[Paddlewise] Sponsoons vs. Skill - For Those Who Wonder

From: Fred T, CA Kayaker <cakayak_at_mindspring.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 10:42:26 -0700
 Ramblings meant for newcomers to the list and novice to intermediate
paddlers, like myself.

I clicked on a link this morning that I had forgotten what it went to. 
It took me out to a web site I hadn't seen in more than a year.   I had
purchased a pair of sponsoons from a retired gentleman who had bought
them from the manufacturer six months earlier and never used them.  
Fitting them to my Seayak gave, what I believed, added versatility for
using the boat as a "stable" fishing platform and a large degree of added
safety margin while solo paddling.

They were great and performed as advertised or so it seemed.  Relying on
anything as your sole source of rescue is hazardous!  Trying to reenter a
boat a half mile off shore with the fog rolling in using only sponsoons
when one has a two inch split in a seam is possible, but not without
bringing to bear other skills picked up from "pre - sponsoon" rescue
training and a bit of serendipity. 
By the way, don't leave home without your paddle float!   And know how to
use it!

I concluded after viewing the web site what the definition of a Radical
was:
Someone who has re-doubled their effort after loosing sight of their
objective!

And my point was ??????????  Does anyone know a good use for a single
sponsoon?   (Is that a safe question with this group?)
So, please feel free to contribute to the top ten uses for sponsoons or a
single sponsoon.  Unfortunately, the developer of the web site and
manufacturer of the sponsoons wasn't interested in taking a look at the
split seam and I don't believe it can be patched!

Fred
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/
***************************************************************************
Received on Sat Oct 28 2000 - 10:54:27 PDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:33 PDT