Paul Tomblin wrote:
: In a previous article, Chicago Paddling-Fishing said:
:Paul Tomblin wrote:
:: kids loose without basic instruction. If that had been my kids (and if I
:: hadn't given them instruction already) and I saw them lurching along like
:: that, I would have pulled them out of whatever program they were in and
:: found another program with competent leadership.
:
:Well... first let me say that I'm a boy scout leader... nether the boy scouts
:nor the girl scouts allow youth members of the opposing genders (there are no
:boys in girl scouts and there are no girls in boy scouts).

: Ok, I apologize for characterizing them as "Scouts". In rural Canada,
: where I'm originally from, we do have mixed gender Scout organizations.
: And some of them are very badly run because they take whoever they can get
: to volunteer.

Which brings up the point of what you do with your spare time... maybe offer
to help a youth group near you as a way of self preservation?

:Since the youth group wasn't paying attention to you but you saw them, did
:you announce yourself or announce that you were passing? Even on bikes or

: We were going in opposite directions - they were coming upriver, I was
: coming down. They were on one side of the river, I was on the other until
: they lurched across.

: This picture
: http://xcski.com/gallery/kayaking/DSCN2133
: shows the river a few weeks previously, a different group (like I said in
: my original post, the local kayak rental place uses blue PFDs, the one in
: the orange is very definitely this group's leader), and about 500 metres
: upstream from where I was injured. But you can see that it's wide enough
: that one should be able to squeeze by.

So, your saying you couldn't avoid the gaggle(whatever that means?) of girls
in a canoe that was coming head on at you... perhaps it's years of being
involved in scouts, or that one day early on when i was following a scout on
bike and he fell off his bike for no reason, wiping me out... that I learned
long ago to not pass closely... while there was no reason I could see for the
kid in front of me to fall (not that I could see), I did't blame anyone else
except me that I got wiped out because you just never know what a kid is
going to do next... it's supposed to be adults who watch out for them... not
the other way around...


:Here's a pic of our kayaks... cost about $25 per boy... the skin is that
:plastic coocooning material they use to winterize sailboats and I got it
:for $4 per boat from a local boat shop. Had each kid save 12*1 gallon
:milk jugs with lids for flotation.. tied to internal wood frame...
:
:http://www.chicagopaddling.org/lilyak.jpg

: Cool stuff.

I'd encourage anyone to try it... the basic design came from Roy Underhills
book "Build a log cabin and everything to go in it". We may have gotten
deals on some of the materials... pretty sure they gave us a good deal on
the plastic, but it would still be a pretty inexpensive project for someone
to do as a individual... it got a bit dicy as a group just because it
required so much cleanup effort each week when sawing in the church basement
to make the ribs...

--
John Nelson
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