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Like wearing a Volvo. PHOTO CHRIS CHRISTIE
I’m just getting into the sport and I can’t figure out why more people don’t wear helmets with face masks, I mean, aren’t rocks to the face a concern when you are upside down?
John, Banff, Alberta.
You’re preaching to the converted, John. I often wear a face mask. That said, I didn’t start out that way. Looking back I think I always wanted to wear one, I just bowed to peer pressure. Wearing one just wasn’t cool. Now I put on a full-face helmet when the water
gets a little steeper and the fear a little deeper. But then I’ll watch a kayaking video and see all these people not wearing them, hucking way big- ger drops. So I asked Josh Hutchinson at Shred Ready hel-
mets why everyone isn’t wearing a full-face helmet and he said it’s just a choice between comfort and security. But Shred Ready only makes one helmet with a mask, so obviously his customers aren’t beat- ing down the door for them. Why not? A few years ago, when I saw people with their
full-face masks I assumed they were dorks. We’ve all seen boaters wearing hockey helmets, or the old plastic football-style helmets with metal grills to match. It was like wearing a Volvo. Sure Volvos are safe, but you’ll never get laid driving one [ed. note: Not strictly true]. With today’s more stylish full-face helmets that’s
not as much of a problem, but they may still cramp your style. I guess it’s up to you to decide, do you paddle for yourself and your safety, or for the cam- era? Which brings me to the next letter…
I’m putting together a boating video of my friends and I’m real- izing that some of us seem to only want to paddle the gnarly stuff when the camera is out. As a filmmaker, is it wrong to exploit Kodak courage?
Sacha Rubens, Kingston, Ontario.
Ah yes, Kodak courage. Does it really exist? Of course it does, but so does peer pressure and plain old stupidity. Every paddler is afflicted by these at one point or another. So it’s hard to lay blame for people’s decisions on the camera or the person holding it. All the camera does is reflect how pad- dlers see themselves. Apparently some paddlers don’t think very much of themselves. I thought it would also be worth asking Erik Link,
the eye behind the Twitch videos, for his thoughts on Kodak courage: “I’ve worked with a lot of kayakers, and I’ve seen
all of them experience fear. Maybe they don’t want to run something first, maybe they want a drink, maybe they say, ‘I changed my mind,’ or maybe they face the fear and pull off what they think can be done. But once they’ve scouted something and decided it’s runnable, proving it is the hard part. When Tao Berman decides he sees a line, he gets excited, he can’t wait to do it. I think excitement is Tao’s reaction to fear.” Professionally speaking, I imagine I’ve witnessed
more than one instance of Kodak courage, but it’s hard to determine when the line is crossed because when we go out to paddle it’s usually with the intent of it being in a video—so the entire experience is for the camera. And that’s a fact that’s harder to get away from no matter who you paddle with. When was the last time you paddled without a camera on the river? We used to paddle the gnarly stuff when the
throw bags were out. Now we paddle it when the cameras are out.
Send Ben Aylsworth your questions at
ben@rapidmedia.com 18
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