WELL, dear Paddlewisers, it seems to be that some paddlers are strictly anti-authoritan and helplessly romantic when it comes to paddling & enjoying mother nature ;-) I might consider myself to fit into that category: I have kayaked mostly solo last four years. One of the last trips of last summer included a return trip of 25 kms from the island of Skorvo, where one of the local clubs have an annual autumn meeting: usually some 50 to 80 kayakers camping there. The meeting included some wine, sauna and late-night campfire, so when the morning rose and the weather forecast was not so promising I volunteered to join a group of 12 kayakers returning Helsinki. The group included three experienced kayakers, I do know one of them, and nine greenhorns. The hard wind was rising four-foot- swells and it was supposed to turn worse, so I had the idea that the group could benefit from my presence if something would go wrong - and my precious _at_$$ would also be more safe because of the presence of the other experienced kayakers. Our route included some channels, safe from the NE/E wind, but also three crossings, one of them about 2 kms. I was curious to see what would happen, because some of the greenhorns had never had any experience about waves higher than 1 ft, or about crossings at all. Hmmmmmmmmm... When we were on water I had to help someone with my knife, there were small stones jamming the skeg inside the container. Nice start, luckily we still were at the calm side of the island. Then we had a short meeting, the elected leader decided the route and what kind of formation we should take. When we were paddling the first channel my brit-built kayak [yup, Gerald, heavy but fast :-)] wanted to take the leadership: it seemed that the rest of the group was a little bit too slow for me. The leader/navigator pointed that out for me and I did volunteer to stay at the back for the rest of the trip and take the tail of the group, where the rest of the more experienced kaykers were. It seemed reasonable: I did not want to guestion her authority, or make silly comments. The first crossing was the hardest, it actually happened that the promised hard wind surprisingly calmed down later during the afternoon. The side starboard wind rised beautiful four-footers with small breaking caps and I enjoyed the sight of heads and paddles popping in sight behind the tops. First we were taking a formation of a square, or quite soon actually an oval, where the navigator was in front, the other three experienced sea-kayakers at the back. There, tailing the group, we soon had to make a quick decision to divide the tail of experienced kayakers: one stayed at the back, me and an other took controlling the sides, just in case someone would lose the control of his/her kayak and capsize, and to courage and avoid people drifting downwind. One of the ladies had problems. The kayak was getting too much downwind, though she tried to paddle furiously and turn back. I paddled close to her and it turned out that she had no experience at all about controlling the kayak with a skeg. How had she been doing the same trip the other day? With some talk - I was not exactly p o l i t e in that situation - I got her to lose the white- knuckled grip of her paddle and get the skeg up from the low position it had been all the time. Whew! Rescueing her would have been hard... The rest of the trip went all right, though going was painfully slow for me. We kept the same formation and eye on the novices, changed navigator twice to break the routine. The leader joined us on tail of the group. During the second lunch break I felt cold sneaking under my dry-suit bacause I had been swetting hard inside my fleece, so I left the group after having some friendly talks and bidding farewell. The weather had calmed down and there was only 4 kms left of a safe route. The leader made no objections. My conclusions: if you are part of the group you stay with the group, take care and assume responsibility. Even if keeping a formation or certain speed feels painful. Even if the rules seem to be overnecessary formal. There is actually very little a designated leader can do if someone gets overindividualistic. Paddling with an unexperienced and unfamiliar group can offer some nasty surprises. Luckily everything went well - therefore I am not sure if I do want to paddle in groups very often. About authority: group leadership is not something someone takes - it is GIVEN by the group, and therefore you are supposed to act according to the very same decision you yourself were making. That includes especially the situations when you are taking part to a trip with a commercial guide: you hired him, didnīt you? Cheers, Ari Whining from Helsinki, Finland - Europe: +10 degrees Centigrades yesterday & still 20 cms of ice at sea... *************************************************************************** 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 Apr 04 1999 - 06:36:14 PDT
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