Originally posted 2006
Lets all redouble our efforts to sell the availability of great fun on the super safety of class II-III!My wife has to continuously point out to her family that I am not a waterfall crazed kayaker. Her mom just returned from a trip to Alaska, carting a full page newspaper article about some extreme paddlers there. I respect anyone’s right to run the steeps, but I sure regret when that becomes the impression that the general public holds of kayakers.
I am reminded of the stories we hear from Flatwater Kayaking Olympians,,, that everyone always says “oh, you are a kayaker, isn’t that dangerous?” Now the same thing is happening to whitewater paddlers as a whole. People perhaps even unintentionally see so much media on the extreme, that they link kayaking with waterfall jumping. Like the kids in recent blind tests who think food in a Macdonalds wrapper tastes better (even apples). The cumulative effect of media and advertising can have a detrimental affect on the sport.
Lets all redouble our efforts to sell the availability of great fun on the super safety of class II-III!