Gonna snip a bunch to get back to the main point...

"Michael Daly" writes:

On 24-Oct-2003, Mary Malmros wrote:
[snipsters about scuba, backcountry skiing, etc...back to paddling...]
Regulation is regulation, and if someone's
saying, "Tut tut tut, no kayaking for YOU," what do you care if
their badge says The Gummint or Joe Bob's Kayaks?

I never said anything about regulation of kayakers. I said that
some folks in the sport have to take the attitude that not everyone
should assume that paddling is for them just because it's cool.
I gave the example of scuba as an industry that has the guts to
do that. This in response to someone who mentioned some arganization's
(ACA?) idea that "paddling is for everyone".

Step back a few posts. We were talking about the ability to perform
a self-rescue in which the kayaker reenters the cockpit without the
aid of a strap. Now, it's not clear to me that the need to use a
strap represents a huge increase in risk, but I'm not arguing that
point -- I'll assume that it does, and that if you can perform a
paddle float self rescue without a strap, you're bunches and bunches
safer than someone who can only perform a paddle float self-rescue
with a strap.

Now, several posts back, someone -- not me, perhaps you --
introduced the word "solo" into this discussion. Solo kayaking is
not kayaking, it's a subset of kayaking. When you go solo, you take
on additional risk -- and common sense and prudence dictate that
when you take on additional risk in one area, you really ought to
minimize it somewhere else, like having really bomber self-rescue
skills. Inability to perform, or difficulty in performing, an
unassisted self-rescue is a pretty good indicator that you can't
minimize the risk enough to paddle solo. So you don't paddle solo.
But that does NOT mean that you can't paddle. You can paddle in a
group, you can paddle in calm shallow water, you can restrict your
paddling to good weather, etc. The ACA says, "Paddling is for
everyone, not, "All kinds of paddling are for everyone."

There's also a difference between arbitrary rules and one that says
"if you can't handle a kayak regardless of training, don't use one".

At all? Anywhere? Under any conditions?

A stirrup is not a solution to a problem, it's a symptom of a bigger
problem.

That bigger problem being...?

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Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield,
Other days you're the bug.