I plucked this comment off the GDI and thought that it might be worth kicking around more broadly:
. I've been in this sport since 81 and it has changed and evolved so much.
Wow 30 years that some serious time.....it sort of sets a newer paddler back on their heels......Since I started I've noticed a swell of local openboaters and everyone seems well connected together.
Imagine a solo open boat that's 15 or 16ft long and weighs well over 60 lbs. Not much rocker either. We sometimes carried them long distances because there weren't many shuttles.
Floatation that may have been created from about a hundred milk jugs.
It was considered a stunt (not paddling) to "creek" down over shallow rocks. Probably because we might have started in fiberglass, or we just couldn't afford to replace the boat every year.
C1s? Only glass. Typically an old slalom race design.
Internet is a big change w email & Forums.
Day trip paddling in North Vancouver with friends from Bellingham today , emailed together on short notice midweek.
Checking levels on web 100's of miles away, getting together with paddlers from Portland, Seattle, & Vancouver for a weekend camp.
Started in '92, told that 2 years in tandem on lakewater and grade 1 was the "way" before moving up. Forget that! Found new partners.
Now in 2011 we are mentoring people into solos early, practice practice practice on moving water and be on gr 2 in first year.
Paddle year round is an accepted standard for advancing. Practice on the cold dark days, then paddle rivers in style when the sun shines. Used to be that trying to get a canoeist to paddle in the winter was like pulling teeth.
Good quality Drysuits at better prices.
Excellent new hull designs, although I paddle an 25+ (?) Viper 11 design.
Light responsive paddles with flex.
CRAIGS LIST !::::: Newbies picking up Rivals complete for $350 and going for it.
Good digital video instruction with quality imagery.
Dryer firewood in camps, better beer variety.
Some big changes, some small.
Last edited by Einar on Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
30 years ago,
Long Boats, decked and open
inner tube floatation, styrofoam was cutting edge.
Tougher royalex then we drug the boats, they were to heavy to carry.
Decked boats had round cockpit openings.
The paddling community was much smaller then. Comradery was more evident then cause you knew everyone.
As a rule the average paddler wasn't in as good shape then as now.
since my first whitewater trip in 1986, I'd havta say biggest positive change i see is easier to break into the sport. Back when it seems u had to know somebody or already be a paddling family. Plus more people doing make it easier to try out w/o having to make a monetary commitment first.
i hear manufacturers gonna be gittin in on the learnin action too, so beside club an professional trainig programs, there seem to be alot of opportunities for people to try whitewater boatin.
20 years ago I had a notebook with a list of phone numbers for automated gauge readings (TVA, Duke) or somebody who could check the level on a painted gauge on a bridge, as well as notes on various runs, including shuttle directions.
Now I have a smart phone...
20 years ago, I hoarded every scrap of foam because it was hard to find.
Now, you can find it, but it is expensive.
20 years ago I didn't know anybody with a dry suit but knew plenty who paddled in wet suits.
Now...
20 years ago I thought 15' was about as short as I'd want a canoe.
I've only been paddling seriously for 6-7 years, and drysuits are noticable even in that timeframe... When I came to uni 4 years back, no one had one... now the ones that haven't since bought one are the odd ones out, people are buying them for £180 as the first piece of paddling kit they ever own.
Again in that short timeframe, the relm of what's both possible and attainable to paddle (both in general and in a canoe) has (once again) exploded forward revealing what I can only describe as pure unadulteated madness*.
*and to top it off, this madness is available on demand to be rammed into your eyeballs in GLORIOUS HD!
Joshua Kelly - "More George Smiley than James Bond"
CBoats Moderator - Not necessarily representing the CBoats staff though...(I'll use words like "moderator", "We" and "CBoats" to make it clear when I am)
My dad and uncle ran a whitewater canoe school in Virginia and West Virginia from '68 to about '75 (they started the second raft company in WVA in '72 -- it's still running though they sold out long ago).
Back then: fiberglass canoes were heavy and fragile. Grumman made the best aluminum canoes and had two keel options. Smokers were pigs but cheaper. The first plastic canoes were made of linear ABS and cracked upon impact. Royalex wasn't around. Life jackets were mostly kapok-filled air bags (Mae Wests). All paddles were wooden and fragile. Dry bags were army surplus radio bags that often leaked. River clothes were cotton t-shirts and blue jean cut-offs. Nobody wore sandals. Silly terms like "duffek" didn't exist but the strokes did.
During White Mountain NH trips I remember being the volunteer gauge reader. I'd get up early and do the Swift, Pemi, Saco, Ammo circuit to get readings for the breakfast decision meeting. Thank goodness for USGS online gauges.
I agree about the gauges. Having to go look tended to cause us to run the river even if it was high/low cause we were there. That caused some interesting trips.
Bill
