Doug Lloyd wrote: LARGELY SNIPPED EXCEPT FOR THE POINT BELOW WHICH IS THE CRUX OF THIS CURRENT POSTING > curb discussion. I usually assume a degree of intelligence and rationality > on the newbie's part, as that is usually the type of person drawn to sea > kayaking in the first place. > > Having said that, I would still emphasis that it is the new paddlers > RESPONSIBILITY to ensure they pursue and get adequate training, proper > safety gear, outfit their boats accordingly, and gain experience gently. > Though books like Andy Knapps help, it will NEVER be the responsibility, > ultimately, of the retailer, tradesport, manufacturer, or > magazines/cyber-lists, etc. I guess a lot is riding on the word "ultimate" and I think it forgets something critical: A new paddler is very much like a baby. He or she is like a sponge absorbing everything she or he reads, hears and sees. What he or she reads, hears and sees comes from the retailer, tradeshow, manufacturer, magazines/cyber-lists and first hand observation of others on the water who are more advanced than them. Because of this, there is an awesome amount of responsibility resting on the shoulders of these providers of information just as there is on parents and child care providers to get the child off on the right track through their words and actions. Although I am about a dozen years removed from the first day I picked up a kayak paddle, I still remember vividly how much I was the sponge-like baby. Subscribing to every magazine I could (including buying all the back issues of Sea Kayaker then available), subscribing to Anorak, Canoe, (Paddler didn't exist then), and joining every club and organization that had any presence locally. If PaddleWise had existed then, I would have been a very absorbent lurker hanging on every word and seeking to measure and define my progress toward becoming a real sea kayaker in what I read others doing. Some of the providers of information back then were a bit casual in fulfilling their responsibility. An example: PFDS. The retailer I relied the most on did not encourage wearing a PFD and just suggested buying one of those $10 bright orange horse collar ones "to throw into the boat just in case the Coast Guard happens by." Sea Kayaker's ads hardly ever showed a paddler wearing a PFD and its covers (which were artform, not photos) depicted sea kayakers paddling in romantically idealic or rugged poses without a PFD on. (A year or two after I subscribed to Sea Kayaker, a fellow from these parts, Carl White of Anorak, wrote a letter to Sea Kayaker calling to question this practice; and Sea Kayaker then used as its cover subject an Inuit or Greenlandic paddler who of course would not be expected to have a PFD :-)). Sea Kayaker, to its credit, did eventually change on this and other safety issues and that retailer is no longer in business. These sources of information came (as they continue to now) at the all important point when the beginner is drinking in everything in huge volumes the way a baby does and when most impressionable. They did have an obligation or responsibility that they were not discharging faithfully. Sure they couldn't force someone to wear a PFD and in that sense, Doug, you are right: that responsiblity rests with the paddler. But by their words and actions these information providers were either discouraging the newcomer from wearing one (the retailer's very words) or giving the subliminal message in a romantic artful way that better sea kayakers don't wear them and leaving the impression that you, the beginner, need not. The PFD example above is just one and I know of many others from back then and many from right now. I maintain that retailers, mags, clubs, instructors and more experienced paddlers do have an enormous responsibility toward the newcomer. I am going to end this longish posting with a true story of just how impressionable people can be. Back a couple of centuries ago during the Napoleonic wars, the Portuguese royal court and all its entourage were forced to flee Lisbon and set up the crown in exile in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. While enroute a plague of lice forced them all to shave their heads. When the royal fleet arrived in Rio de Janeiro, local high society women sent their servants down to the docks to report back what was the latest fashion of the royal court. The servants observed the hairless women debarking the ships. By the next day, every society woman in Rio was walking around stark bald! 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 Fri Feb 25 2000 - 06:57:15 PST
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