Re: [Paddlewise] Magazines

On Dec 29, 2004, at 11:21 AM, John Winters wrote:

> 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).

I am all for anything that gets someone out on the water. If it is the 
chance to accumulate expensive material goods, or to learn esoteric, 
but essentially useless skills, that is fine by me. However, I doubt 
that these sort of draws will have any long-term holding power over an 
individual paddler. After they have all the stuff, or learned all the 
tricks, it is whether or not they actually enjoy paddling that will 
keep them paddling.

There are easier ways to enjoy the wilderness than pushing a kayak 
through the water. You can get dropped off by a helicopter with much 
less physical effort. I again doubt that dedicated wilderness trippers 
would stick with sea kayaking unless the actual act of placing one 
blade after another into the water had a some appeal. After awhile 
kayaks-for-wilderness and wilderness-for-kayaking would start to merge.

I don't buy the lack of instant gratification idea. Again, look at 
surfing. I have never tried to stand up on a small chunk of styrofoam 
in big water, but I am under no illusion that  I would be ripping up 
waves my first time out. People are willing to take a lot of time to 
get good at a sport. And still looking at surfing, if the excitement of 
surfing is what people want people can get exactly that in a kayak. 
I've spent many a fun day surfing. If it can be sold to board surfers, 
it can be sold to kayakers.

>
> 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...

As someone who believes in quantitative, empirical analysis, I must 
admit that the good professor may be on to something. Judging the 
quality of a magazine based on the number of articles written by the 
professor sounds like a good, non-subjective metric.
Nick Schade

Guillemot Kayaks
824 Thompson St
Glastonbury, CT 06033
USA
Ph/Fx: (860) 659-8847
http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/
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