Ah, hubris, what hath thou wrought?

StrangeMagic - you hit a big nail on the head with that one. I've always cringed whenever I read about someone having "conquered" a mountain, a river, an ocean, or whatever. It's so preposterous, such a relic of bygone machismo-run-wild, that I'm stunned when some unimaginative writer with a wee bit too much testosterone in his pen pulls it out of the dustbin and trots it out into the sunlight.

Oh, yeah, whiplash, you got off the mountain with most of your toes, but that part where you "conquered" "her"...would that be Mother Nature that you're speaking about so casually? Better watch your language, dude, or she just might kick your ass one of these days.

We're puny creatures compared to the forces around us in the natural world, and if we ignore that, if we deny it with bold talk and expect to prevail, well, we be drowned more than now and again.

Moulton, the Chesapeake Paddlers Association: is that the group that Chris Conklin was involved with, back in the 1980s (DC area). Or is it related to the group that Dan Winters was involved with, down near Hampton VA? What can you tell us about its history?

This is the one that Chris was involved with. Basically, as I recall, it began very informally with those of us who were paddling together in the Chesapeake Bay area back in the day (as you know, there weren't exactly hundreds and hundreds of us paddling around back then) and you know how these things are - they start small and informal, and if someone takes the organizational helm, they become more structured and grow over time if the interest is there.

I think Chris was a driving force - if not the driving force in the beginning, but I'm hazy on the details: memory fails me on that count. It was just getting started when I had to drop out of the scene for a very long time, so I'm a poor contact for any historical record.

Over the years CPA has certainly grown into a very large, active group - 600+ members at last count. It's a really wonderful organization. They have SK courses, organized trips, workshops where participants craft traditional Inuit paddles, pool sessions in the Winter etc. I'll be teaching at two upcoming events: SK 102, and Trip Leader. The club is organized into eight local "piracies" (Georgetown, Baltimore, Annapolis etc) hence my interminable references to grog and the use of Arrrrrrr! in much of the discourse. Chuck Sutherland is a long-time member, and has taught a lot of cold water safety workshops etc. for the club.

When I saw your question, it piqued my curiosity and I took a look at the club site http://www.cpakayaker.com/ to see if there was a chronology, history, whatever, and it's really slim pickins. Dave Isbel has been there since back in the day, however, and I'll email him and see if I can get more info. I'm glad you asked, Strange Magic, because they really do need a little place on the site that tells at least something about the history of the club....

Thanks for giving it the old college try..... Like the CPA, our local group, the JSSKA, has grown like crazy but has no official memory of how it began, and those who may have been involved in the beginning (I was not one of them, being involved instead with the dwindling ANorAK Jersey group, the one I called ANJIN--the Association of New Jersey Intracoastal Navigators...) either are no longer with the JSSKA, or can't quite remember themselves how it all got started.

Four of us Jerseyans paddled with Chris Conklin (Easy Rider Eskimo) and Dave Eglin (Necky Arluk) from the CPA on the Sassafras one cold and windy December Sunday, back in '88. A fine time had by all, but it's a long drive from central Jersey even to reach the Sassafras.....

Previous post got garbled. Try again:

To quote Francis Bacon, “Nature to be commanded must be obeyed."

In order to safely challenge nature one has to understand the “rules” and the immutable realities afforded by the environment one is participating through. For the mountain climber undergoing an ecstatic, vertiginous experience reaching the summit through one’s own powers by overcoming harsh difficulties only to lose toes on the way down due to a too-tight weather-window allowed is kind of a metaphysical justice, if not a practical consequence.

John Kirmantas in one of his introductions to his Wildcoast series talks about the “epic tales of braving the elements by canoe or kayak – struggling against nature and eventually conquering the Inside Passage.” Well, John knows and advises well that if one proceeds imprudently there are forces at play that might conquer the PADDLER. His attempts to publish paddle-specific guide books helps us understand that environment and when allied with the seasoned attributes of the proficient paddler proceeding in a prudent manner, there is success.

