Kirby, I wish it wasn't so, but your experience is far from unique and is not confined to any geographical area. In fact, I'm going to predict that the responses to your post will show it to be a universal problem. And, boy - am I eager to hear what good ideas come out of your query. To be brief, I'll suggest that we should all: 1. Take courses which teach good kayaking group-management skills (leadership and followership); 2. Always actively support proper pod behavior on all trips we do, no matter how great or small; and 3. Be willing to be the "a-hole for a day" (as a friend puts it), by acting as leader. It is truly amazing how people (we all) can act when out on the water, particularly during times of stress. It takes a lot of control to do the right thing when conditions start to get ugly and the fight-or-flight reactions start to kick in. The sad and scary part is just how little it takes for a person to start functioning as if s/he were the only one on the water, even when in the company of dozens of both lesser and greater abilities. What say you all? Harold *************************************************************************** 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 Sun Mar 14 1999 - 20:42:44 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:05 PDT