Re: [Paddlewise] The whitewater industry

On Tue, Aug 17, 2004 at 03:07:31PM -0700, Shawn Baker wrote:
> I love the skills I've gained by learning to play on river features. 
> I'm a long way from being particularly skilled, but it's honed my
> edging, helped bombproof my roll, and enhanced my river reading skills.
>  I don't care to "park and play", but love to "run and play".  The
> river running is still enjoyable, and the play is simply icing on the cake.

All of which is fine, but not everyone seems to grasp that park-n-play
(especially in a benign spot chosen for that reason, or in an artificial
one built that way) is not the same as river running, is not the same
as river running in isolated/wilderness situations.

I can't tell you how many paddlers I've come across in the last 5-6 years
who can do more tricks in holes than I've had hot dinners -- but who
lack basic river-running skills, like the ability to hit an eddy where
they need to, or a consistent, powerful forward stroke.  This isn't a
big deal *unless* they put themselves in situations where those skills
become important; which some of them have done, with mixed results.
(Watching someone who can't reliably make eddies in class III attempt
the Lower New is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.  Sure,
they look great surfing the wave-hole in The Warm-Ups, but then they
get their ass kicked by Lower Keeney.)

Maybe this is my old-school mentality (which is far from !EXTREME!)
showing, but I've always agreed with authors/instructors who
advocated progressive training: learning to do hard moves on easy water,
gradually learning to execute them with precision on harder water, etc.
It seems to me that *in some cases*, some people are confusing the ability
to do tricks -- assisted by boats designed to make doing so easy --
with the ability to make a precision S-turn across a postage-stamp eddy
in the middle of a Class IV drop.

There's another side to this as well: I've always considered paddlers,
along with fishermen and others who use streams, as de facto stewards
of those waterways.  We use them: it's therefore our responsibility,
in part, to care for them and defend them.  One thing I've noticed
is that the decrease in river-running (in favor of park-n-play) is
leading to a corresponding decrease in paddler concern for rivers.
Oh, not that I think this is necessarily unfair: after all, people
who spend most of their paddling time in one spot can't reasonably
be expected to demonstrate concern for many others.  But it does
concern me and I worry that it's leading toward a mindset that suggests
we should alter -- or even build -- rivers for our convenience.

If that attitude becomes prevalent, who will paddle, and who will
care for, the remote and seldom-run streams which abound in places
like West Virginia?  Who will make the long drive, and the long
shuttle, and the long flatwater paddle to the take-out, for the
privilege of running a few rapids -- when they have one in their
backyard that runs from 8 AM to 5 PM every weekend?

---Rsk
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