When did you start on P-net (now P-com)

Paddlers' Place
#1

Not much to read today, so I was looking back at old posts. Somehow I found a discussion that I commented on in 2010 on carving circles.

https://forums.paddling.com/discussion/1300284/what-is-the-paddling-circle-drill/p1

Kind of an obscure topic, but back then it got 86 responses. That got me wondering when I started on P-net. Went to my profile and scrolled down though all 1,364 comments to find my first - a post from Clarion in March 2005 - Saddle in a Wildfire/Yellowstone?

https://forums.paddling.com/discussion/comment/307218/#Comment_307218

That was shortly after I took the NHAMC Whitewater School with TommyC1. He referred me to the site. Looks like it took me three years to start my first discussions in May 2009 - Questions for sit and switch paddlers

https://forums.paddling.com/discussion/1123421/questions-for-sit-and-switch-paddlers#latest

There have been 59 since then – mostly trip reports, some questions. I know I have had 4 Pictures of the Week, but I wasn’t ambitious enough to scroll through all of them to find the first. I did find this one of Riverstrider:

https://paddling.com/photos/126364/

Anyone else interested in reminiscing? When did you start on P-net?

#2

I found a topic I started in January 2004. P.net only archived advice and not discussions then. I got my first kayak around 2000 and built my first kit in 2002.
I’ll search “Bogie and Bacall”
When did the “Grey Thing” start? … found it Feb 2006

#3

Requiem For the Enthusiastic Yute of Ft. Collins

The Grey Thing began,
before the dawn of man,
with bone-bangin’ apes,
Kubrick filmed this Clarke-bar plan,

Hal finally opened door,
in spaced oddity Elmo.
shedding light on budding conscious,
in dark hulls of Pamlico.

#4

The discovery of the grey column begins the path to enlightenment! > @canoeswithduckheads said:

Requiem For the Enthusiastic Yute of Ft. Collins

The Grey Thing began,
before the dawn of man,
with bone-bangin’ apes,
Kubrick filmed this Clarke-bar plan,

Hal finally opened door,
in spaced oddity Elmo.
shedding light on budding conscious,
in dark hulls of Pamlico.

The discovery of the grey column begins the path to enlightenment!

#5

There once was a time,
Coffee spilled on these grounds,
when Jim-in-Paradise superlatives,
would boast their best arounds,

when skeg verse rudder analytics
zig-zagged a wayward course,
with raked verse plumb-bow epic critics
that tracked mud to discourse,

when entities and an N.T.
might bring some wisdom parsed,
by swirlin’ Verlen wannabes
whose experience seemed farce,

once Ospreys hovered fishy racks
of those deadly canoes,
while paddlers bald/plaid/wonderful
with jackl’s raced on through.

where c2g’s and g2d’s
weren’t always formulistic,
but sadly wisdom shared oft goes
from grasp to gone statistic,

so in this information age
when much too much has spare,
our prattle paddle situation
like Wanda’s light as air.

but I suppose out there somewhere
the Frank ones paddle on,
so let’s not fret the com slipped net,
nor our golden pond is gone.

#6

@eckilson said:

That was shortly after I took the NHAMC Whitewater School with TommyC1. He referred me to the site. Looks like it took me three years to start my first discussions in May 2009 - Questions for sit and switch paddlers

https://forums.paddling.com/discussion/1123421/questions-for-sit-and-switch-paddlers#latest

There have been 59 since then – mostly trip reports, some questions. I know I have had 4 Pictures of the Week, but I wasn’t ambitious enough to scroll through all of them to find the first. I did find this one of Riverstrider:

https://paddling.com/photos/126364/

Anyone else interested in reminiscing? When did you start on P-net?

Been here since 2002… :neutral: Don’t know how much of the discussions have been archived. Here is one I found from early 2004, where I referenced a canoe paddler (TommyC1) that I had surfed with. I actually had posted a picture of TommyC1 in that surf session but it’s long gone.

https://forums.paddling.com/discussion/167687/spring-ne-surf-session

sing

#7

Lurked for awhile before finally posting in 2010. Wasn’t looking for a paddling forum, just found it by googling a review.

#8

I believe I bought my first Hobie SOT in the fall of 1999, I joined several forums then when I was looking for advice on getting started with kayaking. I assume I signed up for Pnet then, i know I did some paddling with some local folks I met on Pnet in 2000, I don’t remember their names. I do remember paddling with TsunamiChuck, Sanjay, Santacruzmidwife, WaterNissa, Sing, Wikle and a about a dozen others since then. Most have dropped off the forum.

1 Like
#9

Don’t recall exactly - I think 99 or 00. For most of my life I had been working jobs that didn’t require typing. Then I went back to school and -and low and behold, they expected us to be computer literate. Kept hearing all these younger students talking about “message boards” so It occurred to me that perhaps I ought to see what they were. I’d been a paddler all my life so I checked out a paddling board and soon was using it to practice typing skills that I hadn’t used in 40 years. Good and so good for me.
I still miss the posts from magooNS, Walt, TexasLady, NT, bruceS, paddleboy, swedge, ScottB, DuluthMoose and others. But things change and not all for the worse, and many of the good oldies are still around. Viva la Pnet gallery.

#10

Can’t recall exactly. I think around 2003.

#11

@canoeswithduckheads said:
There once was a time,
Coffee spilled on these grounds,
when Jim-in-Paradise superlatives,
would boast their best arounds,

when skeg verse rudder analytics
zig-zagged a wayward course,
with raked verse plumb-bow epic critics
that tracked mud to discourse,

when entities and an N.T.
might bring some wisdom parsed,
by swirlin’ Verlen wannabes
whose experience seemed farce,

once Ospreys hovered fishy racks
of those deadly canoes,
while paddlers bald/plaid/wonderful
with jackl’s raced on through.

where c2g’s and g2d’s
weren’t always formulistic,
but sadly wisdom shared oft goes
from grasp to gone statistic,

so in this information age
when much too much has spare,
our prattle paddle situation
like Wanda’s light as air.

but I suppose out there somewhere
the Frank ones paddle on,
so let’s not fret the com slipped net,
nor our golden pond is gone.

B)

1 Like
#12

@PJC said:
Viva la Pnet gallery.

Great word play!

#13

I think I joined in 2003 or 2004. I got my first rowboat that was compatible with paddle craft in 2003, and it was either that year or the next that I found this place.

#14

1999 for me, Have had 4 photos of the week and have met a lot of fellow paddlers over the years, all through p.net. Many of us have paddled together and are in touch one way or another. In those intervening years, we’ve seen many that have passed away…Jsaults, liv2paddle, black bart are some that come to mind, There are more, but they escape me. Many old friends no longer post here, but am still in touch with many of them. It’s been a nice ride.

#15

I’m old. I plead memory failure. Its been a long time

#16

2009ish… shortly after I moved to Connecticut and developed an addiction to paddling. I’m grateful for all the advice over the years.

High points for me… meeting the kayak guru Marshall when I posted a question about learning to roll, being contacted out of the blue to paddle with a regular after commenting about the Great Swamp in Pawling, NY, and being introduced to folding kayaks by Willowleaf after I moved back to PA.

This is a community and I look forward to daily updates.

ABZ

#17

I will just venture a guess without doing any research & say it is probably in excess of 18 years.

Time does fly when you’re having fun… B)

BOB >:)

#18

Lord knows but I’d guess maybe 2004 - 5 or so. My user name dates from 2002 & I think that I created it to log on to Boater Talk. usenet rec.boats.paddle was going away.

#19

@kayamedic said:
I’m old. I plead memory failure. Its been a long time

Works for too.

#20

@string said:

@kayamedic said:
I’m old. I plead memory failure. Its been a long time

Works for too.

Me