water, no whitewater, and no warmth (in the 40s at the high point and in the low 20s at night). I started paddling canoes as a Boy Scout in Alaska, rowed a skiff in Mobile, AL as a teenager, and sailed small boats some in college there. I bought my first kayak (Perception Jocassee) almost 3 years ago as something for my son and I to do together. I bought my second kayak (a used Prijon T-Canyon) about a month later, after I realized that (1) a teenage boy has too many hormonal influences to enjoy spending much time out on the water where there are no teenage girls, and (2) the Jocassee is too big and heavy to want to toss it in the back of the pickup and go paddling alone. I use the Jocassee mainly for coastal paddling (after some modifications: see <http://home.earthlink.net/~iadams/> for details) and the T-Canyon for quiet, contemplative paddling on land-locked waters nearby. Brandon still paddles with me on rare occasions when his social life permits, but mostly I paddle alone. Kayakers are rare in these parts. I worried for about a year about how I was going to learn the all-important roll with no-one to teach me. After several unsuccessful attempts to make either kayak turn upside down, I decided it would be futile to attempt to roll them rightside up. They're both wide and stable and if the difficulty of rolling them under is any guide, it would be nearly impossible to roll them back up. I just concentrate on practicing re-entry in case I ever broach on a big breaking wave or a ship's wake. I'd love to learn to roll if I ever have a kayak that's rollable. So maybe I'm an "outlaw" kayaker: I don't roll, I mostly paddle alone, and I've never been to kayaking school. I get by on what I learn from books, magazines, Paddlewise, from the Web, and from experiences I've so far survived. Heck, I survived being a student pilot long ago: kayaking is done much lower and slower. I pay the bills by practicing clinical psychology for the state. It pays the bills, but I won't be buying any Kevlar boats anytime soon. I toy with the idea of building a wood or skin boat, but haven't yet found a place in which to build it indoors, and the weather outside is much too fickle. Ira Adams N31°53' W89°47' (or pretty nearly nowhere) *************************************************************************** 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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