December Holiday Party

Pool Session Report

October Meeting Minutes
by Robert Langley

Trip Reports

Morgan's Birthday
by Cecilia Gill

Pecos River - a Brief
by Donna Grimes

Canoe Kind of Guy

Canoe Kind of Guy
By: Randy Cunningham

There have been many changes in paddling over the years. Clothing and accessories of every imaginable sort have been developed and marketed. Materials for craft have gone from wood and canvas, to aluminum, to Royalex and Kevlar. None of these have matched in importance the rise of kayaking as king of paddling - leaving canoeing in its wake.

This trend is shown in some anecdotes. Three or four years ago, I took a basic canoeing class from the local chapter of the American Red Cross. The class was filled with no problem. It was one of the last of such classes to enjoy that level of enrollment. Since then, basic canoe classes have been cancelled for lack of interest, while for kayaking classes it is standing room only. Last June, the Mad River Canoe road show came to a lake I paddle on frequently. They were also showing a line of kayaks. The canoes lined the banks unused, like wallflowers at a dance. The kayaks were never on dry land for long. This past spring, I signed up for my river canoeing introductory class, again with the Red Cross. I was the only person who signed up for it. The rest were kayakers, taking their river class.

Being a rock-ribbed canoe head, I have not joined the enthusiasm. I would like to try sea kayaking at some time in the future. However, it is at the bottom of the list of priorities, behind all the places I want to visit - in a canoe.

Why this hesitancy to get with it and be so retro? I bear no ill will towards kayakers or kayaks. I sure as hell have more in common with them than I ever will with those who motorboat. (We will not even discuss those barbarians on jet skis).

I think it boils down to culture and stage in life.

Canoeists wear their baseball caps with the bills facing forward. Kayakers wear theirs facing backwards. A canoeist will call you a guy. A kayaker will call you a dude. A canoeist will react to something he or she approves of with polite, or, at best, enthusiastic applause. A kayaker will react like the audience of the Jerry Springer show, with whoops and high fives. Canoeists won't admit it, but they identify with Homer Simpson. Kayakers identify with Bart. A canoeist reads a good book or takes care of the unexciting business of maintaining society while not paddling. A kayaker is publishing an E-zine, jumps around in the mosh pit, goes skateboarding, or is diving into a chasm attached to a glorified rubber band. A kayak is your boyfriend or girlfriend. A canoe is your spouse.

The branch of canoeing I identify with the most is wilderness tripping. Another example of the difference in the two branches of paddling is conversation around the campfire. With wilderness canoeing we would discuss sighting a flotilla of loons, or the beauty of a particular lake. The campfire in my river class was utterly different.. There were no musings about the sublime around this campfire. Instead, the conversations were about hair-raising drops and the last time you cheated death. I felt like a Betazoid on the bridge of a Klingon bird of prey. I was surprised that at the end of the night, everyone did not take his or her leave by butting heads and declaring "May you die well!"

The rise of kayaking and the decline of canoeing can be seen in advertisements. The cult of youth is reflected in kayaking shots. The ads show excitement. They are sexy. They show paddlers who are right out of TV, where the world is occupied by people who are beautiful, hard-bodied, young, rich and single. These characters live life on the edge, and when they are on the water, they are in kayaks. Canoes are only shown when the target audience is focused on retirement services, Viagra, menopause or adult hygienic products. You kayak into the excitement of young adulthood. You canoe into your demise.

Canoeing can be done solo, but it really was designed to be a collective effort between two people. Kayaking can be done in tandem, but it really was designed to be an individual effort. It has a better fit to the culture of our present go-go era. Collective efforts are not in vogue. The cultural hero of our time is the lone entrepreneur, sitting behind his laptop, playing Master of the Universe with far-flung investments and economies. You can bet that if he paddles, he paddles a kayak. Paddling by yourself in a kayak is also more convenient in a world where families seldom eat together and more and more Americans live alone. Ever try to organize a canoe trip in today's world? Finding that other partner can be more daunting than negotiating any rapids.

Will canoes be driven from the waters by the kayaking rage? Will canoeists become a small, obscure sub-sect of the paddling world? Since devised eons ago, canoes have waxed and waned repeatedly in popularity, but have never totally disappeared. They still have the edge on their rivals in being able to haul a ton of gear into the bush. Though families kayak together, when you think of a family outing with kids in tow, you think of a canoe. Canoes may return in a future, less frantic time. Our culture may swing back again to where the emphasis is less on the heroic, self obsessed individual, and more on the cooperative effort of two people paddling a craft.

Until the wheel of fashion turns again, canoe aficionados should learn to glory in their underdog status. I can think of no better example of this unhip and proud stand than a recent canoe race that was held in Illinois. The competition was restricted to aluminum canoes. You want to talk about out of fashion! Yet there they were, proudly racing their beloved bauxite beasts. Their spirit should be an example to us all, that we, canoe heads, should keep the faith and continue to paddle into the future the craft that has given us so much pleasure in the past - the humble, unappreciated, but indomitable canoe.