[Paddlewise] How and when to speak up

I guess like others on this list, I have run into situations when you
see someone doing something somewhat risky in sea kayaking and you have
to decide whether to speak up or not.  At one time, I was quite vocal
but felt increasingly that I was sounding like a spoilsport or grouch
and started laying off. 

The other day was an example.  The Downtown Boathouse has a number of
kayaks that were donated by a publication with a stylistic approach to
recreation and other life style pursuits in its writing and layouts. The
understanding is that the magazine staff, which doesn't seem to have
anyone over 30 years old (although I am certain there are a few past the
Big Three Oh) can use these boats any time that they are not earmarked
for the public program.  Trouble is that while they are enthusiastic and
gung ho, they tend to lack paddling skills, traffic & river savvy and
much in the way of an idea of cold water clothing and other safety
considerations for self rescue (I remember the astonishment of one of
the "senior" ones who had been paddling for a year when he first tried
pressing down with a borrowed paddle float, "Look at this, wow, it holds
you up!).  On the latter, they may be learning but regular members of
the Boathouse constantly find themselves wincing over the impervious
outlook of the mag staff toward paddling.  For example, one Boathouse
regular was about to go paddling at dusk when the mag crowd showed up
and was ready to embark without so much as a little keychain squeeze
light among them let alone even a modicum of adequate lighting.  He
finally decided to say something and then lent them some extra lights he
has around.  He paddled out with them to be around for just in case but
then got the willies over how they were paddling (I didn't ask what
exactly gave him the feeling) that he just left them after awhile.

The other day it was my turn to play Scrouge with members of the young
mag staff.  I was getting ready to go paddling when I saw them coming in
from a paddling trip.  They were all wearing shorts and cotton T-shirts
and had to have landed obliviously next to a small group on the
launching dock that was going out in Polartec Thermal Stretch suits,
paddling jackets etc.  I was readying my own shorty version (with
jacket) of the same.  (Water temperature was around 55 degrees.)  I
decided to speak up as diplomatically as I could but the words still
sounded like I was being a mean old crank or so it seemed to me in the
reflection of their wide open innocent eyes.  I felt like a parent
saying wash your hands before supper, clean your room, etc.  You know
the look kids give in such situations.  I can imagine their saying to
each other when they got out of my earshot "Who was that old fart and
what was he talking about?"

This is a problem experienced/prepared paddlers run into.  I remember
reading in Anorak an article by a respected paddler typifying the
situation.  He and a group of experienced paddlers were setting out at
the same time as another.  The experienced kayakers had on dry suits and
wet suits and kayaks decked out with tow ropes, bilge pumps, paddle
floats, etc.  The guy was in jeans and windbreakers with not much in the
way of safety gear evident.  It did not occur to him that these
experienced guys may have known something he didn't about safety etc. 
Kinda like the laws of nature and the sea did not apply to him.  The
author of the article pondered to himself, agonizingly so, whether to
say something and finally did in as a non-confrontational manner as he
could...and he is a diplomatic mild-mannered fellow.

So some questions:

1.  Should one speak up always when confronted with such situations of
pretty off-the-mark paddling approaches?  I don't mean talking with
someone who is wearing a farmer john when you think the situation calls
for a full suit or not having spare paddles etc. i.e. incremental
differences rather than wholesale ones.  I mean something very basic
like seeing some one with jeans and windbreakers in Northeast paddling
in December.

2.  What is the best way of vocalizing the dichotomy between their
oblivious paddling approach and a more prudent approach that experienced
paddlers tend to adhere to?  I have sometimes thought about things to
say  in imaginary scenarios but when confronted with a real situation,
the words tend to come out wierd, i.e. doctrinaire sounding,
pontificating, scolding, etc.  Give it a try and you will see what I
mean.

ralph diaz  


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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."
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