c l a s s i c l i n e s


It is difficult to imagine a four- metre-long, 3,500-kilogram mound of snoring, gassy flab “sneaking up” on anything, especially on a gravel


beach, but there he was. Dave Quinn, “Pure Patagonia,” issue 2


I talked to your neighbour and some guy who works in your office just last week. Everywhere I go I meet people who know you. You’re the guy down the street who kayaks, or you’re the woman upstairs in accounting who paddles in the harbour on your


lunch break. Scott MacGregor, “Sufferin’ Succotash,” issue 4


2004


Expeditions should really be planned on the back of a napkin,


sitting in a bar. Leon Sommé, “Utopia in the North Atlantic,” issue 2.


There is a long tradition of making paddling part of life. The men and women who began the companies that build the boats we escape in just wanted to paddle, and when life came knocking they, like me and every other paddler over 30, built a


life for themselves around the water. Scott MacGregor, “Paddling Away from the Rat Race,” issue 3


Kayaks are like lovers and potato


chips. It’s hard to have just one. Tim Shuff, “the Capella RM,” issue 4


2005 An ounce of prevention is worth 40


pounds of paddle floats. Alex Matthews, “Safety For Sale, While Supplies Last,” issue 3


Unless you’re slow dancing to Pink Floyd at a junior high school dance, it’s actually very difficult to be


comfortably numb. Ian Merringer, “Gasket Cases,” issue 4


32 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SPRING 2010


Okay, Keep Your Job and


2003


End of the British


Invasion British-style and North American-style kayaking finally crawled in bed to- gether. At first the British trend seemed like an invasion. In 2003 we heralded the Wilderness Systems Tempest 170 as a “Romany for the West Coast” and Washington–based Werner Paddles announced it was making British- style paddles with short shafts and large blades. In 2004 Alex Matthews lamented “the blind rush to British-style kayaks,” and we reviewed Necky’s Chatham 16, noting its Brit- ish-style rubber hatches and skeg. After a while the novelty wore off and in 2008 we announced the death of the divide, saying, “It’s time to give the old schism a good sea burial.” It’s all just kayaking now. Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be…


Quit Your Job and


Go Kayaking Quitting your job and simplifying your life to spend more time kayaking has been a favourite theme, notably in our Expedition Issue when we sought advice from long-distance paddlers on how to organize your life around expeditions. “Clear away everything else. Quit your job, sell your house and car, and take off,” said John Dowd and pretty much everyone else we inter-


viewed. Our editor liked the idea so much that he quit and moved to Vancouver Island, but then came back a year later, got married, bought a house and had a kid. And so it goes.


Go Kayaking Yes, life gets in the way. And it’s not just us. “In the past 15 years,” wrote Neil Schulman in 2008, “the average length of a wilderness outing has gone from six days to three hours.” Retailers told us they were selling more and more rec boats and fitness kayaks to day-paddlers and fewer touring kayaks. We recognized this back in 2001 and introduced our Urban Adventures column about backyard escapes. In 2007 we followed up with a profile of urban kayaking guru Dubside and tips on how to paddle 100 days a year close to home. We know at least one person who did it—and wrote us a letter after day 100.


Dead in the Water


Gear we recommended that didn’t take off includes the Zippered Sprayskirt by Brooks Wetsuits (2001). We said, “The practicality of the cockpit access with the zip is unsurpassed.” You said, “Screw it, we’d rather pull the cord.” Ditto the GSI Lexan Java Press, since brewing boiling-hot drinks in polycarbonate containers went out of fashion sometime between the time that outdoor stores stopped selling Lexan water bottles and Health Canada proposed banning the mate- rial from baby bottles. And then there’s 2004’s Vortex Hand-Crank Blender—still on the market but we have yet to meet a kayaker who uses one. Who needs a blender if you don’t have ice?


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