Ed Edelenbos writes:

Mary Malmros wrote:


It all comes down to the question of judgment. If your judgment is
sound, you ought to be safe, whatever your skill level is -- if only
because your judgment will keep you sitting on shore on days when a
more skilled person could safely go on the water. But no one's
judgment is 100% perfect, all the time. As Brian pointed out,
conditions can change suddenly. His example of the summer
thunderstorm is an excellent one. What's the answer: to refrain
from ever boating on hot summer days? To never venture more than a
hundred feet from shore, so that you won't "have to roll"?
Reentries don't always work either. They're a tool, just like a
roll, and the more tools you have, the better the chance that at
least one of 'em will work.


I'll still disagree with you and Brian on this...

A prudent boater will be aware of their surroundings, limitations and
abilities and act accordingly. I will never need to roll.
Period.

I'm not sure where your disagreement is coming from. I never said
or suggested that everyone needs to roll. The only time that you
need ANY skill is if that skill is the only thing that can save you
from the sort of trouble you really can't afford. There are some
kinds of paddling where you need to roll. There are others where
you don't need to roll, strictly speaking, but where a roll has a
better chance of saving you than other recovery methods. If you
stay away from those kinds of situations, you have no need to
roll.

I
know my boat and it's limitations and capabilities. Ever try to roll a
Necky Gannet II? You aren't going to do it.

Not without some special outfitting, that's for sure!

I also know me and my
capabilities and limitations. The creek and lake where my boating is
done is no more than a mile wide. Having been out on boats for 40 of my
45 years, I can look up and see a storm coming. If you can't, you have
no business being out on a boat.

And you, perhaps, have no business judging other locales by the way
things are in your creek and lake. I do most of my boating in river
gorges where the view of the sky is very limited, and where the
steep-sided gorge walls create some very strange weather patterns.
I've gotten to where I can read 'em pretty well, and have yet to be
caught out, but a lot of non-locals aren't so lucky. When the
weather is getting that look, I let People From Away know. I
_don't_ go paddling up to 'em and announce, "You have no business
being out on a boat!"

[snip]
It boils down to what an individual wants out of the experience. If you
are interested in rolling, and fast water, and all of that... it is
what you should persue. I don't see the fascination... I never have.
I may, but I don't think I ever will. Kayaking is a leisure activity
for me.

It is for me, too. I just like my leisure to raise my pulse a wee
bit ;-)

I get plenty of exercise in other aspects of my life. When the
kids are a little bigger, I'll make sure they know it is available and
if they are interested, I'll get them the appropriate training. For now
we all wear life jackets, we all know how to get in and out of the boat
and that is what we need. For anyone to assume the needs (or wants) of
another is ludicrous.

No one made any such assumption that I could see.

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