Scott said.... Sea kayaking is a very broad sport which encompasses a rather wide spectrum of variations...... My point in my previous posts was simply that not everyone new to this sport needs to run out and buy every piece of rescue gear available to be a safe paddler....... And it is my belief that a new paddler would do a whole lot better investing in instruction and learning the skills then trying to purchase all of the swell toys often emphasized on this list. That's all! Scott So.Cal. I think Scott said it very well. Both my wife and I kayak--I am a lot more "hardcore" and go almost every weekend---she by her own admission is a "fairweather kayaker". My wife cannot use a compass or read a map----hasn't stopped her from driving a car or paddling a boat. She doesn't carry a VHF or GPS and wouldn't know how to use them if she did. I, on the other hand, am a gadget freak. There is a towline around my waist, a GPS in my pocket, a VHF attached to my PFD, a flare gun, handheld flares, lightsticks, duct tape, and "instant" epoxy in a dry bag in my day hatch, and a compass on my deck--and charts when I'm in non-familiar waters. I enjoy navigating in fog or darkness; my wife doesn't want to paddle in either. If the weather gets bad, she depends on me to get us home--she is willing to accept the level of risk that I can't. If it's too foggy or dark, I would hook up the tow line. Just because my wife doesn't use a radio, GPS, compass, charts, etc--doesn't mean that she can't enjoy paddling and still do it safely. Steve Holtzman *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jan 30 2002 - 10:12:42 PST
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