Re: [Paddlewise] Revisiting: A Conversation with Derek Hutchinson

I agree that Derek is a little hyperinflated now.

But for me, it is just water off the deck.

He is old and he actively markets himself. If he did not market  
himself, he would be ignored. Nobody else is going to put much effort  
into saying how great he is. He enjoys being a public figure. He has  
to try and make himself relevant. I ran into him first when he was  
doing the Aleution paddle because I happened to live in Alaska. I had  
a friend up there who was on the expedition who was a better paddler  
than Derek. But of course nobody has ever heard of him or asks him any  
questions. But Derek had the enthusiasm and effusiveness to get a  
bunch of people together to do the damn paddle. One on one, I have  
found him a little rude.

There are many early kayaking pioneers that did impressive and  
innovative things that you never hear about. Lots of kayakers are  
loner types. And lots viewed the whole sport differently.

But go out there now and try and sell a paddle or a kayak design. You,  
or your marketers, have to go on and on about how innovative and  
special your design is. I find this background noise more annoying,  
but it is part of the business. Most of it is complete BS.

The experts in this business are people who market themselves. These  
are the people who are considered the great guru's and kayaking  
geniuses. They sell guidebooks or whatever. They go to symposia. They  
are in the business and become "experts" not so much because they know  
more than a lot of other people but because they market themselves.

Ed Gillet is an exception who got famous by simply doing weirdly  
extraordinary things.

Freida's kayak looks like a racing car with all its endorsement  
stickers. I find that more "annoying" because it is not my style and  
it was not the ethos of kayaking in "those days". Derek is often  
amusing and enjoys the spotlight. And I kind of like people who have  
some "different" opinions about things like dressing for immersion  
because at times the kayaking community can seem so enamored of  
"official" truths that it seems like the Soviet Union.


"propensity to minimize any accomplishments of others and maximize his  
own"  -- to me that is the definition of marketing.




On Apr 5, 2009, at 07:16 AM, Craig Jungers wrote:

> What annoys me about Hutchinson now is his propensity to minimize  
> any accomplishments of others and maximize his own. If you believe  
> him then you'd think that sea kayak design reached a zenith with his  
> designs and has stagnated ever since. Take a look at this  
> "conversation with Derek Hutchinson" published in 2002
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