"John R Weiss" wrote in message
news:4%26c.30174$J05.199130@attbi_s01...
I recently got a mail solicitation from them for a subscription.

Is anyone here familiar with the magazine? Good/bad/indifferent?

It occasionally swings from the divine to the also ran but they are a bunch
of bright young things trying their very best. It's the only kayak mag I buy
every month. I like their mix of features, so some dark lump of Scottish
coastal kayaking sits alongside a tropical excursion. Their product reviews
can be a little limited, so a feature on PFDs won't list the same features
across differant ranges.
However if I was to bet the cover price on who I might trust in the media,
C&K comes first, and they are such well mannered and polite folk, which
rates higly in my book, it's not like phoning perception for a trade price
list. ;-}
cheers,

"arachedeux" wrote in message
...

However if I was to bet the cover price on who I might trust in the media,
C&K comes first, and they are such well mannered and polite folk, which
rates higly in my book, it's not like phoning perception for a trade price
list. ;-}

Well mannered & polite. Maybe that's why their reviews lacked substance
when I had a subscription.

Lloyd Bowles
www.madcanoeist.4ever.cc

"Lloyd Bowles" wrote in message
m...

"arachedeux" wrote in message
...

However if I was to bet the cover price on who I might trust in the
media,
C&K comes first, and they are such well mannered and polite folk, which
rates higly in my book, it's not like phoning perception for a trade
price
list. ;-}

Well mannered & polite. Maybe that's why their reviews lacked substance
when I had a subscription.

Well they're quite young and I imagine that the big dealers intimidate them
with promises of advertising. Their travelogues are untainted by this.
cheers,

"John R Weiss" wrote in
news:YS96c.30645$JL2.371325@attbi_s03:

"MikeSoja" wrote...

It's not bad. Sorta indifferent? I read it for a year, but let it
drop for a year. I'm thinking of picking it up again.

I like "Sea Kayaker" better, though it's not as slick, not quite as
polished in some ways, but with good info and reviews. They need to
put out 12 issues instead of six.

Thanks!

I'm a kayaker, not a canoer (I also have an Adirondack Guideboat, but
that is definitely NOT A CANOE! ;-)

How much of the mag is normally given to kayaks vs canoes?

I've subscribed to C&K for about four years and don't recall ever seeing a
bias one way or the other.

Given my
kayak prejudice, I don't want to pay for a magazine that is 75%
canoe-oriented...

If anything there are more kayak specific articles than there are canoe
specific since they cover whitewater and recreational kayaks along with sea
kayaks and canoes. I also subscribe to Seakayaker. I think Seakayaker
tends to get a bit more technical at times but C&K seems to have more trip
location related articles.

In article , "arachedeux"
writes:

Well they're quite young

why do you say this?
isnt it the oldest still running canoe magazine out there?

sr
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"Steven Rowe" wrote in message
...
In article , "arachedeux"
writes:

Well they're quite young

why do you say this?
isnt it the oldest still running canoe magazine out there?

It existed in '88 or earlier & changed it's name from Canoe to Canoe & Kayak
while I had a subscription.

I occasionally find a good review in a magazine. The most thorough review
of canoes I've read was in Backpacker in '90. The reviewer, formerly of
Canoe magazine, had several tandem tripping canoes to compare. He had a
bunch of testers ranging in experience from novice to tripping, whitewater &
fla****er competition. Each tester assigned scores to each boat in a bunch
of categories. One boat stood out. It was only second fastest. It sure
wasn't the most maneuverable. But it did everything well enough that it
came out on top when the scores were totalled. It was also the first or
second favourite of every tester, which probably upset makers of the other
canoes, especially if they advertised in Backpacker. I bought that boat
sight unseen & never regretted it. I wouldn't make a decision like that
based on current reviews.

Lloyd

"Steven Rowe" wrote in message
...
In article , "arachedeux"
writes:

Well they're quite young

why do you say this?

Simply because compared to me they're younger. By that I mean that both the
average and mean ages of the editorial staff is lower than mine. Don't get
me wrong I rate their youth, the vitality attached to that, and their
magazine.

isnt it the oldest still running canoe magazine out there?

Doesn't come in to it for me. It's the most vibrant read and I buy it every
month. But as for canoes, well when you can kayak why bother? ;-}
cheers,

"Lloyd Bowles" wrote in message
m...
I occasionally find a good review in a magazine. The most thorough review
of canoes I've read was in Backpacker in '90. The reviewer, formerly of
Canoe magazine, had several tandem tripping canoes to compare. He had a
bunch of testers ranging in experience from novice to tripping, whitewater
&
fla****er competition. Each tester assigned scores to each boat in a
bunch
of categories. One boat stood out. It was only second fastest. It sure
wasn't the most maneuverable. But it did everything well enough that it
came out on top when the scores were totalled. It was also the first or
second favourite of every tester, which probably upset makers of the other
canoes, especially if they advertised in Backpacker. I bought that boat
sight unseen & never regretted it. I wouldn't make a decision like that
based on current reviews.

Agreed, this is where C+K is weak and their youth works against them.
Perception UK seem to be eager bullies, or so I have heard it claimed. From
the tales I've heard of other manufacturers that's not so unique.
cheers,

Well,

I think that's the tricky thing for most magazines reviewing gear. You need
companies to provide material for testing and reviewing, and you want/need
their advertising to stay alive. If you trash them, you will get neither in the
future, but legal action is likely.
Boat reviews in magazines like seakayaker, paddler, etc. are always somehow
kind of positive. One needs to read between the lines to get the picture. They
will never write that a given boat is poor or bad, the art is to find the good
aspects and write about those.

ULli


arachedeux wrote:



Well mannered & polite. Maybe that's why their reviews lacked substance
when I had a subscription.

Well they're quite young and I imagine that the big dealers intimidate them
with promises of advertising. Their travelogues are untainted by this.
cheers,

That is hard to "bite the hand that feeds you". You'd need a magazine
like Consumer Reports that does not accept advertising in order to get
truly objective opinions on products. Then you also need experts to
evaluate it.

There's some product review info on some message forums like Top Yaker
and Kayak Fishing Stuff. But the info is a bit scattered.

Hey maybe we should start our own E-zine for objective reveiws! ;P

Ulli wrote:

Well,

I think that's the tricky thing for most magazines reviewing gear. You need
companies to provide material for testing and reviewing, and you want/need
their advertising to stay alive. If you trash them, you will get neither in the
future, but legal action is likely.
Boat reviews in magazines like seakayaker, paddler, etc. are always somehow
kind of positive. One needs to read between the lines to get the picture. They
will never write that a given boat is poor or bad, the art is to find the good
aspects and write about those.

ULli


arachedeux wrote:


Well mannered & polite. Maybe that's why their reviews lacked substance
when I had a subscription.

Well they're quite young and I imagine that the big dealers intimidate them
with promises of advertising. Their travelogues are untainted by this.
cheers,



--
Matt Langenfeld
JEM Watercraft
http://jem.e-boat.net/