Matt Broze wrote: > kayak. Some kayaks with serious problems had nothing but 10's though. Buyer > beware! > This source of information pales in comparison to the reviews in Sea Kayaker > Magazine done by experienced kayakers. I personally don't care for the boat reviews in Sea Kayaker. They tend to be too wishy-washy. I can do a pretty good parody of any of the reviews even before I read them. They start with charts and tables that don't really help much in knowing what a boat feels like in reality. This is then followed by a short box in which the boat manufacturer is given space to hype why his/her boat is so wonderful for such and such a paddler, which generally is either everybody or what we all want to be. Then A.J. and T.K. and other initials for the panel of expert paddlers comment in sound bites on various aspects and tend to wash out each other's findings. Then there is a final box in which the manufacturer has an opportunity to thank Sea Kayaker and the panel for being so fair and then saying all the problems that may have been found are, or are in the process of being, corrected. About the only thing I find useful is that Sea Kayaker weighs the boats with results that make you wonder if the manufacturer weighed the model on the moon. Reviews by committee are like blindfolded observers describing an elephant from the parts they are touching. I would prefer that Sea Kayaker have some good single reviewer of a known quantity and quality check each boat out with a fuller more thoughtful review rather than the sound bites of A.J., T.K. and other anonymous reviewers. For example, you, dear Matt. What a dynamite review you would give to a boat. Even though you make boats, I think that you would be as unbias as possible in reviewing a competitor's boat. Sure you have your likes and dislikes, but those would be stated upfront. A reader would have a real solid basis to make their own judgment based on what you said and your known values/slants. Maybe if we had Matt and John Winters doing the review together we would have some sparks fly, but in the pen stroked thoughts/reasoning that generated the sparks, we would have real meat to chew on in the resulting reviews. BTW, I had felt all along that the reviews by the anonymous reviewers were suspect but felt my suspicion was confirmed when I saw the one for the Khatsalano. It started with their all saying that it wasn't difficult to assemble. Excuse me!! It is a fine boat in many respects but ease of assembly isn't one of them. My thought was that they had the boat delivered to them assembled and were too embarrassed to admit this. To me, the Sea Kayaker boat reviews are a cop out, pablum and homogenized info in order not to upset advertisers. The format with the opening statement by the manufacturer and a closing statement to exonerate his/her model most likely resulted to please advertisers. It is the same reason why Sea Kayaker goes back and forth in its policy regarding whether or not a boat and equipment used in an expedition or adventure trip should be identified. At one point they would not mention it at all. For example, when Howard Rice took his trip in a single Klepper around Cape Horn, they relented under pressure from somewhere and said it was "a German folding kayak." Then for awhile they started letting on about the equipment used on a trip such as it was taken in a Current Designs such-and-such model, using a such-and-such length and model Werner paddle. Now they seem back to no-name. The no-name approach is just dandy for a general magazine such as Outside or Travel where most readers wouldn't know what the boat and gear were anyway. But in a mag devoted to a narrow subject like Sea Kayaker, leaving out the boat and gear leaves a good part of the story out for a more discerning readership. Sorry for equivocating so much in my comments. And, yeah, I am trawling on a rainy day when I should be doing something else :-) 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/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Aug 12 2000 - 07:01:23 PDT
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