I have no problem with paddlers challenging nature, provided they are informed and making good decisions based on their experience, training, skills and equipment. Most of us know the notion of conquering nature is patently ridiculous. Those that invoke that notion whether for dramatic effect, ego-boosting (or through third-party reportage) may or may not have the necessary complex understanding of the environment they travelled through; I for one hesitate to judge too critically. I do agree that the preponderance lies with that notion of conquering nature as pejorative because I’ve seen it at work in my own life where self-determination and single-mindedness hasn’t always got me home safely–or just barely. But those later characteristics, in and of themselves, aren’t necessarily bad things.

I am beginning to realize that I have to co-evolve my risk cognition with my gut instincts where the later can keep me from getting into trouble as long as I realize that the idea of my domination and control of my environment (an unpredictable, capricious ocean with sometimes unannounced dangers) is an oxymoron fraught with poor outcome potential. If I subordinate my will and work with the sea in a respectful manner there can be meaningful reward and even a pseudo-like reciprocity--like a mountain top experience for the climber; this can be achieved in circumstances like completing a long, rough passage or safely rounding a challenging headland.

I can, however, conquer my fears, my hesitations, my irrationally held beliefs, my poor self-identity, my self-imposed limits on my physicality; I can and have done so much over thirty years of paddling. The sea has given so much to me. I may shrink back at times, but forward and fearless I will proceed nevertheless. I will listen to good other paddlers under advisement, wear my immersion protection as a hedge, be mindful that what we do as individuals now has the potential to affect our local and global paddling community; but ultimately my seamanship is mine and what I choose to take on and consider doable are my decisions, not anyone else’s thank you very much.

Doug

Doug, an excellent summary; well-reasoned, well-expressed. I mostly agree, but will again emphasize a few points that I think are important regarding the special place that "recreational" boating has in the public mind--

I think we can agree that ego is a huge driver in sending people out into the wild to do new things. But there are two sorts of trips: the first sort is when one is the first, to the South Pole, to cross Australia, to paddle to the Queen Charlottes in a sea kayak. To do the same trip again, or one almost like it, stripped of the primacy of first accomplishment, is almost entirely an exercise in ego-fulfillment. Once we recognize this, we can turn our attention to how our behavior affects the well-being of our chosen activity.

I previously made a distinction in this thread between those activities the general public sees as "inherently" dangerous, and recreational boating. People understand, I think, that "accidents happen" to recreational boaters--people run out of gas, they "get caught" in bad weather, they fall out of/off of their boats, etc. And they are glad that the Coast Guard, the Marine Police, BoatUSA, etc. are there to help these poor souls out. But I fear public reaction to stories of what they rightly perceive as willful, dangerous behavior on the part of some sea kayakers; to them, these are foolish boaters who go out of their way to travel to places, or in sea conditions, that are "clearly" unsuitable for those silly little boats.

For myself, I stand prepared to defend the right of sea kayakers to paddle wherever, and however. But, for those who feel compelled to expand the envelope, to pit themselves against the elements or themselves or whatever, I recommend that they might consider instead caving, rock climbing, free diving, etc. where the danger is perceived to be "inherent" in the public mind, and fatalities are expected. At the least, the envelope expanders should make sure that they are extremely well-prepared for whatever adventure they have planned, so that more modest paddlers (such as I) might not be swept up in a backlash (I hope one never comes) against perceived foolishness on the part of willful and "idiotic" sea kayakers. "The Public be Damned!" may not be the wisest long-term attitude for adventurous sea kayakers (I am not accusing you of this, but it's an underlying thread in some of these discussions).

Thanks again for your excellent post; a lot to think about here.

