Mr Doug Lloyd wrote: > > Anyway, I was in everyone's face as usual about tethers, VHF radios, > cell phones, flares, CG minimum safety requirements, etc. I always feel > guilty giving these talks, as most are non-tech newbies, or not even > paddlers at all, and there is always a little bit of a shocked look on > faces when I mention how dangerous the dynamic sea can be and bring out > the gear. The people who ask me to do these talks are trying to sell as > many boats to as many people as they can, I'm sure, and want a > "balanced" presentation -- not melodrama. I know how you feel regarding giving a long string of safety advice to newcomers. They look at you as if you have just told them there is no Santa Claus. I feel like Scrouge or the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. (I still vividly remember talking to some inexperienced people about having paddled without cold water gear--while I was donning mine--and their looking at me like I was some old meanie.) Many manufacturers don't want to hear or, better stated, don't want their potential customers to hear it. The situation is changing though. I see more and more paddlers who are paddling in late Spring around here actually starting to wear cold-water gear where a year or so ago they would not have. Cold Water Lectures here in the tri-state area, the latest by the NY Kayak Company last fall, have begun to change things. Still you see paddlers going off into conditions they can't handle. An example, on Sunday here. Winds were howling bringing up the effective speed of currents on the Hudson to around 4 knots (I am judging by eyeballing). Some people first set out to paddle against it, thinking they would make enough progress to go up a few miles and then fly back. But the speed of the current stopped them cold. They then decided to cross the river but didn't seem to understand ferrying angles (I was watching from a pier) and were sideways to the current. The pair got quite separated and were not really in boat control (You are in boat control when you can go where you want to go at a reasonable speed of progression). All it would have taken was a good ferry angle (whether precisely right or not) and they would have gone across together and in control. 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 May 02 2000 - 05:19:44 PDT
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