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EDITORIAL


THE DIRT ON DEK LINES.


PHOTO: VIRGINIA MARSHALL


DEK LINES


A CLEVER, SINGLE-SYLLA- BLE synonym for “destination.” Sensational cover lines promis- ing exposés on “The Secret Life of” and “Good Trips Gone Bad.” An obscure historical analogy to astrological mythology. Pop culture references to CCR, The Who and Deep Purple.


Editors spend hours biting our nails and wracking our brains in an effort to distill every story and photo into a witty one-liner. Despite our near-encyclopedic affinity for classic rock, it’s exhausting work. It’s also one of the most important jobs in conventional magazine writing. These punchy teasers— known to industry schleppers as dek lines—entice skimmers to dive deeper and fully immerse in the content, regardless of what that content might be. Not interested in reading about kayak fishing in Norway? No problem, but what about a report on “Trolling for Trolls?” Now you’re intrigued.


10 | ADVENTURE KAYAK


But there is another way to hook readers. Give you what you want. For 2014, we’ve redesigned your favorite paddling maga- zine with this in mind. When planning this year’s content, we consulted readers to learn more about your paddling proclivities and reading preferences. The trend that emerged? Despite, or perhaps because of, the wide diversity of reasons we’re drawn to kayaking—it’s peaceful, excit- ing, freeing, spiritually fulfilling, social, solitary, transportive, transformative—why we paddle is so much more important than how or where.


In this and upcoming issues, we will be celebrating those many whys, rather than simply teaching the how-to’s or listing the where-to-go’s. Recognizing that who we are is every bit as diverse as why we kayak, the pages of Adventure Kayak are now populated with even more interesting and inspiring pad- dling personalities: adventurers,


visionaries, conservationists, filmmakers, designers, explorers and folks just like you. Big issues are also back—84 pages of kayaking stoke in every edition. And, we continue to inform as well as inspire: turn to page 44 to learn why kayakers are paddling for science, and how you can get involved. In “Finding Fundy” on page 55, we reveal how a humble paddling event can showcase an off-the-beaten-track community’s world-class po- tential. In Launch, our new desti- nation column on page 32, local paddlers share their favorite trips and intimate perspectives on their backyard waterways. There is another benefit of this editorial shift from service to stoke: those dreaded dek lines are now a little less lugubrious. It’s even easier to, well, get stoked about making a kayak magazine. Editor Virginia Marshall sleeps with a copy of the Roget’s International Thesaurus on her nightstand.


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