In a message dated 1/2/2005 5:45:10 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, kiayker_at_sbcglobal.net writes: I had instructors in college who made buying the books THEY wrote for the class, which were tremendously over priced, AS WELL AS the recommended text book mandatory. Funny thing is we never seemed to actually need the book the instructor wrote for the class at all. This does nothing to improve my opinion of certification for sea kayakers. Scott, once in a while I'm a conspiracy theorist, too. ; ) I have a couple of those text books on my shelves. The small drogue he made has at least half of the 40 bucks he charged me with tied up in the Wichard snaphook, that retails for 20-22 at Westmarine. I use those on my regular tow lines, not cheap, but definitely my favorite. The drogue itself is small, about 12 inches, but well made. There is not enough profit in there to feed a rabbit lunch, let alone indict a group of paddlers or the system they represent. Nice try. It is not a large chute, about 12", that will pin you to the waves as some claim, and the line is about 9 feet. When I reread the section in Dowd's book about Steph Dutton using a 42' line and a larger chute to get through surf, I sympathised with the criticism. That's a lot of bite and a very long line. I haven't put it in large enough surf yet to paint the drama that's come out of this thread yet. But when I come into discomfort I will report it here first. Rob G Oh, Happy New Year! *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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