Currents
Rock the Boat
SCOTTISH CLUBS ARE BETTER AND IT REALLY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BAGPIPES, HAGGIS, KILTS OR SHEEP
It’s the height of the paddling season and I’m chomping at the bit. I check the calendar of a local paddling club and find…nothing. Zilch. Naught. Nada. By contrast, a casual social media group has four paddles scheduled—all beginner flatwater. Paddling clubs are dinosaurs. Their stereotype is that of a fusty
group watching slideshows about paddling, while not actually getting on the water all that much. They’ll cite cumbersome pro- cedures, declining participation and tempest-in-a-teapot internal politics. Caught between the devil of liability and a sea of seat-of- the-pants social media invites, paddling clubs occupy the neth- erworld between professional instruction and friends going out for a paddle, with the benefits of neither. It’s time to re-envision paddling clubs. It’s time to become Scottish. I Googled my old paddling club from when I lived on Scot-
land’s east coast. They offer two weekly pool sessions, river trips, weekly surf sessions, kayak polo and slalom tams, two formal balls and they take over a local pub twice a week. They supply the gear, just bring lunch and your “paddling costume.” This, in a town of 17,000 souls, compared to my current home of 2.2 million. At their best, paddling clubs play three functions. They gener-
ate new paddlers, connect existing paddlers to other paddlers and disciplines, and build a social bond. Social media formats like
Meetup.com work for novice-friendly
paddles, but become problematic when they venture beyond easy trips. Their spontaneous nature seldom vets skills properly, putting too much pressure on organizers. Unlike clubs, casual get-togeth- ers can’t insure their leaders or subsidize skill development. Pad- dlers will grow out of them if they aspire to more than flatwater.
32 CURRENTS || Annual 2014 Even formal clubs, which often succeed at turning new pad-
dlers into more frequent or better paddlers, usually fail at attract- ing new recruits. If we want the sport to grow, this is precisely what we need. In Scotland, with no gear, the fact that all I needed to provide was a sandwich allowed me to participate in a sport I couldn’t afford. Two decades later, I’m still thoroughly addicted— to paddling, not sandwiches. North American clubs could mimic this initiation by establish-
ing a fleet of boats and gear, partnering with paddling shops to provide storage, bulk rentals and instruction—things shops do already. Like clubs, shops have a direct interest in getting the vast numbers of hikers, cyclists, fitness enthusiasts and skiers to add paddling to their quiver. My city has three separate clubs, one each for sea kayakers,
whitewater canoeists and whitewater kayakers. Each has its own vibe, but it means paying multiple dues to join all or missing out on experiences. Paddling clubs should merge, or at least collabo- rate. The multi-disciplinary Scottish club gave me a chance to paddle whitewater, ocean, surf, and play polo, as well as meet people passionate about each. Combining also offers economies of scale on storage, classes, equipment and insurance. Let’s take a cue from the Scots. Let’s trade our spray skirts for
kilts, speak in thick brogues and make our clubs what they should be: the epicenter of paddling culture. Neil Schulman lives in Portland, Oregon, and is a regular contrib-
utor to Adventure Kayak. He first paddled whitewater on the Tay River in Scotland many years ago. After a long swim, he ended up borrowing a paddling costume.
ILLUSTRATION: LORENZO DEL BIANCO
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