Roger some of those thoughts Strange_Magic. In the 80’s I tended to do what I wanted; certainly I was always cognizant of how my behaviour, or perceived behaviour might affect my sport overall but I basically still went ahead and sometimes got into trouble with the authorities or got asked to get off the water, let alone all the storms I went out in, in plain public view along the waterfronts of where I paddled. But I never remember ego driving me. None of these observers knew who I was. I was having fun, pushing the envelope, challenging the extreme elements. But I absolutely loved showing off what a kayak was capable of, whether I was surfing behind the MV Coho in 40 knot winds off shore or swirling around in whirlpools in Active Pass between BC ferries. I went out where I could be seen precisely to show what that little fragile vessel was capable off in skilled hands. But yeah, those skills sometimes waned. Probably a few stories have showed up in SK Mag over the years.

Times have changed and I know I needed to as well. The last few years I headed out where there were no prying eyes, and if someone showed up, I simply vacated. I even moved to after midnight storm paddling in remote locals. Then you know it’s just you and the level of challenge you want to bear. I got to the point where I have lost most of my fears of the sea; bad headlands, big tides, rebounding waves – hey, this is all so easy now I don’t need much seamanship as the margins lie in the wealth of experience and ability to just do it. Knocked over ten times? Well, just keep rolling back up. What’s the problem? I decided that was a dangerous position to be in and cut up my 100 pound, much modified Nordkapp. I hope that is worth something in your books.

I sent a letter off to the editor at SK Mag agreeing with Chris and his last editorial regarding doing things to make kayakers look good (which came out from the discussion and articles regarding experienced paddlers getting into trouble). I’m interested to hear more from Moultin, et al, as well, regarding risk thinking skills.

I see Chris was out off the waterfront near his office in some rough winds which he wrote about in the last online SK ‘zine. I don’t think he has a big ego and I know he does what I do and picks the conditions that allow on-shore drift if there’s a bailout, etc.

I don’t have an answer to the question about recreational boating perceptions, though I do know there are already maritime laws on the books that could be brought up if a kayak paddler were out causing danger due to reckless operation of their vessel (I don’t feel like looking it up right now).
So, I’ve had a fair run at life on the edge in a time when one could get away with more, but I know those days have gone for me. I’m kinda at a point where I’m not sure what to do next. I’ve certainly had a bad experience taking on rough trips with other paddlers along with folks and equipment jamming out. I’m not sure thinking I’m safer solo is a good notion either. For now I’m taking it easy. Safe paddling. I hear you and respect your opinions.

Doug

What have you really

First, I'm writing this off the cuff. Second, I feel I have to define some terms.

People who paddle sea kayaks (the former): People who have received little in the way of kayaking training and don't approach kayaking in open/coastal conditions as a prudent mariner but had the disposable income to purchase a sea kayak and some of the kit.

Sea kayakers (the latter): People who view kayaking as more than a recreational activity and pursue training and experience meant to shape and improve their ability to handle their craft of choice. More likely to act as a prudent mariner and have training and practice in risk assessment/management, navigation and more advanced self rescue and assisted rescue skills.

While I know this may seem a bit stilted I believe that these distinctions are very important in this discussion, especially as to how they pertain to perception of the kayaking community (for you WW folks, I don't mean to exclude you but many already consider those of us who hurl ourselves down rivers to already be a bit nuts).

I'm an instructor here in the PNW and I try to follow up with all of the kayaking related incidents as I am able. I know that others here do as well and I'm sure that you've also noticed that many of the incidents involve people who paddle sea kayaks. Even fully kitted out, they don't have the skillset or training to handle the conditions they are heading into.

A few months ago There was an incident off of point Wilson, WA. A local paddler named Dale Moses capsized off the point on a nasty day. Had 30+ years in the Navy and retired a Captain. When I asked him about training/practice his response was that he learned about kayaking in the Boy Scouts and taught boater safety classes etc. A man who must've demonstrated that he was a prudent mariner and possessed more training than any kayaker I've ever met, but all of that training was related to different craft. He went out with compromised equipment (torn neck gasket), didn't check the weather forecast, while he had a paddlefloat, he didn't really know how to use it and/or didn't practice it since he'd learned how to use it. He would define himself as a sea kayaker. He was presented by the local paper to the non-kayaking public as an "experienced kayaker" and he was. According to him, he was a veteran of hundreds of trips on lakes and on calm inland waters where nothing had ever happened.

