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< March/April 2000
	Eddylines
Eddylines

Canoe Calendar?

I thought ACA/Paddler represented all paddlers. However, it seems more and more that Paddler represents the world of extreme sports and kayaking (note: your 2000 Calendar doesn't even have one canoe pictured). Please don't forget your "Geezer" members that paddle the old canoe - we're members too!

- Bruce MacDonald, via email

I'm extremely disappointed in your obvious exclusion of the canoe and its 200-year-old heritage in the US & Canada. This is one reader who is tired of these ridiculous kayak ads and terminology like "boofing and splatting." There are lots of us out there playboating in open canoes and many more of us wilderness tripping and canoe-camping. We represent your whole audience. Please, you do your predecessors wrong - Bill Mason, Harry Roberts, Omer Stringer, et al... "Half the paddle twice the paddler."

- Walter J. Zaremba Jr., via email

I think I was sent the wrong calendar with my latest issue of Paddler. All the pictures are of kayaks! The canoeing calendar should have been part of my magazine. I thought I belonged to the ACA not the AKA.

- Don Leeger, via email

Editor's note: While we obviously agree that canoeing shots make for exciting photos, we don't pick the calendar spots. They are sold as ads, with the advertisers supplying the photos. Nevertheless, next year we'll campaign for more canoe shots.

On the Other Hand...

I think you should focus more on whitewater and less on touring. If I wanted to read about touring canoes I would read Canoe & Kayak. A friend says Paddler has sold out and that there are no good magazines that focus exclusively on whitewater. Every issue you publish should have an in-depth review of a new kayak like the Glide, 007, Medieval, XXX, etc. Also, you should have funny articles and contests like "The Lamest Shuttle Vehicle Contest." No one really cares which nose plugs or binoculars are best for boating. Seeing how the 20-somethings are flooding the sport, maybe you should try revamping your image and try getting a little more "hip."

- Boonie (river guide/safety kayaker), Hampden, Maine

Canada Kudos

I really enjoyed the story on Chris Taggart solo canoeing across Canada (May/June '99). Yeah, he might have made it to the ocean if he had paddled with a support team, high tech gear and the usual junk associated such expeditions...but he didn't, and more power to him! In making an Everyman's Attempt and finding his identity as a solo tripper he encourages us all to push the envelope on our own excursions. Way to go, Chris.

- Mike McCrea, Freeland, Maryland

New Blood

As a new member to kayaking, I look forward to receiving your magazine. I have been a member of several hunting and fishing clubs, but I have never met a better group of people than the Missouri Whitewater Association. I would like to thank you for your support and generous gifts to the MWA for their whitewater races. The MWA has been helpful with instruction in the pool and on the river. Now I am looking forward to my first trip with them to the Spring River in Arkansas. Again, thanks for your help...I hope all new paddlers can have as much fun as I've had the past three months.

- Tom Kilper, St. Louis, Missouri

Shafted

The subject of bent shaft paddles (Nov/Dec Ô99) seems little more than a contrived justification for increasing prices. Any necessarily small gains at the end of the stroke are more than compensated for by the reduced efficiency at the beginning of the stroke where the paddling propulsive force is the weakest from both a geometric and anthropomorphic standpoint. Stated differently, the cosine of a small angle (at the end of the stroke) is essentially one, whereas the cosine of a large angle (at the beginning of the stroke) is essentially zero. When compared with a straight shaft, more of the bent shaft power at the beginning of the stroke goes toward lifting the boat rather than driving it. This is an excellent example of the old saw attributed to J.P. Morgan: "There are no gains without pains." Except, of course, to the paddle purveyors.

- Stanley Cole, Boulder, Wyoming

Riot Kudos?

I've been paddling for about three years and love your magazine. I like your Eddylines section except this last issue, where two people wrote about Riot putting the explicit ad in the magazine. I paddle Riot and although Corran has different views on how to advertise, his designs are still superb over anyone else's. If these people don't like the ad, then simply don't look at it. It's just as easy to turn past it and think nothing of it. People who are really interested in the company or the boats will look beyond the pictures.

- Ben Starks, Paducah, Kentucky

Concrete Congo Craving

I'm impressed with the humor in your note on Universal Studios' Popeye River Rapids (Nov/Dec Ô99). Yet it was also a tease, and a big question that wasn't answered, and lingers in the minds of many readers is... "WHY NOT?" I live in Tampa, Fla. I try to get to the Ocoee or Chattooga at least a few times a year. In 1999 I found myself driving for 10 hours to find a dry riverbed. All the while, here at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, I have the "Congo River Rapids," which would definitely satisfy my craving. I recently wrote to them inquiring about any possibilities of a kayak ever seeing time on this "river." I have yet to hear anything but remain hopeful. I just can't help dreaming of surfing a hole where I can park in a parking lot, walk through a crowd of spectators, go surf on the perfect wave, get tossed in the perfect hole and then walk 10 yards to a concession stand for a coke and popcorn. WOW! Now tell me that there aren't thousands of boaters in the Southeast who wouldn't love the same thing - and the river never runs dry!

- Rob Backlund, Tampa, Florida

Camp Food for Thought

Letters concerning appropriate camping behavior are common in outdoor journals. "Bear Necessities" (Sept/Oct Ô99) is typical fare. Unfortunately, various Leave-No-Trace advice is generally proffered by those who lack scientific training and their comments are often without context. How far from the water to camp, deposit body waste or soapy water depends on topography, soil type, weather, water chemistry and other parameters. Most water bodies contain a certain amount of waste and rot, and a wide variety of species use water as a toilet and graveyard. For thousands of centuries, people around the world lived and camped on the shores of water bodies without environmental or social destruction.

