"Roger Houston" wrote in message
...

"KMAN" wrote in message
news

My part in the discussion came about because I felt that opinions were
being expressed to suggest that one cannot learn to kayak without
professional instruction.

As the guy who started the whole thing by asking why the subject boat was
hard for a "beginner" to control, I must express my sincerest apologies
for ever having posted.

Don't be silly now...

The group seems to be wound fairly tightly

That's the outcome of the professionalization of recreation.

with a few pretty helpful people and a bunch of people with a lot of
free-floating hostility.

Often they are the same people.

Most of the "paddling" that goes on here is on one another's butts.

Sometimes, yes.

Anyone on here have a canoe?

Yeah, me :-)

I learned to paddle it myself. Haven't died yet. Its'a 17" wenonah royalex.
My wife and I use it as a tripping canoe for routes where a kayak is less
than handy (i.e. lots of portaging).

When I was younger I did a lot of whitewater canoeing with my father in a
Scott kevlar. Didn't die then either. We had a great time all across
Northern Ontario while visiting my grandparents (deceased, but for the
record, neither of them died due to lack of professional instruction).