Re: [Paddlewise] Winter Musings

From: Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 17:08:42 -0800
On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 11:55 AM, Mark Sanders <sandmarks_at_ca.rr.com> wrote:

> As I modestly catch up to some of the real kayakers out there, being as I
> now have five boats in my garage, I'm realizing too many boats can keep you
> from kayaking!!!


Oh I love it when newbies notice that they have a few kayaks. The naive hope
that they might actually sell one still springs in their breast.  Those of
us with a few more miles under our but... er, keels have long since realized
that selling a kayak eats into kayaking time to a much greater extent than
simply keeping them in the rafters, under the house, on a spare car roof, or
- in at least two cases - in the living room.

You see, to sell a kayak you have to put an ad on, presumably, craigslist or
eBay or paddling.net and then hang around and answer email and - worse yet -
phone calls. And then you have to hang around some more on those weekends of
perfect paddling to show some lookey-loo your wonderful boat and hear about
how (s)he has looked at 14 boats in the past week and yours was the most
expensive and least comfortable... and why does it (or doesn't it) have a
rudder? Oh, and do you have a diet coke? And do you think there is enough
room in the cockpit for me and my dog?

All for a couple of hundred bucks which we know we'll just blow on paddles,
a new rescue-PFD (excuse me... "lifejacket"... after 20 years of trying to
get us to change the USCG now wants us to go back), or a down payment on a
drysuit.

After more than 3 decades of paddling I have enough boats to outfit a
good-sized Boy Scout Troop. I look at my collection as a badge of honor.
After I'm gone my wife can sell most of them off. I won't care much...

But I'm taking at least two of them with me.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
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Received on Fri Dec 05 2008 - 05:49:30 PST

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