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From: Tord <tord_at_mindless.com> subject: Re: [Paddlewise] [PaddleWise] The High Cost of Kayaking Date: Sun, 02 May 2010 11:47:19 -0400 · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:53 PDT

Seems any hobby tends to get expensive, no matter if it
is photography, traveling, model flying, paddling, sailing,
cooking, wining or dining.

But you can do many hobbies on a minimalist budget,
but it is really in your mind set how expensive you allow it
to become.

Through the years I probably have spent more than 4.000 (US dollars)
on cameras (over 35 years); over 15.000 on paddling and camping gear
(two Klepper hulls, four tents for artic conditions, and various 
sundries, like
Chillcheater gear, PFDs, VHF & GPS, five stoves, skis, and so on -
spread over 40+ years).

Somewhat less (not much less) on model aircraft, R/C gear, and such 
stuff.
Happily I've spent nil on drugs and tobacco, and about USD 40.000 on
cars (I was a late starter), excluding fuel & service. A little less on
motorbikes, women & amplifiers, electronics, computers & DVDs.

Art materials & glider lessons, which both have been delightful, takes 
up
much less. Books & magazines, through the years, have been a big post,
as has computer programs been (for Risc-OS, Mac OS X, Windows),
together with computers, & computer sundries, like routers & hard discs.

Tools (metalworking, woodworking, specialist tools & others) has taken 
up
quite budget as well - what would an old motorbike be without tools?!

Looking back I'd say that I've worn down computers and cameras (I've 
owned
over ten over the years, many of them still around somewhere), lost a 
lot of
pens and pencils (love my Mount Blanc - close to USD 500!).

Sadly, never mastered programming, or higher mathematics, nor playing
musical instruments - I have tried, my god how I've tried! Never got my
gliders license (my military service ended before I had finished): 
that's
in the to-do column!

All of this non-essential, but have given me a richer, more fulfilling, 
life!

Sketching with pen and paper is probably one of the cheaper hobbies
you can have, while watercolor doesn't mix too well with paddling, nor
trekking in mosquito-infested areas - sadly I know only too well!

When I was young I formulated a theory that anything that cost 20 
kronor,
or less, per hour was worth it (that was approximately what a visit
to the movies cost, per hour - today that would be about 12 dollars).

I have to do a lot more paddling to reach that figure, and it is hard
to set a price on cameras per hour, but I sure has spent thousands
of hours photographing, and editing photos.

Computers, and probably cars, are in that ball park, art material far
cheaper, and our Playstation 3 surely is cheap, per hour, as are
most computer games - some fit you like a glove, so you're below
a dollar an hour, some you don't take to.

Concerts, theater, and opera are way beyond the normal rate for
OK stuff, but an occasional mistake is allowed :-)!

So to me paddling, and live performances, are luxuries, while
the rest just has enriched my life!

The worst buy I ever did was an extreme macro lens, that could
only be used for extreme macro photography - thus you needed
an array of lamps and other stuff I couldn't afford then - so a total
economic, and logistic, failure, while the very best, without doubt,
was a choclate cake that I gave to a woman at work, when she
was desperate for something sweet - we've now been married
for over seven years .-)!

Tord
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