[Paddlewise] Magazines

Nick wrote;

> The magazines seem to depict sea kayaking as a means
>to some other goal not as the goal itself. I think it is a disservice
>to the sport to depict it as means to another end. I would like to see
>sea kayaking depicted as reason enough in itself to participate in the
>sport.

Very good point. The promoters of freestyle canoeing hoped (still hope) to 
do that with canoeing.
They have not had the success they hoped for but maybe the politics involved 
hurt them. I can recall many late night debates on how paddling should focus 
on the activity with travel a fringe benefit of paddling. I found this a bit 
difficult to reconcile after many years of solo wilderness tripping.. 
Canoeing and paddling skills served me (still does) as a way to get into the 
wilderness rather than the wilderness serving me as a place to paddle.

Will the mass market will resist this kind of thing? It seesm like to much 
work and very little instant gratification or, at least, the kind of instant 
gratification that requires intellectual effort?

Do Paddlewise people feel that the focus on paddling promoted by the 
marketers of boats, equipment, training, and travel has a kind of 
superficiality? Have people become obsessed with gear and travel to the 
detriment of paddling? Do paddlers in general focus too much on the 
artifacts of paddling (By artifacts I mean the gear and adventure culture 
surrounding paddling) instead of  the  pure the kind of enjoyment that Nicks 
seems to be talking about (let me know if I read you wrong on this Nick).

Oh well, it has gotten to cold to paddle, why not wallow on philosphy of 
paddling. :-)

Another topic.

A RAISE FOR KIRK? I thought the pleasure of bringing Paddlewise to the world 
was enough. We really must keep an eye on how we compensate the 
executives.:-)

And another topic.

Several people have commented on articles in paddling magazines. I mentioned 
this to the Professor and he says that he judges any magazine's value by the 
number of his articles they have published and that any magazine that does 
not print his articles really doesn't have much to do with paddling and 
paddlers should shun them.

Cheers

John Winters
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