Continued from page 28—


the sport than cost by a factor of four. We can afford that carbon-fiber paddle, we just may not have enough weekends and vaca- tion days to use it. Perhaps the dirtbag image is nostalgia


for the early years when pioneering pad- dlers loaded into VW microbuses and spent entire summers out on trips. Or maybe the image is driven by guides and instructors— a small minority of kayakers—who make nothing close to $75K a year. So the dirtbag myth is inaccurate. Who


cares? Here’s why you should: If we’re so wealthy, why are water trail sites being closed for lack of money to maintain them? Why are clean water laws attacked as “bad for the economy” when a $646 billion econ- omy depends on clean water? Money is power. Let’s embrace that pow-


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er. As Adam Andis from the Sitka Conser- vation Society says, “We just need to put our mouth where our money is.” Let’s flood the halls of power with lobbyists. Big Oil has their lobbyists, but we have deeper pockets than Exxon or Shell. We want clean rivers, access to the shoreline, campgrounds kept open and wild places kept wild. River resto- ration should have the political urgency of a dip in the NASDAQ and the media breath- lessness of a Justin Beiber scandal. People’s jobs are on the line. Of course, it’s not that simple. When you


lift the hatch cover on our raw economic power,


it’s very decentralized. Four-fifths


of the outdoor economy comes from travel rather than gear. The money goes to ferries in the San Juan Islands, the Super 8 motel near the Gauley River and my post-paddling beer more than to manufacturers and retail- ers. That makes our power harder to wield. Those scattered businesses may not even know how much their bread is buttered by outdoor enthusiasts. “It’s much easier to capture the impact of


pharmaceuticals or oil and gas, so that crys- talizes more quickly in the minds of policy makers,” says Kirk Bailey, chief lobbyist for the Outdoor Industry Association. The outdoor industry is also dispersed


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geographically, while industries such as big oil, high tech and finance have concentrated their clout locally in Texas, Silicon Valley and Wall Street, where they can affect the fortunes of governors, senators and con- gressmen, and create friendly political cli- mates. But Adam Cramer, who lobbies for the Outdoor Alliance, sees an opportunity to turn the ebb into a flood. “I’ve heard floor statements from congressmen citing figures from the OIA survey,” he says. “When you put an economic argument of that magni- tude on the table, it can be a game changer.”


But the game won’t change if we keep


clinging to the dirtbag identity. Congress- men and governors don’t take dirtbags seri- ously. We’re rich, so let’s act like it. There is one valuable thing we should


take from the dirtbag lifestyle, though: how to work together. Whether it’s chipping in ingredients for a gourmet camping dinner, fixing a cracked hull on a remote beach, or uniting our voices for better policy, collabo- ration is where we excel. I’m not talking about merely uniting


Greenland-style kayakers and Euro-bladers, or even whitewater boaters and sea kayak- ers. I mean everyone who plays outside: paddlers, hikers, fishermen, skiers, climbers, hunters, mountain bikers, wilderness pogo- stick enthusiasts—the whole shebang. We should also make room under the tarp for the motorized crowd. People riding ski lifts or car camping on the coast have skin in this game, too. What does this unified front look like? travel destinations like restaurants,


First,


motels, gas stations and chambers of com- merce need to know who their customers are, and what they care about. Second, we need to magnify the work of groups like the Outdoor Alliance, which brings together paddlers, climbers and mountain bikers to advocate for public lands. “Being in D.C. isn’t enough. You have to have an outside game that bubbles up locally,” says Cramer, citing a union of outdoor recreationists that kept vast acres in Colorado wild.


River restoration should have the political urgency of a dip in the


NASDAQ and the media breathlessness of a Justin Beiber scandal.


Trade associations can mobilize gear-


heads to ensure we have decent places to use our gear. Individual paddlers should learn some new strokes, too: the armies who ap- pear for river cleanups can also be armies who send emails when park funding is on the chopping block or a railroad claims it’s exempt from clean water laws. And it’s time for new jokes. Or at least


new punch lines. Not long ago a friend called for advice on a kayaking trip she was planning in Johnstone Strait. When she isn’t paddling or cycling, she’s the Chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee of the Oregon Senate. What do you call a kayaker wearing a suit? Madam Chairperson. Neil Schulman is the co-founder of the Con- fluence Environmental Center, a paddler and a political wonk. Ask him about water policy at your peril.


This article was first appeared in the Summer/Fall 2014 issue of Adventure Kayak.


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