Hey all, there was as survey carried out in Minnesota last year - I believe it was in conjunction with the Lake Superior Water Trail Association. The survey went out to either all registered Minnesota Canoe Association members or registered kayak owners (required in MN). I am sure someone on the list can clarify. Anyway, the survey was pretty in depth and had questions such as how many times you paddled in a year, in what region, how many over night trips. I am sure there are some interesting figures resulting from the survey. Here in the Netherlands (which is a long way from Minnesota but where I am currently living and answering surveys) things are very well organized. I think most Dutch are involved in clubs if they paddle. The first thing they learn here is "never paddle alone", so they rarely do (OK, I am opening myself up to a rebuttal from Niels). With this exstensive organization I am sure there are some pretty specific numbers. [slight pause for surfing] OK, I just took a look at the annual report on the Dutch National Canoe Union (Nederlandse Kano Bond at http://www.nkb.nl). They had 8,300 members in the year 2000. This includes all methods of paddling (whitewater etc). "Canoeing" here refers to kayaing as well as "Canadian". The NKB is the Dutch national organization. There are an additional 93 associated paddling clubs in the country. There are many people I am sure that belong to local clubs but not the national organization (such as myself). I think my club (http://www.kvzeeburg.nl)which is only about a year and a half old, has about 50 members. Another nearby club I paddle with in Haarlem has a huge clubhouse, massive boat storage and hundreds of boats. A lot of them dusty. "Serious" paddlers - I'd say there are about a dozen in both of the local clubs I paddle with. Although the Dutch tend to be fairly serious about everything they do outside. So how does your country stack up? -Patrick *************************************************************************** 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 Mon May 06 2002 - 15:08:03 PDT
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