> them's fighting words and I agree with them to a significant extent. > Let me put my ststement about requiring pumps in context. Nick, I like lively debate, but I meant no slander of you or your abilities in a kayak. So if any offense was taken, I apologize. Your paddling club sounds impressive and I applaud the club's program to bring safety to the group trips. .... and while I don't agree with your foot-pump requirement, enforcing standards for both skills and equipment sets a high standard few clubs can match. I also want to be clear to the group that I do not believe everyone must learn to roll. I enjoy rolling and believe rolling should be considered a basic rather than an advanced skill, but I'm not a fanatic on this point. As a couple people pointed out, many (actually most) paddlers stick to lakes and calm water. I for one enjoy rolling, but there's no reason to scare someone away from flat water paddling just because they can't roll. As I suggested in my post script, (and perhaps didn't make clear enough), my concern is paddlers who explore the open ocean, great lakes or any other water that can get rough and windy. These are the people who --- in my humble opinion -- must have a roll. To depend on any method that requires exiting the boat in order to recover from a capsize, is just asking for trouble. Finally, I agree with comments that rolling isn't as important as mastering the basic strokes. This is where the white water community I hold in such high regard falls flat. Many if not most white water kayakers I've seen have no concept of how to efficiently paddle a boat. They may have balance, boat handling, and river reading skills I'll never match, but when it comes to doing the basic strokes with consistent power and efficiency, we sea kaykers have the upper hand. --Tim *************************************************************************** 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 Wed May 12 1999 - 07:30:45 PDT
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