Steve Holtzman wrote: > "A good leader can tell people to go to hell and have them WANT to make the > trip." It's possible to lead by example and keep people safe. If someone > needs to turn back, either let them go with another experienced paddler, OR > announce that YOU will lead the group back to assist this other paddler. I am SO glad you brought this up as there was a discussion of this earlier. It is something I learned along the way from others. Real early on in my paddling experience, I was taking instruction from Chuck Sutherland, who is a well know personage in paddling around here in the East. He was describing the question of group trips, the overstated experiences of paddlers on them, etc. and he related a story. He was leading a twilight trip in Connecticut into Long Island Sound (I think I got the place right). A father and son were on the trip. They said they had experience (Chuck had stated this as a condition) but Chuck had his suspicions about them. Within about 100 yards of shore, something confirmed his suspicions (I can't remember what) and he decided they should not continue with the group. As he related the story, I in my eagerness piped up. "So you sent them back!" seeing as the shore was so close. Chuck glared at me, "Are you nuts? I ESCORTED THEM AND THE REST OF THE GROUP BACK!!!" Once he knew they were on shore, the group trip proceeded as planned. That's leadership. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
> "A good leader can tell people to go to hell and have them WANT to make the > trip. I thought that was a variation of an old Irish proverb? Barb *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
In a similar vein as some of the other stories.... In the early 90's I joined the Carolina Canoe Club to go on overnight canoeing/camping trips. No longer a member since the club seemed to be more into white water stuff, aka itty bitty kayaks, than the Second C of the Club name. Great group of people though just not want I wanted to do.... On my first trip the leader's name was Cledus. Well, that is how I remember his name! 8-) The trip was an overnighter on the Black River near Kinston, NC USA. The river is the typical southern black river, with lots of twists and turns, downed trees in the river, and absolutely gorgeous. The river was up a bit due to some heavy rains over the previous weeks which was going to make for an easy paddle with none of the usual get out and pull spots. The group was about seven or eight canoes, with four single paddlers and the rest with two people per boat. There was a couple of father/son canoes as well as a couple. Then TheFamily showed up. TheFamily was the parents and the son and daughter. They had two canoes, one for the guys and one for the gals. Just watching them at the put in was enough to make me start to worry. Cledus picked up right away and talked to them about their experience. Dad said they knew how to paddle and there would not be a problem. Right. So off we go. The river is moving at a couple of miles per hour maybe even three miles per hour in places. It zigs and it zags. The river was fairly narrow at this point, about 20-30 feet across. The zigs and the zags was gett'n the best of the gal canoe. They were doing a damned good job of bouncing off of one side of the river before bounding off another. Course, many times a downed tree would catch them from hitting the bank. Being from Florida, I have seen many tourists do the same thing so this was nothing new. I just kinda stayed in front of them with a one of the other single canoes waiting for the seemingly inevitable swim that was going to happen. Meanwhile Cledus stayed in back and tried to teach mom how to paddle. The current was making things far more interesting and at the time I did not realise how dangerous those downed trees could have been. Dad was yelling, errr, giving commands to mom. Mom was getting ticked. Mom should have been. If she could even understand was Dear Dad wanted, it would not have helped. No one knew what the heck Dear Dad was talking about. Maybe that was part of the problem? Mom was not the kinda person to be on an overnight camping trip. Mom wanted to be at home where running water meant a toilet and bath not something that kept pushing her into those dang moss covered trees. This was not want mom called fun. Mom did not like being out of control on the river. Then one of the other father/son canoes started playing the game of Count The Number of Snakes In the Trees In the River. You know, the trees that mom keeps running into. Apparently mom does not like snakes. She kinda freaked out as the other father/son teams joined in the GreatSnakeCensous. Surprisingly, this did not spur on mom to greater canoe control because from then on it seemed that she would unerringly paddle into tree after tree. Of course dad was still ordering, err, giving her paddling instructions, which greatly helped the situation. By, this point, oh about 15 minutes into our 36 hours together, Cledus told dad to head down stream and he would help out mom. This did help things out a bit. Me and a couple of other canoes stayed near mom. But we would have to wait around each bend in the river for them. We really figured we would be fishing them and their equipment from the river. This kept us going for a couple of hours. Mom was making progress but we were a couple hours behind schedule. Mom was getting tired. Mom was very, very, very out of shape. Then it started to rain. Not just a little sprinkle. A downpour. Almost like you get in Florida but not quite. Who would have figured but mom did not like the rain. Did not like it at all. Eventually we reached a bridge. The Last Bridge to Civilisation. We stopped for a break. After a bit, Cledus tells everyone to head on downstream, me and the other River Sweep in waiting decide to hang around. Cledus walks over and tells us to scat that he is got everything under control. As we get our gear together, we hear Cledus talking to TheFamily, pointing out there difficulties, troubles and tribulations. Now, he does not do this buy getting up a soap box and telling them that they are horrible paddlers and a danger to themselves and others. Nor does he come out and tell them that they are making the trip a PaddleFromHell for the rest of us. No, he tells them that they sure seem miserable. Wet, tired and cold. We have another 20 miles to do between this afternoon and tomorrow. It looks like its going to rain for the rest of the afternoon. Might rain tonight. Hard to tell. We are going to have to pick up the pace to make camp for tonight and get up early to make it to the pickup on time. Could be mighty buggy down at the camp site. You know, if dad was to walk down the road a couple of miles there is a little store where you might be able to talk someone into talking you back to the put in to get your car. Could be back home by nightfall. Dad seemed to think this was a mighty fine idea after looking at his wife. He was going to say something to her about keeping on the river but the dagger eyes she threw at him looked like they drew blood. Dad started to walk up the embankment. Cledus asked if he had his wallet and keys. Dad sheepishly said no. Cledus suggested that it sure might come in handy to have some cash to get a ride back to your car. The keys might help as well. We left shortly there after. Just down the river, Cledus, told us what he had been trying to do all morning. He wanted the rest of the group to push on so he could let it be known in his subtle ways that TheFamily was slowing the group down. The RiverSweepers kinda prevented him from making his case. 'Course we were doing the right thing safety wise. Tomorrow we would drive over the bridge on the way back to our cars. We started making bets on whether dad had been left under the bridge. And would he be alive. For the rest of the trip and on several others, it was common to ask Cledus if'n he was going to "Leave us at the bridge." Cledus was a Leader. Period. He kept the situation safe, made the most of a bad situation, and persuaded TheFamily to leave in a very subtle manner. The man should be in sales but instead works for DOT, Department of Transportation. I think of him whenever a discussion on groups is going on. Hope this informs and enlightens.... Dan. PS. The rest of the trip was a blast. A full moon rose over the 10 foot high sand bluffs our camp over looked. We had a midnight stroll to an old family graveyard one of the couples had found. And finally saw a gorgeous cypress swamp. *************************************************************************** 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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