rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com wrote: > > I don't know if there is anything more to be said here except that this > is all a reminder about prudence and judgment in situations that may > involve risk. Some of us will derive lessons from it, others will not. > Take your pick. Maybe we should all be a bit more like Erik and speak > up when we see people behaving imprudently even at the risk of sounding > like cranks. Maybe if more such is done, then it may transform a > person's inprudent behavior in an activity and the change just might > spill over into other endeavors as well. Its worse than that. We're still in the launch, try various things close to shore, have a good time, go home mode. (The ongoing learning how to deal with toddler in a kayak). I'm ready to move on, but my wife and toddler still need easy steps to build skills and confidence. So we went to an tidal estuary. Small channel filling and draining the estuary. Boat launch ramp right at the narrow part of the channel (go figure why it was put there????). At or near high tide, so current through channel is minimal. Out past the estuary, one of the side channels of Puget sound, deep water, strong currents, shipping lane. I'm in wetsuit and PFD, wife in PFD, toddler in PFD. Start chatting on shore with some guy who claims to be real gung ho about kayaking, both sea kayaking and WW. Been playing in the water for years, his daughter is a natural in a kayak, etc. How he has some catamaran rig that he likes to take on class 5 rivers, but he seems to have trouble finding people that want to come along... Next thing I know, I'm being scolded for wearing a wetsuit and pfd. Why am I bothering, etc. I try to explain that I'd rather have the wet suit that so I can spend more time in the water focusing on other issues if the toddler is having problems and ends up in the water. Also, I'm going out without a spray skirt (figuring if I have problems I'll be doing a wet exit anyway, and with a toddler in the cockpit, we haven't figure out the second hole in the spray skirt yet.) This same guy is offering to go out and flip me in the kayak, so I can practice my rolls, with no spray skirt... Well, I'd like to learn to roll, but I figure I'll start with a pool session and an instructor that seems to have a clue first...I'd also rather not try to roll a kayak without a spray skirt. I can make the kayak capsize on my own (if I choose), just fine. How many other newbies has this person browbeat into leaving behind their PFD? No wonder he has problems finding people for his class 5 runs. Bozo. It not just educating the newbies, its dealing with really bad advice from people that by their own claims should have enough experience to know better. Scary. dave -- Dave Uebele (daveu_at_sptddog.com) Spotted Dog Systems http://sptddog.com/daveu.html *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jul 20 1999 - 09:41:01 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:10 PDT