[Paddlewise] My apologies to Doug and other misc. ramblings.

Sorry I was so hard on you Doug. It had been a very hard week with my
brother on vacation and all and with this being the busiest time of year for
us (no employees to pick up the slack either when one is gone). I should
have sat on that post and done a lot of editing once my frustration at how
an influential poster like yourself could go on to spread hearsay and
innuendo about kayaks you never even paddled. I kept nodding off at the
keyboard and just wanted to go home, so pretty much the reader got unedited
stream of consciousness. Memory fades for how we hear or read something and
in what context it was in. Oftentimes even though we know it was suspect
when we heard it the memory will forget it was hearsay and be left with
something like: Mariner Max "it had too small a cockpit" or "a hard cockpit
to get into". I could go on and on with other examples but you get the
point.

If my guess is correct about the large Canadian Mariner (I) owner, he bugged
me for years after selling his Mariner to let him know, if now that they
were discontinued and he couldn't buy another one from me, would I let him
know if any of them came up for sale used, We tried to oblige.

Doug, I bear you no personal animosity for this latest rant and although
tempted I don't have time to answer each point so will drop it. I also bear
you no animosity for any other incident from the recent or distant past
although you always seem worried in the aftermath that I will.  You have
already read what I have written for Sea Kayaker on the Storm Island Rescue
and you have a copy so even if I wanted to (and I don't, nor do I want to
put in much more work on it either) I am not going to change it in any
significant way. While you may not like all the conclusions I came to, and
may actually bear me some animosity for the article that is manifesting
itself in your passive/aggressive behavior towards "authorities" including
me, I can assure you that if the story ever sees print it will be almost the
same as it is right now (subject to corrections you or the other paddlers
make to it--if they would read it).

As long as we are speculating about each others motives in public let's try
this thought on for size. Could it be that you would like it to appear that
I wrote or edited my version of the Storm Island Rescue vindictively as the
result of your recent posting of hearsay about my kayaks you haven't
paddled. Hard to believe that was your plan all along, but I suppose it is
possible. Could this have something to do with your wanting to get your
version out to the public first (even at the risk of destroying a friendship
and your profitable relationship with Sea Kayaker magazine) and maybe even
prevent my version from being published at all. My version includes the way
the other two paddlers saw the incident as well as how you saw things. I did
notice your version (as published on Paddlewise) had changed slightly (from
what you originally wrote me) in ways that seemed to reflect and
answer/preempt some of the things I had written and sent to you for comment.
I don't recall you ever calling me and telling me my last version was
incorrect (and corrections is one reason why I had sent it back for all
three of you to read and comment on before publication), but then being
direct is not how passive/aggression operates is it. I am not saying this
speculation is true just that it is one of many possibilities and since you
are suggesting I may be being vindictive or, might become so, I have to
consider the possibility you may actually be "projecting" your feelings on
to me.

Changing the subject I'd like to say that my experience dealing with
Snapdragon for many many years is the same as Rob's. They really stand
behind their products and it is a pleasure dealing with such a company. As a
retailer, I hate being stuck in the middle between an unhappy customer and
an unresponsive manufacturer. If a company mistreats its customers or makes
it too difficult for them to get a redress of their grievances I for one
will be looking for a different companies products to replace theirs on our
store shelves. Snapdragon has always operated in good faith. Send them the
spraydeck if you think it might be defective. Rob is right, a good company
wants to see what it has done wrong as soon as possible so they can fix the
problem before too many other customers must suffer it and it hurt their
reputation more. In my experience its the small companies like Snapdragon
where the owner is intimately involved that put out the best products and
really care how they are perceived by their customers. These owner/operators
essentially have their own name on the product and want it to be a good
name. I've seen too many companies become a victim of their own success and
expand to the point where they are operated by managers interested only in
the bottom line for the quarter and have driven, hounded, and unhappy
employees who are waiting for "quitting time and payday" and could care less
how good the companies product is. I spend way too much of my time these
days on the phone trying to straighten out the latest screw-up from bigger
companies. And try to get them to return your phone call after they have
already made you wade through voice-mail-hell to leave the message.
Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com


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