Re: [Paddlewise] Magazines

John Winters wrote:
[...]
>The promoters of freestyle canoeing hoped (still hope) to
>do that with canoeing.
>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.

I happen to see it both ways. But I do realize that for most people
paddling is only or mostly a way to get somewhere. And there is nothing
wrong with that. But after lots of similar discussions with paddlers who
wanted to promote canoeing, I have found much difficulty with my point of
view that there already are more than enough people who would want to
paddle, so we do not have to promote that. What is important, I think, is
to make those people encouraged enough to actually do it, and making them
aware that aside from the destination, paddling in itself can be a very
rewarding activity too, especially if you care to invest some in
techniques, be it paddling-, boating- or material ones.

What I don't like about magazines like Paddler and C & K is not when they
repeat things for beginners (although often the content is not really up to
date or too simplistic) but that -- as it seems to me -- they try to make
paddling more interesting with all that pictures from boats falling down
from waterfalls. Combined with the fact that their focus on canoeing has
too nostalgic tone the last years, they lost my interest for sure.
The internet, and especially the discussion facilities there,
supply me with enough interesting  (and potentially interactive!) reading
to keep me from actually paddling ;-)

Dirk Barends
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