Very true, very true, Dave. I couldn't afford to kayak without building my own boat. I worked most of my gear off through the local paddlesports shop. It's definitely not a poor person's game, but like Wes said a few months ago when "rationalizing"? the purchase of his new kayak--a lot of people think nothing of taking out a loan on a $15,000 motorboat, so a $2000 kayak plus $5-800 in gear isn't too bad. Some of my friends own $5000 lake lice or snowmobiles, but then again, they're not paying mortgages at the same time. I wonder if symposia typically attract a bit more mature crowd, though. I'm hypothesizing that the older kayakers are out to really "kick the tires", and study the sport in depth and would be more attracted to symposia; where younger kayakers would be in more of a rush to just buy any boat and get it in the water. Aaah, the impulsiveness of youth. (Disclaimer: I'm not drawing any parallels to the tragic accident with that statement, just helping stereotype my generation!) Shawn Who finds it's hard to be salty at 25 without a gray beard. > Dave Kruger wrote: >That's true out here, also, I suspect, if the crowd makeup at the West Coast >Sea Kayaking Symposium last week is representative. I think the investment >needed to get started puts off folks who are struggling with a mortgage, etc. >Also, when I was in my twenties, I probably needed more of an adrenaline rush >in my out of doors activities than I do now! -- 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:17 PDT