Re: [Paddlewise] No-Fault Paddling Get-togethers

In a message dated 4/27/2001 5:04:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
FoldingBoats_at_aol.com writes:


> I interpret that as meaning that if one gets there and gets along with the 
> people that are already there fine, if not, do something else. 
> 
> One is free to "pre-negotiate" if one contacts like-minded paddlers or the 
> initiator of a particular trip ahead of time, of course, but no-one is 
> under any obligation to make special provisions to paddle with anyone just 
> because they turn up (and the same is true in reverse, of course!!). 
> 
> If one doesn't fit in for any reason or feel uncomfortable with the 
> prevailing conditions at launch (or with the way they are likely to 
> develop) or one is simply "less qualified", then one should have the good 
> sense not to go out with that particular group on that particular trip.
> 
> 
Ralph (Hoehn) wins.  At least that's how we did it in ANorAK days.  This is 
no-fault paddling, folks.  Nobody's in charge.  Anarchy could reign, but I 
never saw it happen.  Tell you what did happen --- and it happened on that 
Strawberry Banks trip, in fact.

I was out in Hampton Roads --- which can get a little gnarly when the tide 
and wind don't get along --- with a bunch of good paddlers, all lots better 
than me.  We were all having fun getting clapotis-clobbers and finding 
ourselves on top of pillows and even the odd standing wave, and, all of a 
sudden we were busted by the Coast Guard!  They couldn't believe we were 
actually enjoying the ride --- and, in truth, I'm not sure we all were.  So, 
with a pair of blue-light special forty-footers "escorting" us in to the 
shallows, we got into even nastier water.  I wound up falling off the edge of 
a boomer into a hole that looked like Moses had just raised his staff at the 
wrong time, and I could swear I saw bloody-hell Australia in the bottom of 
this big airpocket that used to be 20 feet of water!  As I approached what I 
figured would be a nasty ending to the forward half of my Pintail, Moses 
dropped the stick and there was water there.  A whole lot of water --- like 
more than before.  And it was coming up to meet me.  And it did!  With the 
bow down about 90 degrees, this mini-haystacks comes to greet me, and I did 
the ugliest face plant I've ever seen, let alone attempted.  Somehow the 
brace --- which was strangely about 90 degrees out of phase, too --- worked 
and the dry side stayed up --- certainly not dry.

At that point, I think I suggested to Dan Winters --- the local, no-fault, 
non-organizer of this weekend --- that my sinuses had just taken on several 
percent of the volume of the water in Hampton Roads, and I thought I might 
like to turn back.

Well, I felt like the turn pylon in a two legged race!  Without anybody 
saying "well,  okay, I guess ..." the entire gaggle had flipped around 
through braced turns and were all going by me so fast I couldn't tell them 
apart.  Kinda looked like everybody had decided that their fun meters had run 
to red and were looking for any kind of excuse to head  back, but nobody 
would say a word.  

That's  what can happen on a trip like that, but it's still a great, 
non-confrontive way to paddle.  You don't have to sign anything.  If there 
are people who want to go up back creeks and look for piles of otter poop on 
stumps, that's cool.   If there are idiots like me who would probably have 
been better off as poop-scouts that day, well they (I) learned another 
lesson.  Don't  try to over-diagnose the deal --- it's just an interesting 
way to get a bunch of paddlers together, and if ten newbies show up, the guy 
who posted the note turns coach for the day.  No big deal.  

Jack Martin

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