Re: [Paddlewise] Waterproof Music

Bob posted:
>I just returned from an eight day kayaking trip in Fredrick Sound and 
>paddled to a natural symphony of : Wind whistling in the Raven's wings, 
>Eagles in full screech as they locked talons and spiralled in the sky in 
>mating flight, Artic terns crying  wree, wree, wree as they fished the sea, 
>Harbor porpoise as they breathed deep before diving below the waves The 
>howl of the wind on the water and the crash of waves on a barnacled covered 
>shore and the beating rythmn behind it all....Humpback whales breaching 
>again and again, Boom, Boom, Boom<

Don't forget the constant, annoying, ongoing drone of mosquitoes; the 
exquisite sound of Alaska-sized horse flies munching on huge bites of your 
epidermal membrane (or worse, and the co-committant cacophony of swooshing 
fly swatter sounds at camp); or the ephemeral night-time sonance of 
boisterous noseums bustling through that small fire-spark hole in your 
tent's net-door. Buzz, buzzz, buzzzzzzz.  :-)

>Wear headphones? You have got to be kidding!<

Yeah, who was the idiot that started this thread anyway?

Umm, oh yeah, it was me. Well, I did end up getting a new personal listening 
device (CD/mp3/am-fm player, on advise of a paddlewiser), but I'll probably 
save it and the nice Sennheiser headphones for inside the tent late at 
night. For the kind of conditions I wanted to try paddling to music in, I'd 
have to crank the volume so high with some equally-expensive in-ear, 
ear-buds that it would be damaging to my ears. Also, I don't think I need 
the extra din of piped-in music, when one is arguably kayaking to escape all 
that man-made noise, anyway -- though there are certainly circumstances 
where reasons of personal choice can't be denied, as long as safety isn't 
compromised. And it is kinda fun lying in your tent on a lonely beach at 
night, listening to all those Japanese stations coming in clearly. :-)

But routine use of portable audio devices for kayaking? No way, I'd miss 
some of those other favourite kayaking sounds I like, like: the warbling 
bouncy noise of my buddy's plastic boat, the hull slightly buckling over 
every cresting wave; the adventurous, blush-inducing yell of my buddy as his 
cheap crimping tool slips and pinches his finger; and the expressive blast 
of marital discord as the couple down the beach scream away trying to 
assembled their Long Haul Double. :-)

Then there's the sound of silence...a good place to end here.

Doug Lloyd
Victoria BC
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