Re: [Paddlewise] Leaving the Slower Behind.

In a message dated 7/13/00 7:17:55 PM Central Daylight Time, robm_at_udl.com 
writes:

<< Every half hour, the bunch at the front stop and wait for the rest.  >>

I try to make sure that after each stop that the slow group starts out first. 
 If I have an idea of who is slow and who is fast I even try to get the 
launch organized so that the slower paddlers (with an experienced paddler if 
they need one) get launched first.  Same thing after a shore stop.  Lots of 
times the faster paddlers are the more experienced and tend to get themselves 
launched much quicker. This just compounds the speed difference problem.  
I'll usually ask the more experienced paddlers to help get the slower ones 
launched and then take off.

The worst thing that can happen in this stop and wait system is for the lead 
group to stop, get water, get a snack, and then just as the slow group gets 
near take off again.  When I first started kayaking, two of us in short 
sit-on-tops chased 5 glass touring boats for 4-5 hours.  We repeatedly got 
just close enough to see them replacing the caps on the water bottles and 
then they were gone again.  We kept trying to catch up and went without water 
or snack breaks for quite a while.  Finally we just gave up and finished by 
ourselves.  We did not know our route, missed an opening through a series of 
oyster reefs (we could see the kayaks on the other side), and wound up wading 
in alternating stretches of thigh deep mud and razor sharp oyster shells.  

I try real hard to make sure slower paddlers do not go through that sort of 
thing on any trips I lead.  Of course I am so slow anyway that it usually is 
not a problem.

Mark J. Arnold
MJAkayaker_at_aol.com
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