From: sl264050@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (George Flexman)
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle
Subject: Re: Wanted: Defense of Whitewater Canoeing, Rafting, etc.
Date: 10 Apr 92 09:40:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: bronze.1992Apr10.144030.21632
Distribution: na
Organization: Indiana University

In general I can take rafts or let them alone.  I have rescued quite a few over
the years, and I have been helped by them in turn.  On the other hand there are
a few groups I could do without:

1) From my home in Indiana it is at least an 8 hour drive to anything like good
whitewater, so after a long drive, very little sleep, and a hard days paddling
I have little tolerance for the drunken yahoos in the campground who keep me
awake 'til 2 a.m. with their loud music, yelling and assorted foolishness.
For some reason these people always seem to be rafters.  They should have their
rafts stuffed down their throats and inflated.  (I once went up to the leader
of one of these groups after an extended heavy metal concert at midnight,
asking him to please turn down the music because "There are people here trying
to sleep."  He looked me square in the eye and said, "There are people HERE
trying to party.")

2) The he-man types who I have had to pull up next to in order to rescue snakes
from, risking getting hit in the head with the paddle they were trying to beat
the poor thing to death with because "That giant, venomous thing (a 3-foot
garter snake) was going to climb up the side of my raft and attack my
girlfriend."

3) Anyone rafting the middle Yough on a weekend, when every rock in the river
can be counted on to have a rubber bumper. Although, in retrospect these
people should be pitied rather than hated.

4) The idiots who think just because they own a raft they can run anything.
Among other adventures, I once ran accross 4 people in a 3-man raft, with beer
cooler, on section IV of the Chatooga, with no helmets or PFDs who had snuck
past the ranger at the put-in.  Fortunately, the water was very low, and there
was another ranger at Woodall Shoals who made them deflate the raft and walk
out, but not until they'd spent a little time recirculating in the killer hole
there.

Having said all this, I will admit that there are probably as many obnoxious,
unpleasant or foolish kayakers and canoeists as there are rafters, but I
haven't run into many. (Well, except for Reggie who has more than once tried to
set the woods on fire, when he threw the burning gas can away.  He was pouring
gas straight from the can onto the fire when, surprise, it burst into flames.
And there is also the "One-Lung Bob On the New Gorge at 4'" adventure)

I started paddling a kayak to escape riding garbage in my parents' canoe some
20 odd years ago.  If there had been solo open boats, or C-1's where I could
get one back then I might have prefered it as I am too tall to fit comfortably
in most kayaks (in my "new" Dancer XT I can't wear shoes because my feet won't
fit if I do), but I am old and set in my ways now.  Although there was that
Dagger (Impluse, I think) that did some amazing things when I tried it, but
that was on a lake, besides canoes, decked or otherwise, are too much work on
flat water in high winds.

So there's my 2-cents worth.

See you on the river!!!
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle