No Doug, I didn't mean you really. But the folk who paddle lakes and rivers, even in some remote areas, seem to have some nasty visits with rude or inebriated water fowl that us city folk don't seem to run across! I think of my waters as as easy or as complicated as you probably want to find, so you can easily avoid situations that are above your skill level. In truth, I'd say you have to go out of your way to find situation to tax your skills to move on to a level of paddling beyond what your used to. We do have a few folk to help take you there, but they're few and far between and I think a northern migration is in order for real growth. We SoCal folk can eliminate ferries right off the bat and you're right that our all year climate to a degree eliminates the seasonal riff raff. Of course everything is relative you know, so us southern folk hunker down when the climate dips to around 50!!! My point is I think we have it pretty easy down here, which brings me to my amazement and confusion when I read many of the close calls listed here on Paddlewise. Hopefully, I store them somewhere in my memory for the untimely time they might come in useful. We have a rather large barge dredging our back bay and as improbable as it may be, I sometimes imagine having it bearing down on me on some rare night paddle and imagine myself in the same predicament as one of the northern boys or some NY Hudson river paddler. Probably ain't gonna happen, but that's the genius of Paddlewise! As I said, we're a pleasure boat harbor and so are spared from the reality of folk who make the sea their living and have no time for dabblers on the salty sea. There's got to be a different mind set between someone heading out every day to put food on the table and someone using the sea for recreation. I imagine a few of the former lack a bit of patience for the latter, which can lead to conflict. Any way, I hope you don't deny us all your close calls. Remember many of us on this list live vicariously!!! Mark Sanders www.sandmarks.net -----Original Message----- Kayaking? Nada problema. Wife kayaking? Little bit a problem. Maybe it's the current combined with the boat traffic. Do you have current? Current traps wake. Dynamics different. Canoeing with the kids (well, over the last decade when they was smalla)? Problemo. Do you guys make out better canoeing with kids in congested areas given the congestion is more intense given your population given you speed demon obsessed countrymen? Well then, good on ya! 'Course, I'd argue our congestion runs rampant come summer. You guys have all year to spread "summer" boating traffic over. :-) DL *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri May 16 2008 - 21:41:42 PDT
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