(William R. Watt)

Typed in I'm pleased to see posters in this newsgroup accepting the fact that
many
people teach themselves the simple act of paddling naturally, and have
done so at least since the beginning of human occupation of North Amercia.
I consider it a shame that 80% of the population of NA are currently

raised in congested cities, have little contact with water in its natural
state, and lack the necessary experience should they come into contact
with it in later life.

I have to take exception to this statement.
Native Americans were not self taught, but grew up in a culture where these
skills were valued, taught and practiced.

I did start out as a self taught paddler. The area I grew up in is not a
paddling mecca and I'm the only one in my family that could even swim. When I
bought my first canoe, I had to teach myself how to paddle. I read what little
literature available at the time and picked up what I could from other
paddlers. My skill level progressed very slowly and reached a plateau when I
started trying Class III whitewater. After a bad, high water incedent, I
decided to get serious about improving my skill level. I took a weekend course
from Bob Ruppel
at Riversports and ended up with private instruction because of some late
cancellations. Bob was an old slalom C boater and a innovative OC-1er. My level
of paddling jumped at least a class that weekend. I don't think that I would
have ever had enough time to paddle to develope
the technique that he had already learned
from racing and coaching.




SYOTR
Larry C.