Sometimes in the euphoria surrounding sea kayaking, we tend to forget that others don't see us in the same romantic, close-to-nature image that we have of ourselves. From time to time, incidents and situations crop up to show that we are not always welcomed with open arms or curiousity. My reading of this tells me that bans on sea kayakers and off-limits signs are on the increase. I think these arise for at least three reasons: 1. Over exposure or usage. The incidents and issues in the San Juan Islands are an example. Here in the Big Apple area, there is one such ban for years. Just a quarter of a mile south of the Downtown Boathouse, the North Cove basin, which houses a luxury ship marina, has a sign on its entrance say "No Sea Kayaks, No Jet Skiis." As in the San Juan Islands, the number of sea kayakers visiting the places and perhaps not being too careful in how they do it affects perceptions. 2. Ignorance. People get wrong notions about sea kayakers and clamp down. Again I know this happened here with one official launch site in Staten Island that led to interesting paddling to a graveyard of ships. The site was near an historic house and required crossing a side lawn. That lawn is not off limits to people playing and picnicking. But the administrators envisioned armies of sea kayakers dragging their boats across the lawn (my estimate was that at most there would be perhaps 50 paddlers a year using the site) and they forced the Parks Dept to remove the site from the launch sites list. 3. Competing interests. In this area, some of the commercial interests, not all, would love to see us entirely prohibited from paddling in the harbor. I think it won't happen; the Coast Guard is not going to go for it (although they did ban jet-skiing in Boston harbor, from what I understand) and, before that, some clear modus operandi would be worked out. 4. Security areas. It is easy to forget that some places are protected for security or other reasons. Here, the vicinity of the Statue of Liberty is one. We are not supposed to get closer than x feet. This is especially true around the back end or westernmost side where there is a landable beach of sorts. I have had park rangers come running over with hastily shouldered rifles when coming close in that area. It happened again last year when I had a group of NYC firemen (who we take out as a public service for what they do for all of us) and we stopped to hug the shore there while getting our breathes to deal with a sudden wind storm and this happened. I bring this all up just to remind us of perceptions and potential bans, some of which we can influence with our behavior and others not. Who else has seen such incidents or knows of such bans or restrictions? ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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 Sun Feb 20 2000 - 05:36:09 PST
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