Re: [Paddlewise] Port Townsend Paddle Seminar

Matt,
I paddled boats of the beach friday then I had meetings in Seattle on 
Saturday. I came back to the Symposium on Sunday about 10:30 am and while 
turning in my room key one of the men who had been at the registration desk 
when I arrived Thursday walked in and said "The Coast Guard is closing down 
the beach....too rough." As the afternoon progressed I heard everything 
from:
 "Coast Guard advised...
"Coast Guard said we had too.."
"we (Symposium powers that be) are shutting down the beach....
"...insurance...liability..."

Like you I though it would have been a great opportunity to see what ther 
boats can do in real conditions. However several years ago when I ran an 
Episcopal conference center in Wassila Alaska I had the final authority on 
deciding when the lake ice was safe to go out on. Especailly in early fall 
and mid spring I erred on the side of caution. I sure it was a hard decision 
for Nikki and since I was not in her shoes I will  not complain about her 
decision. As to why the Coast Guard got the blame maybe people did not want 
Nikki to get flack for making a tough decision.
I spent the rest of Sunday looking at what the retailers had to sell. Then I 
wandered down to the beach and talked with the outfitters as the watched the 
surf. With no one else wanting to talk about boats I got a lot more 
information out of them.
All and all I had a good time despite being forced to be "a land lubber" on 
Sunday

Bob

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Broze" <mkayaks_at_oz.net>
To: "Paddlewise" <PaddleWise_at_paddlewise.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Port Townsend Paddle Seminar


> Bob Carter wrote:
>
>>>>>>>>Craig, On Sunday morning a big storm blew in and the Coast Guard
> closed
> the beach. Those of us wanting to test boats out in real conditions were
> disappointed but I spoke with an outfitter who said there were too many
> newby around to risk it.<<<<<<<
>
> Bob, are you positive it was the U.S. Coast Guard that closed the beach to
> testers but not to private boaters? Maybe they just suggested it be closed
> rather than ordering it. I've been wondering who actually was responsible
> for what seemed to me to be an uneccessary and arbitrary decision but 
> nobody
> I asked seemed to know for sure. Where did you hear it was the Coast 
> Guard?
> Does anybody know how that decision got made? The Coast Guard may have 
> just
> been the "authority" easiest to blame for the decision because it was less
> likely to be challenged. Two years ago at the P.T. Symposium it was a 
> little
> rough one morning in about the same way (18" waves beating into the beach
> from an onshore wind). The beach wasn't closed then but many folks chose 
> not
> to paddle during that time and I'd guess those without much experience 
> would
> have had trouble getting off the beach through the break anyway. I thought
> it was great in one way. I got to test some kayaks in rougher water, but 
> it
> was also a pain because I had to paddle much further with each boat to 
> find
> some shelter from the wind and waves in order to time turns and spins.
>
> The closure Sunday seemed unnecessary to me since the wind was blowing on
> shore so anyone who ended up in the water would soon be back on shore
> anyway. I could see putting a tighter limit on how far boat testers could 
> go
> out from shore (such as not beyond the mooring buoys) or maybe even
> requiring wearing some sort of hypothermia protective clothing for those 
> who
> wanted to test boats. The conditions were ideal for someone with 
> experience
> who wanted to compare a few kayaks, they were considering buying, in real
> world conditions. Conditions like that can really separate kayak models 
> that
> might otherwise have been considered equal when paddled in calm conditions
> and that chance was denied symposium participants on Sunday. If I'd paid 
> to
> be at the symposium and wanted to test kayaks I'd be asking for a partial
> refund for not being allowed to do so.
>
> Personally,  I didn't care much because the increase to $30 per day for a
> beach pass meant I crammed all my testing into the longest day available 
> for
> testing  which was Saturday (9 to5) and I didn't plan to spend another $30
> for Sunday. At $30 or more per day next year I may forgo kayak testing at
> the Symposium altogether. My apologies to anyone I offended by ignoring or
> declining to chat with them on Saturday so I could test paddle more boats. 
> I
> didn't even get lunch on Saturday and only had one quick pee break until
> after 5. I made it all the way from one end of the beach to the other 
> though
> and ran 26 new boats through my test procedures (so my lifetime total is 
> now
> over 920 models test paddled).
>
> After writing this far I decided I could probably find out for myself what
> had really happened rather than just rely on hearsay and left phone 
> messages
> with the U. S. Coast Guard and TAPS. After a few hours they got back to me
> and as I had suspected the Coast Guard had nothing to do with the decision
> and lacked the authority to do so. Nicki Rekman, the symposium director,
> then told me that it was a hard decision to make at the time but in
> consultation with others including Judy P., the safety director. Nicki, as
> director. ultimately made the decision to close the beach. She still 
> thinks
> it was the right thing to do. She felt responsible for the safety of all 
> the
> symposium participants and was concerned about the possibility of the wind
> resulting in an accident of some sort, and its repercussions, if she 
> hadn't.
> When I asked, she told me that all "Sunday only" and "Sunday beach only"
> purchasers who requested refunds received full refunds. I asked about 
> those
> with multi-day passes and she said no one with a multiple day pass had
> requested even a partial refund. The beach had opened at 9AM and was 
> closed
> by 10:30AM Sunday. I didn't notice many testers out during the time the
> beach was open.
>
> Looking at the symposium program, to find a phone number to call for TAPS, 
> I
> couldn't help but notice all the pictures of paddling in surf and rough
> water that in the program and in its advertising. I counted 10 out of 21
> pictures that showed a sea kayak on the water where I would estimate that
> conditions were more hazardous than those on Sunday. After selling the
> sizzle the participants were denied a taste. I'd picked up the program
> because someone had told me there was a picture of me in it. I'm the guy 
> on
> page 33 sitting in a kayak while writing notes in my waterproof notebook.
>
> Matt Broze
> www.marinerkayaks.com
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