> The first one: I was genuinely worried about novices and lurkers getting > the wrong ideas from some of the posts, especially mine - which > tend toward the extreme end of the spectrum. It is a totally valid > concern I made. <snip> > The problem was my post contained both separate issues combined. I got > raked over the coals by back-channel e-mail from one PW'er, and > rightly so. > This person even thought I was promoting novices to accept the view that > determination is all you need. This is the _last_ thing I meant. Doug, I feel your pain (on this issue at least). This happens to me all_the_time in back channel email from members of the local list server. I've been accused of "romanticizing the dangers of sea kayaking" and "setting the wrong example for novice paddlers". It used to bother me greatly (and still does a little) but I think it much more important for people to potentially learn from my mistakes than to die from their own. I'm not NEARLY the extreme kayaker you are. I paddle 99.99% on protected waters where a 3 foot wave is "the big one", yet I constantly get the same types of email you seem to get. There are those that want me to change the events or not post them. What a bunch of crap. I write them the way they happened, and if I did something unsafe, than I think it still needs to be said. Discuss openly what went right and what went wrong, but don't tell me to hide it. Back channel only serves to polarize the two view points. The lesson we give when we do this is not "you can do this too because I did it and I'm still alive", it is "I was in this <explicative> situation, here is what I did right and here is what I did wrong. I hope you can recognize when this is about to happen to you, so you can avoid it altogether. But if you can't this might help save your life." The only alternative Doug is to post the "we went paddling and everything was perfect and done safely the first time" trip reports. THIS is what can get a novice killed. You're not the one that needs to apologize... Woody P.S. Back channel emails can be sent to woodardr_at_dev.null *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Jan 14 2000 - 21:46:23 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:18 PDT