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Gentle Paddling in Scotland.
The reason I don't like to grade it is because someone else will always say "oh but I've run that
and it's not that hard", and then people start paying attention to such idiots. I prefer to think of it as runnable but hard and dangerous. Ah. There you have the crux of the difficulty of paddling. What many more "experienced" paddlers can do in their sleep, others see as a terrifying, insurmountable challenge. This applies not just to the Leny, but to deep slow moving water on any river. Throw in the slightest element of speed, or ledge and many a lower level paddler panics. I had a bad experience on the Clyde when I was a lad and I never paddled again for 18 years. I know now that I should never have been on the river at that point. However, I still find higher graded instructors looking to take lower skilled paddlers on water they shouldn't be on (IMHO). I know of one paddler with skills not quite as good as he thinks they are, who went to Tyne Tees with an instructor and spend most of the day swimming. As far as I am aware it didn't put him off. However, it would have been an experience that would put many others off. sometimes, at all levels, we forget that those who are not quite as skilled as ourselves, may not be up to what we think is easy. We do need to encourage people to push their envelope, but we need to be very careful not to draw people into water grades and experiences that they are not mentally ready for. Ewan Scott http://www.claytonwestscouts.org.uk |
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