Just one?! All three could raise religious debates! But, the feathered vs. unfeathered, rudder vs. no, PFD vs. no, and roll vs. no roll debates have seen enough discussion lately--it's time for a fresh horse, right? 20-year-old Seakayakers: I don't think seakayaking is seen as exciting enough for my generation which was weaned on MTV and "extreme" sports. I can't really explain how I was attracted to the sport at age 21. My brother was working in Glacier NP on one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. One of his coworkers built wooden driftboats, and they got to talking about other small wooden craft. My bro and I are both hobbyist woodworkers, so wooden kayaks sounded like a fun winter project. The affection for seakayaking snowballed from there. Still, most of our friends view it as a strange sport and ask us why we don't whitewater kayak. WW kayaking seems like too much driving for my likes what with all that shuttling. Most of my seakayaking acquaintances are at least 30. Minority groups in seakayaking: It's an interesting observation. I don't have an answer for it, but I've noticed it before. I've met a few Latino American kayakers, some Asian American kayakers, plenty of Scandinavian American and Anglo American kayakers, but no African American kayakers. I have also seen few Native American kayakers and canoers, and they were the indigenous originators of our sports. Of course, the Native American tribes in Montana weren't historically canoeing people, but they continue to be amazing horsemen. The Salish were seagoing people on the NW coast, but the Salish in Montana were displaced far overland and away from the large cedar trees they used to carve into canoes, so they were mostly forced away from canoeing. I also appreciate Wes's quote from his North Shore colleague. Most caucasians have no concerns about ending discrimination, and can spend more free time in "self-actualization" type pursuits and communing with nature. If you have to worry about defending your basic freedoms, then recreation time seems a bit unimportant. Comparative rescues: Is it more likely to have 2 singles both capsize than two people in a double? I think it's easier for a single capsize victim to be rescued by a rescuer in a single than two capsize victims to get back in a double. However, if the singles are more likely to capsize before a double, then my hypothesis is a moot point. With 2 paddlers of the same skill, it's probably easier with the double. With two paddlers of differing skill, the more-skilled paddler could solo rescue in their single, and then do an assisted rescue of the less-skilled paddler. Shawn ralph diaz wrote: >Hmmm. I seemed to have raised three subjects, one that may be taboo: >1. 20 yr old sea kayakers >2. African-Americans in seakayaking >3. Comparative rescues in all-in-the-water situations involving two >singles vs. 2 paddlers in a double -- Shawn W. Baker 0 46°53'N © 2000 ____©/______ 114°06'W ~~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\ ,/ /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ baker_at_montana.com 0 http://www.geocities.com/shawnkayak/ *************************************************************************** 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 Mon Sep 25 2000 - 09:41:53 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:32 PDT