Tinkerntom wrote:

Hi, my Dutch friend Wilko, and I mean that sincerely.

Tinkerntom, to call someone my friend, I need to like someone a lot,
feel that I want to respect them, and I require them to respect me. I
don't take friendship lightly. I don't feel the need to make many
friends, IMO quality means a lot more than quantity in that respect,
although I tend to be in touch with a decent amount of people.

I have made a couple of friends on RBP, some of which I couldn't differ
more from in my views, but I respect them and I'd go paddle with them at
the blink of an eye at every opportunity that presents itself.

For you to come barging into this newsgroup like you did, attacking
people that you felt disagreed with your political opinion, and then
pull the "nice boater" out of the hat is not exactly helping me to take
a friendly stance towards you. Maybe that will change over time, but for
the time being I'm skeptical about being called your "friend".

I took rivermans recommendation, and did some research on some of my
apparent antagonist, and found that you are a well document foreigner.

Looks like you found out that calling someone a foreigner on an
international newsgroup (that admittedly sees a lot of U.S. posters)
isn't exactly the most appropriate expression one could come up with... :-)

snipped stuff about my website

My only regret is that I waited until 50 to get
started. You ask do I paddle, and the answer is yes. Do I paddle as
much as I would like, NO! Will I ever be as proficient as you. Never!
I am 55 now, and the old muscles don't work as good, and the bones
don't heal so fast, but I do love paddling.

IMO it doesn't matter at what age you started paddling as long as you
did start. :-)

Will I ever paddle the rivers you have paddled, probably not.

As for the proficiency or skill level of what you paddle, who cares as
long as you have fun? There are probably millions of paddlers better
than me, but I have fun doing what I do, and I sure hope that they do too.


A bit later I got my Overflow, and was all excited about getting on
the river.
Until an aquaintance that was kayaking caught a barbed wire strand
that had been strung acoss the river to keep out kayakers. It
basically took his head off! My wife said no way was I going to do
anything that would end like that!

Being in the unfortunate position where running creeks with barbed wire
is one of the standard issues to deal with, I don't see any reason to
stop paddling white water. I have become more aware when paddling in an
area where flooded creeks tend to get out of the riverbed and flow
through fenced meadows or in between trees. It's not something that i
consciously think about any more, it's just that hair at the back of the
neck feeling that keeps me alert.

Turns out there is a long running
battle here about river access and passage. The landowners say no
kayaker, they ruin the river ecology and environment.

I've paddled in Colorado, and I'm aware of the battle that takes place
there. Reminds me of the situations in Britain, Belgium and Germany... :-(

Does this qualify as paddling in your book, you tell me, maybe when
you're 55! And personally I do prefer this kind of a post!

I guess it does qualify, and I bet you would have gathered a lot more
goodwill if you had first entered this forum with a post with a similar
tone and subject... :-)

Wilko

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilko(a t)dse(d o t)nl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://wilko.webzone.ru/