Re: [Paddlewise] Hands Across the Water (was Bush League)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Lloyd" <dalloyd_at_telus.net>

> Ralph, I hope you don't think I was "bushwacking." The original poster
asked
> for wisecracks, so I worded my reply as such, visa vis the whole "axis of
> evil" thing and immersion apparel-less paddlers. Someone else highjacked
the
> post.

Doug, I didn't think for a moment you were.  It was crystal clear that you
were using the language as a framework for your post on cold water
protection and nothing more.  It was then used by several others to go off
on that political tangent having nothing to do with paddling.

My son, BTW, is a paddler although not having had much of a chance to do so.
I first got him kayaking in the late 1980s.  When he returned from Desert
Storm, the first thing he wanted to do, after eight months in the Saudi
desert, was to paddle on the Hudson.  We did so out of West Point, which had
a double purpose of the institution itself and the beautiful stretch of
river and highlands that surround the place.

He generally has come home on leave only at Christmas time and so we have
not done paddling in the intervening years.  Last year, he made a special
point to come in September to be in the city on the anniversary of 9-11.  He
got in a lot of paddling and volunteer work at the Downtown Boathouse Pier
26 while here.  And, on 9-11, participated in an on-water kayak ceremony at
the next pier down.  Both piers are just a few blocks from where the World
Trade Center stood.  The embayment at Pier 25 was used to transport by barge
most of the remains of the Twin Towers and so it was a good spot for
commemoration.

Interestingly enough, he got to paddle quite extensively one model of
folding kayak that he liked a lot, the FoldingCraft 480, and intends to buy
one when all this is over.

ralph diaz
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