I have been reading this thread and not thinking I guess. We bought our first Yaks (Keowee's) from the LLBean folks and had no training and virtually no experience (I'd been out once with someone who also had no training). And if there were disclaimers with the boats, they were totally and immediately ignored. My wife would suggest it's some testosterone based bias against following directions or reading the fine print. I probably wouldn't disagree. First trip down the Susquehanna (which in Oneonta, NY is about 50 yards wide and 4 feet deep) and I rounded a bend only to come upon the root end of a tree that had been washed into the river. I ended up against the roots, downside up. I popped out and forced my way upright on my feet. I then had to pry the sunken boat out of the roots, against the current, while my son retrieved the paddle from downstream. He had been smart enough to give the tree a wide berth. I was lucky not to have been caught under the tree and I got so much smarter in such a short time that I couldn't believe it. Common sense would have told me to steer clear but I somehow thought the boat only draws about an inch of water, how dangerous can it be? Almost natural selection at work. And it had nothing to do with any instructions the Bean folks did or didn't put in the little plastic envelope. I was just stupid. You can't legislate against that kind of behavior. Larry Mills Warmer and dryer than before. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Mar 04 1999 - 14:36:24 PST
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