While it's important to walk softly on the land, it's also important to remember that our recreational lifestyle is one of the least environmentally impacting activities occurring in our society. What we really need is more minimal impact logging, mining, livestock grazing, farming, power generation, land use planning and industry in general. It's important for those of us who care about the environment to maintain our focus on real problems. And unless you're a trained ecologist, don't tell others where to camp or squat or how to cook their food or what water to use. We have allowed political correctness to stampede over sound science when the subject is camping ethics. It's time for us to ponder what we really know and what we only think we know.

- Don Tryon, Colville, Washington

League Lawsuit

In the Eco Newswire section of the June Ô99 issue you mentioned the lawsuit involving the Adirondack League and Sierra Club over navigability of the South Branch of New York's Moose River. Your report, however, overlooked some key components in the decision handed down by New York's highest court. The Court rejected the boaters' assertions that their single trip down the river conclusively establishes that it is navigable. While agreeing that evidence of a river's suitability for recreational boating is germane, the Court rejected the defendants' invitation to adopt a new legal standard for determining navigability. Citing a line of cases, including several decided more than a century ago, the Court held that the basic standard remains what it has always been: whether the river provides "practical utility to the public as a means of transportation." The decision strikes a middle ground between those who have called for a new "recreational use" test, under which a river is deemed to be navigable if it is suitable for recreational boating, and those who argue that the ability to carry goods to market is the sole criterion in determining navigability. It virtually guarantees that, in the absence of state legislation setting minimum navigability standards, the navigability question will be left to a case-by-case determination by the courts. Another point: the Court of Appeals ruled that the public's right to navigate carries the incidental privilege to make use, when necessary, of the bed and banks, including the right to portage on riparian lands. However, the Court emphasized that the right is limited, and reaffirmed the right of riparian landowners to sue for trespass those who abuse it.

- anonymous, via email

Kipawa Congrats

Congratulations and thanks for the article on the Kipawa River (May/June Ô99) and our efforts to preserve it. I am involved with Les Amis de la Riviere Kipawa and it is great to see your magazine, with its reputation and large audience, pick up the story. It has been a lot of work trying to make people aware of what is happening and often we feel like we are getting nowhere. Your article goes a long way toward recognizing the group's efforts. A couple of comments. Doug Skeggs does most of the work behind the scenes. Without him the group would be nowhere as effective as it is. Readers can contact him at (705) 235-5637 (skeggsd@vianet.on.ca). Also, the photo accompanying the article was taken by Rodney Swatton. Thanks again. We hope to see you on the Kipawa soon.

- Derek Folmer, Montreal, Quebec

Shade Suggestion

Why lay out a story with thin black text placed unreadably over complex, photographic backgrounds? Take the photo of Tao Berman in the Nov/Dec Ô99 issue for example. Not very readable. Why design great story text over great photography so most folks won't bother looking at either one? Either contrast the text or lighten the image beneath it. That's the difference between Design and Desktop Publishing. In an otherwise exciting publication, please make it all readable. I don't wanna' miss a word.

- David Julian, Seattle, Washington

Irish Pride

I just received the issue of Paddler with the story on setting the world canoe record (Sept/Oct Ô99). Thank you very much! It's a great magazine and a brilliant article about my brother, Chris Maguire, and his friend Neil Armstrong. We all really enjoyed seeing it, and the rest of the family in Dublin, Ireland, will get to see it at Christmas.

- Shelagh Maguire, Dublin, Ireland

Grateful Granny

I wanted to thank you for such a great magazine! I am a 47-year-old grandmother who learned to whitewater kayak three years ago at the Sundance Kayak School on Oregon's Rogue River. I had been an avid whitewater rafter for years and always watched the kayakers have all the fun. I thought I was too old to learn, but I decided I would never be as young as I am today and so I went for it! I know I will never be in competition or run the extreme rivers but I intend to run every river I can for as many years as I can. I read every one of your magazines from cover to cover, including the ads for what's new out there. I would love to see more articles geared toward my level. I'm a sales manager for a major pharmaceutical company so kayaking will always have to be a hobby. But I'm financially set so I can make those kayaking trips I want and have the gear that I want. We are a consumer group just waiting for watersports and gear companies to find us. Thanks again for a great magazine! It helps get me through the long winter months waiting for those early spring runs while my Pyranha calls me from the basement.

- Terri Girot , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Santa Surprise

I always look forward to every issue of Paddler magazine. It has helped me more than you realize. I share a common bond with fellow boaters, be it playing on the Salmon or cruising on the ocean. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw my Santa photo in the August Ô99 issue. I don't know why I do these things, but it gives me a warm feeling to hear kids thanking "Santa" on Christmas, while I'm floating the Chemung River. It makes me look forward to the coming year with a passion only a true aquaholic can relate too. Keep up the great work and Santa will put you on the good list!

- Gregory Graley, via email

Exclamation Boy!

What a treat to receive my issue of Paddler magazine! And the gift of a drybag! What a wonderful surprise! My first Christmas present! I especially love your annual Calendar issue - it hits my wall within minutes!

- Andy Wienckowski, via email!