About a month ago there was an incident in Deception Pass; a few kayakers were rescues by the coast Guard. Details are scant, but it was a similar story. The point is that most bad press about kayakers, in general, comes from the incidents involvung people that paddle sea kayaks rather than sea kayakers. The loud public - thanks to the magic of the internet - can bray about rescue costs and about how kayakers have no business in any place where the water might move around a bit. The problem is none these people, in general, know anything about sea kayakers. They don't know about the countless trips that do go right, the planning that goes into them, the training and practice that sea kayakers subject themselves to, etc. They only know about the things that go wrong.

Unfortunately, like many communities, sea kayakers will be viewed through the lens created by the less skilled, the less prepared and most often written about (read rescues). What this means is that the non-paddling public will also view successful ventures as foolish, if they know about them at all.

The question at the end of all of this is how do sea kayakers, not the the foibles and misadventures of people who paddles sea kayakers, improve their image? How do we demonstrate that many of the perceived risks can be mitigated through proper planning and practicing the skills to correct mishaps? Unfortunately, there are many whose opinion will never be swayed. My late grandmother thought I was out of my mind when I started climbing big walls and I'm sure she would say the same now. But some, hopefully those who stand in a position to make the rules, realize that there are those out there who are of the latter rather than those of the former.

A quick word to those that cry about the cost of rescue; people wring their hands in despair whenever a boy wanders away from a picnic in the forest or when a fishing boat goes down. No one does the same when climbers are overdue or paddlers are hauled out of the sea. Rescue services, which are generally provided by governmental bodies, are there for that very purpose. The lost child in the forest costs millions of dollars to not find. The climber that suffers a major reversal on El Capitan costs very little and is a small percentage of the rescues performed. The same can be said about rescuing paddlers. I don't read about the rescues of power boaters or swimmers, but if someone in a kayak needs help all you hear is "who's going to pay for that?!" or "It was foolish of them to be there in the first place, let them solve their own problems!" I cringe to hear such callous disregard for the lives of others and can only hope that they never have need of the help of others.

I can't force people to get appropriate training or practice but I can try to educate those that come to me (and sometimes those I see preparing to do something stupid while still on the beach). I can try to project the image of being well prepared and well practiced in my craft, even as people watch me crash around on the sea wall in storms in my WW boat. In the end, I can only control what I do and hope that, in its own little way, helps promote the sea kayaking community as a whole.

BTW, I wrote this without coffee so i apologize it it seems like I rambled a bit.

Mark, both you and Doug offer thoughtful posts on your approaches to sea kayaking and your hopes that the general impression of sea kayakers will improve if the public becomes better educated as to what constitutes proper behaviour and training for open water travel. My own view is that this is not going to happen, and that as the population of people owning and paddling sea kayaks increases, the incidence of "accidents", rescues, fatalities will increase in direct proportion. I wrote in Atlantic Coastal Kayaker back in 1995 that "SKIN (the Sea Kayaking Industry) for a decade or more has yearned for sea kayaking to evolve from a small, specialist activity to a huge, mass-market, mass-participation form of recreation. They are getting their wish. Thousands of brand-new paddlers are putting out from shore in low, narrow, "tippy" watercraft onto open water, armed only with whatever SKIN and/or some glossy publication have told them about it. Many of these people will get into trouble. Some number will die. Most paddlers, however, don't realize that their "right" to paddle hangs by a slender thread whose other end is in the hands of a state boating law administrator, and, to some extent, the Coast Guard and the marine police. These are tired, busy people with plenty to worry about with the existing horde of drunken and/or ignorant boaters. Someday, some fed-up administrators and officials may decide that enough is enough---time to get these crazy sea kayakers off the water."

