Hello all, I've enjoyed the other posts of self-introduction and, seeing I am not alone with quite a few other "old farts" or "aging baby-boomers", I'll add mine. I qualified for the above by turning 50 only two months ago (be gentle, I am not yet accepting this fact). I've been paddling, therefore, for about 30 years, starting out as a student at Penn State University in aluminum canoes, moving on to home-made fiberglass kayaks and lo, after all these years to my Eddyline Falcon 16. Many miles of flatwater, whitewater (including slalom racing), swamps, lakes, rivers, saltwater have passed beneath the hull of my multiple crafts. I have only 6 boats right now but always wish I had one or two more. My most recent kayak expedition was to Glacier Bay, Alaska last May. My brother Randy, who lives in Alaska, put me in the first sea kayak 10 years ago, putting in at Berners Bay for a big open crossing in the icy water and the hopeful remark "you can roll, can't you?". Well, actually I can, although it works best in water above 65 degrees Fahrenheit, but I didn't tell him that and fortunately I haven't had to test it in Alaska. My bod is currently recovering from the three day ACA Instructor Development Workshop, for Coastal Kayaking Instructor this past weekend. Great course - Randy Carlson and Lynne Andrus are wonderful teachers and of course, now there's the additional fact I've got a lot more to learn before the certification exams in March. Randy swore the waves we were surfing were no more than 4' - ya gotta watch that guy. They looked humongous to me but I am especially pleased I did not have to try out my roll under fire, which can't be said of all in our group. In the working world I'm the library director for Texas A&M University at Galveston, which has the Texas Maritime Academy as one of its components. Our campus sits right on the Galveston Channel, and I am leading a sea kayak trip from here, circumnavigating Pelican Island, on February 21. I'm active in the Houston Canoe Club and have a mini-Web page set up to guide people to some of the waterways in and around Houston. It's at http://www.tamug.tamu.edu/paddler . Happy paddling! Natalie Natalie Wiest, Library Director Jack K. Williams Library, Texas A&M University at Galveston P.O. Box 1675 Galveston TX 77553 U.S.A. Phone: (409)740-4567 Fax: (409)740-4702 Email: wiestn_at_tamug.tamu.edu *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:56 PDT