Doug Lloyd wrote: > > Bob told me he vowed that day, to never let himself be talked into a > dangerous situation again. Doug's tale of what happened to this fellow is a classic as is the guy's resolve not to get caught like that again. Back about 10 years ago, I saw a wonderful display of courage by a paddler under pressure to go out under less than favorable conditions. It was a listed club trip in Connecticut on a cold October morning. The fellow running it was fairly new at kayaking (although now he is one of the stellar rollers on the East Coast and has made a big name for himself in rodeo and trick whitewater paddling). Conditions were incredibly windy as about 4 or 5 paddlers showed up. The wind was so fierce that it seemed to be bending over the masts of sailboats in the marina we intended to launch from. And it was an off shore wind blowing away from the land into Long Island Sound. The fellow decided to discuss calling off the trip. But among the 5 or 6 paddlers was a high-risk taker paddler who had done some phenomenal solo paddling trips in rugged Northeast waters. He balked saying we should go ahead. He started calling the trip organizer a wimp and berated him up and down for his lack of manhood and all that sort of stuff. The cocksure paddler tried to get some of the paddlers to join him to take the trip anyway. The organizer was a fellow who had a very soft voice and manner to him (I remember that when he had called a year earlier to go on a Manhattan circumnavigation trip the leader had turned him down thinking the fellow sounded young and unsure; I had conversations with both of them later and found this out). But he stood his ground and said this trip is off. That display has stayed with me til this day. I call it "The Live To Paddle Another Day" approach to kayaking. If you don't like the conditions, turn around and do something else. On that particular day there didn't seem to be any other paddling options within a reasonable distance. But I have applied the above approach in similar circumstances to go paddle less of a trip in more protected waters. Whenever I plan a trip, generally I have a fallback place to paddle if conditions are not right at the planned site. 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 Tue Feb 29 2000 - 06:31:44 PST
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