The above screed was written to protest SKIN's then-profound avoidance of openly promoting and espousing the wearing of wetsuits or drysuits as the normative response to cold water. SK has helped break through that particular barrier, with its several cold shock articles. But the problem of lots of ill-prepared people going out onto open water in sea kayaks still exists. I hope that people in general are still reluctant to limit or license or control recreation in kayaks and canoes, and that we'll never find ourselves struggling to maintain our right to paddle. But that's just a hope, not a certainty.

This, like rock climbing, mountaineering and other sports that engender lifestyle rather than simply recreation will always be dangling by the proverbial thread. The masses will not adequately arm themselves with knowledge or appropriate equipment. But that's not specific to any particular activity. The unfortunate thing is that the likely target of boating laws will be kayakers rather than the power boater and no one will say boo when one of these folks wrecks their boat and spills oil and fuel into the water because it's not splashed across the front page of the paper, but just wait until a kayaker needs a bit of help. then the masses will insist on making them pay for the assistance or suggest that they be left to twist in the wind because they are doing something inherently dangerous.

In short I agree. It is, in fact, one of the reasons I became an instructor, so I could be part of the solution, though my wife says it's just because I like to tell others what to do...

The big, big difference between activities such as rock climbing, mountaineering, caving, free diving, as opposed to recreational boating, is that the former activities are practiced by only tiny populations of participants. Very few members of the general population want to or choose to engage themselves in, say, rock climbing, because it looks to be both difficult and dangerous. But everyone considers him or herself as a potential or actual recreational boater--the canoe, the jet ski, the Sunfish, the pleasure cruiser, the sea kayak--we see these out there on those sunny, breezy golden afternoons on the lake or the bay. The fishing rod, the six-pack--what could be more evocative of John and Jane Q. Public enjoying themselves of a glorious weekend day?

But while there are no state rock climbing administrators, or state caving or free diving administrators charged with controlling and regulating such activities, there are state boating law administrators. Here in Jersey, jet skiers have found themselves on the receiving end of rules and legislation regulating (thankfully, in my view) some of the behaviors that other members of the boating public or waterfront property owners have found objectionable. So long as sea kayakers remained only a tiny, cryptic, virtually unseen fraction of the general recreational boating public scene, they disappeared into the background and went unnoticed by either the general public or those charged with regulating boating behavior. But that era is over. And how long we'll remain untouched by "the long arm of the law" remains to be seen.

That's one reason why I've been beating the drums for sea kayaking as an "organized" activity to come to the realization that sea kayaking is the most basic and primitive form of marine boating, and to act upon that knowledge by promoting the concept of seamanship in its broadest sense as the central pillar of every sea kayaker's mindset. Because of the basic, primitive nature of sea kayaking, we sea kayakers must be the best informed, best educated boaters on the water, and strive to be the population least likely to get itself into trouble on the water.

Actually rock climbers and the other mentioned groups are not as small a portion of the population as you may imagine and they are tightly regulated in terms of access and permits and types of equipment that are permitted etc.

But to bring it back to the process that ends in bad decisions, it could be argued that the first step is to purchase a kayak with no intention of learning how to use it. The simple fact that it is primitive leads people to believe that it's a simple craft to master as opposed to climbing which appears difficult at first blush. They are for sale everywhere these days i.e. Dicks, Costco, Walmart, etc.

I know there are states and jurisdictions that require licensing and perhaps a form of boater education specific to kayaks is becoming appropriate. What I would like to see, if I could dictate terms, is a more robust club system similar to the UK where education is easily accessible and the education system is the same across the system, in this case, BCU. Here we have the ACA but a dodgy club system and no involvement by the regulators who can, at will, limit our access.

This point of view is not popular as many people feel that there should only be self accountability, but that doesn't work when your actions affect others, both directly and indirectly., but if the number of incidents continues to increase something will change since the paddling communities either cannot or will not self regulate. I say will not, since so many paddlers lack any training or farsightedness. To test that, walk up to the next paddler you see getting ready to get on the water without appropriate equipment and mention their unpreparedness. They will tell you they are experienced intermediate kayakers and they know what they are doing.