Doug: Your post on faded ol' paddlers and their Kleppers rang a bell with me: Snip . They are almost always "low-tech," well-adjusted, sea-savvy paddlers. They usually, from what I could quickly ascertain, seemed...well...connected with nature in a special way. I don't know how else to put it. I hate to admit it (because I love stiff kayaks so much) but I think the Klepper paddler (Foldboat, Feathercraft, etc.) have a sensation with the rhythm and undulations of the sea that I just don't get to experience snip I have a choice of a hardshell or a Klepper, and invariably if I want to just 'go for a paddle' or 're-connect' with nature after a week in the office, it will be the Klepper that is the boat of choice. Don't know quite why; but the old skin and frame puts you in contact with the sea in a way which the plastic fantastics and the glass fibre boats do not. Sure, if I want to go real fast, or do my macho man thing, I will take the 19ft glass boat, but it somehow gets in the way of a truly back to nature experience. Coming to glass boats out of folding boats probably has biased my perception, but I often think hardshell paddlers miss something deeper when they quietly dismiss folders as something 'low tech' or 'slow' or 'old fashioned' or whatever. And as you know, there is nothing low tech about Kleppers and Feathercrafts; they just take a different approach, but wear on their sleeve their skin and bone heritage. Regards, Peter Rattenbury Wollongong, NSW *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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