Re: [Paddlewise] A Case of Bad Attitude

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 6:56 PM, PeterO <rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com>wrote:

>
> But definitely agree, avoid them stars like the plague, they get in the way
> of kayaking:~)
>

About 6 months ago I watched a group of neophyte kayakers paddling the local
lake and thought to myself that there must be a lot of paddlers who could
use some basic information. I didn't think they needed to learn to roll but
I thought that an introduction to some skills might make a lot of people
safer. Our local city park system offers low-cost courses in an eclectic
assortment of disciplines including basket weaving, pottery, drawing,
watercolors, roller blading and other similar activities and it seemed to me
that this might be a suitable venue.

A couple of things happened.  First, I discovered that the city parks board
wanted me to supply the kayaks. Now I do have an assortment of kayaks but
only one of them would be suitable for most paddlers (the Nimbus Telkwa).
Maybe the F-1 but I am reluctant to turn a SOF kayak over to just anyone.
And anyway, I was not thinking about instructing absolute newbies but people
who were already paddling and had their own (or access to) kayaks. Since
they already would have kayaks, my reasoning went, I would not have to
supply any. The Parks people were unconvinced by this logic.

The second thing that happened was that even though I'm a well-known kayaker
in this area (with stories in the newspapers, etc. )they wanted
"credentials". Thirty-odd years of paddling and ocean sports was not enough,
apparently. Nor were published articles about paddling. No credentials were
needed for the instruction of basket weaving, BMX cycling or roller-blading,
mind you. But for kayaking they wanted ACA certification or no deal. "It's a
matter of insurance," they told me.

Now at age 67 I am not going to go out and get ACA or BCU certification. For
one thing it would mean traveling to another area and spending considerable
money in housing and food not to mention the fees for the courses and
subsequent examinations. At any rate I ended up not doing anything with
Parks and, instead, got a new left knee (which pretty much took care of my
summer - such as it was around here this year).

This, to my mind, is the insidious problem with a credential-driven society.
This mind-set, combined with a propensity towards litigation along with a
decided disinterest in "risk" and added to the entry of commercial groups is
not going to do western culture much good; at least in my opinion. I know
that there is a great movement towards "stars" in the paddling community but
I firmly believe that it's mostly being driven by associations that seem to
be greatly motivated by economic interests. This is reinforced by the simple
fact that if you don't keep up your membership (e.g.: pay your money yearly)
your "stars" will no longer be recognized.

This issue has been visited often on Paddlewise and will, no doubt, be
visited again in the future and I know there are paddlers - including
several I respect - who believe in these credentials. And I have no quarrel
with a personal goal of earning "stars". But I remain convinced that
widespread adoption of these principles will increase the costs of entry for
new paddlers and will result in fewer kayakers not more entering the
industry. The barrier to entry for paddling is already extremely high given
the costs of equipment; add in the costs for instruction.

I realize the probably futility of this rant, of course, My own son-in-law
wants to buy a sailboat and told me he plans to go take lessons in sailing
and cruising from a "school" over in Seattle. Maybe he figures that my years
of sailing and cruising and career as a merchant marine officer aren't
appropriate to Lake Union. But then again, I don't own a "school" for
sailing.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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