"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On 12 Dec 2006 08:20:57 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:


Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On 11 Dec 2006 23:27:54 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:

once at the page, select the Bellingham Bay Kayak Resuce video to get a
"chopper's eye" view of a rescue swimmer rescuing a couple of kayakers

Should have just left them out there.

Kayakers are a PITA.

Hate 'em.

Oh, ok, glad their safe, but I still hate kayakers...

It can be tough not to form a prejudice. A lot of kayakers are
wonderful folks and its a joy to share the water with them. I have to
agree that some are truly holier-than-thou-cause-I-paddle-and-you-don't
PITA's. I am absolutely certain that some of the same folks who
"bicycle" on our city streets by ignoring street lights and stop signs,
alternating between the sidewalk and the street (often within the same
block), weave back and forth across the middle of a two-lane road (so
nobody can safely pass) while struggling to climb a steep hill at 3-4
mph, etc, go kayaking on the weekends. While ignoring every single
traffic law, they will adamantly insist they have the "same rights" as
a car.

That said, there are boaters who seem to resent extending the same
common courtesies to kayakers that they willing extend to fishermen and
others in small craft. I witnessed a large, twin screw powerboat pick
its way ever so gingerly through a fleet of trailer boats working a
school of salmon, and then less than a mile later the same boater's
remendous wake almost swamped a cluster of kayaks. It wouldn't have
been any tougher to slow down for the kayaks than it was for the
fishermen.

For me, it's a question of safety - as in kayakers need to understand
that crossing the bow of an oncoming boat to go "see something" can
get them killed and there is little anybody can do to stop it.



I think the problem is nothing more than the same one other boaters have,
but magnified: They've never read the rules. What percentage of boaters do
you think have read ALL the rules? What percentage of kayakers? I'll guess
30% and 2%, respectively. If you could post just one rule at popular launch
points, it would be the one about yielding to larger vessels.