One of my fave books has a part where the main character has a hairy
moment while climbing a cliff. He gets himself out of it, and then
thinks -- not, "Damn, I'm good," or "Whoa, I kicked that cliff's
ass!", but, "All praise to my teachers." I really like that line.

My experience was somewhat different and also using climbing to judge
kayaking off is always a bad idea. Kayaking is endlessly dynamic and
climbing is only sporadically dynamic. My early impressions of kayaking
and paddling white water and getting into and out of trouble was usually
"What the hell happened there" not "Damn I'm good" or "I kicked that
rapids butt" (Well I would never use that strange language!). Mind you
when I started out kayaking we a bunch of school kids would head down to
the canal and play in the kayaks and gradually learn things. I remember
learning to roll - the group of us were trying to workout how it was
done, none of could and only two had seen anyone else roll, it took
several weeks!!! AN instructor would have sped up this no end but we
would not have had so much fun!

This is not an argument for everyone receiving professional instruction
because there are too many professional instructors who do it as a job
and have as much interest in their job as the counter staff at Maccie
D's! This is why I have never been a professional instructor I would
rather keep my hobby as a hobby and not make it my job.
--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk