@Doggy_Paddler, I found that it gets easier to carry the boat as the season progresses. I mean it when I say U have to do it so I know I’ll be able to do it ehen nobody is around. It doesn’t seem logical to exercise during the off season so I can move the boat, then get help loading and unloading the boat at the launch. I like to proceed like I’m on my own. Like String sometimes wonders, if it’s what you want to keep doing, or its starting to feel too much like work - at least that’s why I carry it myself. You have to own it. You paddle it, you carry it.
Wrong poster.
Dropping somebody’s surfboard like that will get you seriously injured. I can’t believe she would be stupid enough to do that.
I only remember having one instance of someone rudely touching my gear .
My oldest son and I did a surf safari on Kauai the summer after he finished his freshman year at college. We cut through a hotel swimming area, which was allowed, to get into the water on a beach in Poipu. A rather east-coastish looking woman in a bikini came up to me admiring my wave-ski and knocked on it and gave it a squeeze. “Ooooh it’s so hard!” and gave me a wink. My son was just coming around the corner and his eyes about popped out of his head… I don’t remember what I said at that point, but that is one wink I’ll never forget.
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She asked if she could ask a question—redundant and silly, but not in itself a ruse. The ruse part was that asking to ask a question but then NOT asking to handle the boat made the first question a sham of faking politeness. Especially since she immediately grabbed the boat before I finished answering.
It didn’t start a good impression that when she walked toward me, she had her friggin cell phone already held up as if she were taking video of the interaction before she even asked to ask the question!
Only about two weeks prior, someone else had asked me, “Do you mind my asking how much your boat weighs?” which I did not. You might think her question was identical, but her approach was entirely different, AND she didn’t touch the boat. AND no cell phone! We chatted a little; turned out she was seriously looking to buy a surf ski. She already owns one.
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Several times when I’ve been carrying my 18’ long 31 pound skin on frame kayak to a launch I’ve had guys run up and just grab one end without asking, one so abruptly from behind just as I was starting to turn that he nearly dislocated my shoulder. Now I habitually scan any groups I have to pass by to warn off any would-be “helpers” if I detect they are about to make that move. .
Far worse was the time I carried my new Feathercraft out of the water after a solo day outing and laid it out of the way of the ramp traffic in the clean grass 30 feet up the bank, grabbed my PFD.and paddle, sponged out the cockpit and hiked up to get my car in the parking lot. As I drove into the circular loading drive I panicked to see the boat was not where I left it. I parked and bolted out to see 3 kids under 10 had dragged it down the concrete ramp (covered with gravel and goise poop) and halfway into the water, One was in the cockpit, another was bouncing atop the bow deck and the oldest was astride the beached stern sitting on half my Werner deck spare and wielding the other half smacking it onto the pavement. I shouted at them to get off my boat only to have their parent or whoever the jerk was (who was filming them with his phone from the dock) yell at me because “theyre just kids having fun”, To which I replied “then buy them a boat , not let them steal mine.”. They’d tracked mud and poop into the cockpit and scratched the hull and paddle blade. I felt kind of bad for the kids when the youngest (in the cockpit) started to bawl when Dad told them “this lady doesn’t want you to play with her boat” but come on, don’t encourafe your kids to do dumb shit with other people’s stuff and they won’t have to be yelled at.
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Ah, that fills out the picture. Context is everything.
My wife said that father needs to start saving up for bail money for his kids if that’s how he’s raising them.
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@Doggy_Paddler, sorry, brain warp on my part. Reading your full post agsin, I agree and am thrilled to answer questions about my boat. My comment reflected my feeling about bystanders wanting to help carry the boat.
That hapened with my Folbot at Jocassee. We were camped and I’d left the boat just below our site after a paddle.
When I asked the kids what they were thinking they told me they had asked some guy for permission. He had told them he didn’t care.
Obviously.
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Kneejerk liars, maybe career criminals in the making. They learned that from someone, probably a parent.
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What a horror show that was. The father’s comment to the kid was not a scolding. It was a passive-aggressive attack directed at you.
More great adult models! Uh, no.
“Scanning” around you at a launch area (for the well-intentioned threats) perfectly states what I need to do. And here I thought the things to watch for were mainly careless drivers backing their boat trailers, and loose dogs running amok.
I try to keep my distance from strangers when carrying a long boat. Too bad they don’t. What if someone came from out of your angle of sight, said something, and you swung around so that the stern or bow smacked them? It’d be their mistake to approach too close, but you’d look like the bad guy.
Kids climbing onto my boats at public launches has been a recurring issue but that one was the worst. When I was a kid I’d have gotten a verbal thrashing from my parents if I messed with a stranger’s property and been instructed to apologize – but I’d been taught not to do that, i.e. I was not entitled to impulsively help myself to anything that caught my fancy.
I’m more forgiving of other interlopers. A friend and I had paddled upriver from LIS on the Housatonic and stopped for lunch at one of the riverside cafes at a marina. We hauled the kayaks up onto the dock and left them in the sun while we ate. When we came back, a well-fed tabby cat was curled up and happily asleep in my cockpit! It was a little grumpy about being awakened but exited gracefully when I offered it a shrimp from my doggie bag. My interaction was not as cordial a few years later with the squirrel that had stashed itself behind the seat of my old Magellan while it had set overnight in my yard. It decided to scrabble out and down my chest and pants leg just as I was lifting the boat onto my shoulder. That one got my heart rate up.
I have to admit that one of the pleasures of being retired is that I can paddle during weekdays when there are usually few, even no other, people around when I launch and land at the public access points.
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Yeah, I considered asking the guy where his car was so I could jump on the hood and then climb in and do donuts with it in the parking lot.
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Don’t touch my boat!!!
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Maybe location, venue? I’ve been getting comments and questions from surfers and beachgoers each session through this summer. Usually, the first question is “What’s that you are surfing?” Then, “How much does it weigh?” as they see me shoulder carrying the ReVision the 50-100 yards (depending on tide phase) to and back from water’s edge. Besides the questions, folks generally comment favorably as they seem to enjoy folks really stoking on good waves even if they are not surfers. This past week, after my recent session, I carried to and put the ReVision down by the outdoor showers. I had my eyes closed under the shower and was enjoying the fresh water gushing over me. Usually, I am by myself, but I heard, “That’s AWESOME!” I opened my eyes and found under the shower next to me a female beachgoer. Feeling a bit awkward, I said, “Thanks.” She commented further, “You look like you were having great fun out there.” “Yeah…” Then she got out of the shower and headed back down to the beach. A bit strange but not irksome.
The only time someone tried to climb into my surf ride, was a little toddler walking by with his mom who was holding his hand. I just politely said, “Please don’t. There’s a surf fin underneath that may break.” No harm, no foul.
sing
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I fully agree with you. We weren’t all experienced boaters before we were. Copping an attitude toward someone who asks a reasonable question can surely make our sport seem like it’s populated by elites.
The boat-touching is another issue entirely though.
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No and yes. Location is popular both with locals and tourists from all over. The woman in #4 and one of the other incidents were both from another, distant part of the country, and it was obvious from their accents.
The closest town has become inundated by wealthy relocators and second-homers, many of whom “cop an attitude” that they can do whatever they want. And they have the nerve to claim that “We’re real _____ans now, because we got ______.” [mountain bikes, skis, shelter dogs, outdoorsy clothing…]
The longtime locals abhor them. I don’t live in that town, btw. Just a regular visitor from a neighboring area.
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That seems to be happenning in many places. Some of it is well-deserved, but some is just a “change is the enemy” mindset among those who like things the way they are.
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One problem faced by many in rural communities is how developments spring up following farm sales. Then some new members complain about farm vehicles slowing traffic, and the fres
h manure smell being unbearable as it also attracts hordes of flies.
The hard core locals effectively ignore the winged pests. I don’t mind the smell and feel sympathetic for the plight of the farmers traveling between fields of crops, but my sister-in-law was offended when I showed up to an outdoor event prepared for the flies common on their farm.
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I considered buying the Bug-A-Salt, just for fun. But it doesn’t do anything that a flyswatter can’t do, at the same short distance.
Yellowjackets supposedly get more aggressive if shot with it, too. I’m on the warpath against YJs these days. They hang out for hours holding those yellow balls (food?) and waiting to sneak into a building. Starting in spring and continuing through fall, my husband puts out pheromone traps, which reduce their numbers. The ones that are still frantically serving the hive, I poison one by one with Raid spray as they come into range. These measures pay off the following year.
We found more scorpions outside, and a neighbor several miles away says his wife, who grew up here, saw her first one ever. UV flashlight makes them fluoresce at night. Creepy.
UGH.
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