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/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 2/20/00 5:36:50 AM Pacific Standard Time, rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com writes: <<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. 2. Ignorance. 3. Competing interests. 4. Security areas.>> Um, how many reasons did you say there were? Sorry, Ralph, I couldn't resist :-) Scott So.Cal. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
> >3. Competing interests. > >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 > I wish I'd saved it now, but someone sent me a link from a North Carolina newspaper with a front page story regarding efforts to limit or exclude sea kayaks (and others) from some of the rivers on the lee side of the Outer Banks. Two things happening simultaneously: greater numbers of vacation and retirement homes being built on the banks; and a greater number of kayakers utilising the rivers. Homeowners complained, saying that the kayakers were ruining the tranquility they paid for along THEIR river, etc. So far as I know, no ordinances were ever passed regarding this. This would have been about 1 1/2-2 years ago. On another note, Tuckerton NJ is recreating the old Tuckerton Seaport mainly as a tourist attraction. In their plans, though, are creation of canoe/kayak trails in the Great Bay between Long Beach Island and Brigantine. About a year ago, a local marina owner (First Bridge Marina) had become one of the prime renters of jet skis in the area. He got rid of them all. Now he rents touring kayaks, mostly SOTs but others as well. This is an area wherein SKing in quiet salt bays could become better established and accepted. JP *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
> 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: Fortunately that sort of thing isn't happening here in Texas; then again there are no "privately owned" beaches or significant waterways. We are very aggressive about defending our private property rights, but are often equally aggressive about excercising our rights on public right of ways. About the only problems we have about land/water restrictions are for white water kayakers; most white water "rivers" in Texas are little more than dry creekbeds that become interesting only with significant run off. But let a river be permanent, and even the most rural, isolated public right of way is grudgingly respected. [See various stories about the Devils River in South Texas] However, if you get out of your boat and walk on someone's land down there, don't be surprised if the Sheriff shrugs his shoulders as he zips your corpse into body bag. Don't expect the press to be particularly agitated either. > 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, I've seen "no wake" zones with a sheriff sitting in his boat gleafully writing tickets as quickly as his fingers can go.... Pretty much, a boat is a boat as far as the law is concerned down here. PS no marina in Texas can restrict access to the water it sits on, but considering how easy it is to put a kayak in virtually anywhere, on any body of water, and there is little point in bugging marinas in the first place. Richard Walker Houston, TX http://www.neosoft.com/~rww/kayak_log.html *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
>From: ralph diaz <rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com> >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. Jeez Ralph, I know my American cousins are trigger-happy, but what the hell is there on Ellis Island that requires the threat of deadly force to defend? Or is this one of those deals where if you tell us, you have to kill us? And whatever happened to that motto on Lady Liberty "give me your poor... your gasping kayakers yearning to take a pee?" (some paraphrasing may have occurred:-) >Who >else has seen such incidents or knows of such bans or restrictions? When I lived in Toronto, I was paddling near the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant and I was buzzed good and close by a security boat. At the time, some folks were actually questioning the wisdom of generating wastes with lives measure in hundreds of thousands of years (and a study has shown that the Pickering Plant was being run with a sloppyness that would have appalled Homer Simpson). And I was obviously some kinda tree- or seaweed-hugging hippy, since I was actually sweating to move my boat around instead of burning hydrocarbon like a normal person would... Philip Torrens N49°16' W123°06' *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Philip Torrens wrote: > > >From: ralph diaz <rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com> > >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. > > Jeez Ralph, > I know my American cousins are trigger-happy, but what the hell is there on > Ellis Island that requires the threat of deadly force to defend? Or is this > one of those deals where if you tell us, you have to kill us? And whatever > happened to that motto on Lady Liberty "give me your poor... your gasping > kayakers yearning to take a pee?" (some paraphrasing may have occurred:-) Actually on one of the times that guards scurried out and helicopters started circling over us, I was in the company of several Canadians!!! Feathercraft's Doug Simpson and his wife, Sue, and at-the-time 4 year old son, Evan (the latest Feathercraft ads picture him and his son surfing in in a double Feathercraft). We Americans do fear a possible Canadian invasion. I am certain I am not the only one who read those two short novels back many years ago about hostilities between the US and Canada: _Ultimatium_, in which the US, in the midst of a fuel crisis, decides to annex Canada for its oil; and the sequel book, _Exxoneration_, in which you Canadians cleverly win the war against the invading American forces!!! So you can see that we are a bit skittish down here. Another actually. When Doug and family and I went around the Statue, there was, a few moments before, the drive-by shooting of a busload of Yeshiva students on the Brooklyn Bridge. The incident instantly put city and federal law enforcement people on alert for possible further terrorist attacks. We unknowingly paddled into the middle of all that. Sure had a lot of attention as we paddled near the Statue. I counted 3 helicopters hovering over us and all sorts of guards ringing the island. I am sure their suspicions were heightened by innocent-looking Canadians below. :-) 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/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 2/21/2000 1:05:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com writes: << We Americans do fear a possible Canadian invasion. >> Are you sure you weren't suspected of being involved in one of those dreaded Canadian Ballast Rock(tm) smuggling rings? Robb *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On Sun, 20 Feb 2000, ralph diaz wrote: > 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. The USS Constitution in Boston is still an "active" military ship. As such it's mooring is a secure area. You can't get within about 100 feet, while in the water, or the staff will request you back off. I learned that one canoeing around boston harbor. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
New Dungeness Spit Wildlife refuge is located on the Strait of Juan De Fuca in Washington State. It is one of the longest sand spits in the world. My kayak club use to do an annual trip to the New Dungeness Spit in December each year. Most times it was a paddle to the Light house and back, a few times we went around the 5 mile long spit with a short portage if the conditions were right. When group size was small and far between we went unnoticed. The Coast Guard caretaker enjoyed the novelty. Then outfitters started doing guided trips though out the summer and fall. This over use give rise to increased restrictions. The Wildlife refuge has limited Sea kayak access to a small beach near the Light house (and this may no longer be available) with a 5 dollar per person fee. Its hard to argue against these restraints in a wildlife refuge knowing the over use of outfitters. The Coast Guard is now gone, replaced by territorial, protection groups that blow the whistle on anyone kayaking out of bounds. I have not been back in years. Tom Cromwell Edmonds, Wa. USA *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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