Well, I sit here in London getting ready to catch an early flight back to LA. Two weeks of working hasn't left me with much time to chase down paddling opportunities. I did have three days here to give it a try and came up empty. I am sad to say that despite a number of phone calls to UK boat manufacturers, some specialty shops none which where close to London and searching for the right connection I didn't get the chance to paddle while in the UK. It seems that the sea kayaking in the UK is as esoteric as any place else in the world and the number of shops very limited. What with the BCU and clubs here I had expected to find a large and robust paddling community, but haven't. I hoped to find hundereds of Derrick Hutchinsons and Nigel Dennis's busting at the seams. Oh well! If anyone could tell me where I went wrong please let me know. Other than that I am very glad to paddle in the US and will never complain again about the limited number of shops and/or clubs in my area. Lesson learned! Home is sure looking good! F Thomas California Kayaker *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
At 06:17 PM 8/1/00 -0400, cakayak_at_mindspring.com wrote: SNIP > >If anyone could tell me where I went wrong please let me know. Other than that I am very glad to paddle in the US and will never complain again about the limited number of shops and/or clubs in my area. Lesson learned! Home is sure looking good! > >F Thomas >California Kayaker Fred, I had pretty much the same experience. While I've never had a problem renting a boat here in the US, I couldn't rent one in the south east corner of England. One shop told me that it was against BCU policy to rent to someone by himself. Although my geographical sampling was small, I came away from this experience with a negative attitude toward any chance of renting in the UK. I vowed to return with my own boat. Now, if I could just find someone on this list who knows about folding kayaks... Bill Leonhardt *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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