Blankibr_at_aol.com wrote: >My concern is that the ACA is representing itself rather than paddlers. One of the primary goals of any organization is to perpetuate its own existence...I think the ACA does a good job of representing paddlers, but, in all honesty, it does represent itself, too. >As a sea kayaker who does not do whitewater, I would like to see the statistics broken out. Whitewater statistics are easy, because Charlie Walbridge has already taken the time to compile them all. >I have not seen the report but I bet the majority of accidents are either whitewater or alcohol related. My point is despite recreational kayaks being the fastest growing group, I doubt that is where most accidents are. I did some informal accident tracking on sea kayak accidents for the first part of last year: http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/guille/wiki.pl?Accident_Reports_2002 20 from January-July. It's not clear whether they were sea kayaks or rec boats from most of the reports. Somewhat of a mix between powerboat collisions, heart attacks, no PFD's, or immersion/exposure. We can do a lot to educate and prevent the latter two. > By promoting this type legislation, ACA is promoting a requirement or people to take their courses. Nebulous, isn't it?! I'm an ACA Instructor, but I don't want anyone to _have_ to take a course from me. The ACA is also trying to beef up the number of CK Instructors, ostensibly to provide more instruction opportunities for all the newbies out there. It appears to me that marketing is the problem. There isn't enough public marketing of the need for kayak-related education. I contacted the ACA about this, and didn't get much of a response. Personally, I'd rather my ACA and SEIC dues went toward marketing than shaping legislation (not that that's all they pay for). If we run around trying to legislate and regulate everyone else, pretty soon, they're going to want to start regulating us. Everybody loses. It's been said time and again, but it's worth repeating: Education, not regulation. People need to be aware that kayaking can be dangerous, and that educational opportunities are available. Making them take classes isn't the way to do it, IMNSHO. We have cigarette ads, drug ads, abstinence ads, seat belt ads, designated driver ads. Why not a kayaking TV ad? USCG grants may even be available. Get the word out once. Stop the ignorance. If people then choose to do nothing about it, then it's their own fault. To its credit, the ACA does have a nice new 4-color, 4-page brochure on safety basics. And it's free for the asking. A very good idea, IMHO. For some reason, they sent them out to Paddle America Clubs, and not Instructors...you might want to ask for one or a couple dozen. And before anyone even goes down that road, this isn't an ACA-bashing thread. Quite a few P'wisers are ACA members, and the ACA is there to represent paddlers....we need to discuss how they are and how they can best represent us all as paddlers. Shawn __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo http://search.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Apr 18 2003 - 09:33:40 PDT
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