As a second to Dave Seng's post. I was on the receiving end of a somewhat analogous experience about 20 years ago. My brother and I decided to get back into WW canoeing after several years away from the sport. We thought we knew what we were doing from our teenage years but learned otherwise fast. At least we knew enough to rent wetsuits and PFD's before tackling the West River in Vermont on the October dam release day. We were in a prototype Sawyer royalex tandem canoe with no flotation and got a little uneasy as we rode up in the shuttle truck with a load of obviously experienced kayakers. We lasted about 30 seconds in the class IV rapids before swamping and flipping. As we stood on the shore examining the puncture hole in the new canoe a couple eddied out next to us in a fully decked out Mad River Explorer with full flotation bags, kevlar skid plates, helmets, knives- the works. They advised us not to try again or we would almost certainly lose the boat and possbily our lives. They explained that we were not equipped for the river with our low volume boat and lack of other gear. Fortunately we took their advice and portaged out. I was very impressed with them and proceeded to educate myself on modern canoe gear and techniques. That couple and their gear made a lasting impact on my boating and attitudes. Deb may have the same impact on The Wet One. Walt Chudleigh Park City, UT *************************************************************************** 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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