Re: [Paddlewise] Jetskis

On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Jerry Hawkins wrote:

....
> Have others had experiences like this?  I can't imagine I'm the only
> one.

Not from jetskiers, but once I was doing a one-person cleanup of a small
Miami River "tributary", the Caves Canal, from my Prism. (I was picking up
debris from the edge of the water and putting it into big plastic bags
which I then dragged behind me as I filled them.) Three teenagers spotted
me from a nearby bridge and started throwing whatever rocks, etc. they
could find on the bridge at me. Since the blades on my graphite Camano are
fragile, I got worried and tried to move away from the bridge. I guess
they were encouraged by my attempts to avoid them, and they followed
alongside the canal for some distance, this time throwing bricks, bigger
rocks, etc., some of which might have damaged the boat or capsized me in
water one does NOT want to swim in.(Or a lucky hit could have split my
skull as the canal bank was considerably higher than I was.) I eventually
escaped up the canal out of their reach, but was nervous about having to
retrace to get back onto the river. I waited a long time, and they were
gone when I got back.

I report this because I interpret your question as, "Have others had
experiences in which utter strangers deliberately tried to harm them for
no apparent reason?" and not, "Do jetskiers tend to pick on other people?"
I know no reason why this kind of person would be attracted to jetskis,
though I think (for reasons not entirely rational, perhaps) that he/she
would prefer jetskis to paddling kayaks.

The implicit question, of course, is,"How can there be such people in the
world?" That is an important question, but one which isn't on-topic for
this list. Probably just as well, too, since my hero Professor Inverbon
has too much sense to address such depressing matters. Slainte! e

Elaine Harmon - eilidh_at_dc.seflin.org - eharmon_at_cs.miami.edu

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