Well, Dave I've been on THE RIVER and fortunately the numbers are up out there. Put down the meth pipe, pick up your paddle and join us, please.

a agree with joe. despite the dearth of trip postings, i hypothesize that use of the forum in terms of both user diversity and posting quality (subjective) have both increased over the last, say, 6 months.... 

Dave,

I don't see your point in this... are you saying that Professor Paddle as a forum is in decline and becoming obsolete or is it just the lack of trips posted that has you concerned?  As pointed out, PP is no guage of boater activity, so the lack of 'trips' posted on PP isn't reflection of paddlers getting out.

 

James isn't the only one who saw this post and thought he smelled Leif all over it.

WOW, again, I made the charts not Leif!

 

He gave me the tools to do the work and I did the work. I was just using the tools to make a point that we need to make some changes to keep up with the times. Simple, no secret conspiracy or master plan. WOW, WOW WOW....

 

I have a problem reading long winded posts, so sorry if I did not read the previous posts. Since you are now editing the WRRR article Brian, I thought you would know by know to keep it short and simple.

I'm just a frequent lurker, and don't have a single graph support my opinion, but I'd say the number of trips posted is most definitely down... but there seems to be more people on the river all the time.

So what?  Well,  I'd just like to thank the folks who do still take the time to post trips.  Every once in a while I'm able to join one and I've always met great people willing to share with someone new to a run.... it's a great way for someone to get out with a group outside the usual "gang" or on a river they have never run.

I'd also like to encourage others to post more often if you're going to be on a trip where you could stand some outsiders to your usual group, or have the time to show a first-timer the lines, or maybe even rescuing a beginner.   Seems like that's a big part of what this community is about!

See, no matter how I present the issue of not being able to view trips without logging in you always shoot me down. I have tried over the years, this was just another try...oh well...  

Edited by dave - 12 Nov 2010 at 9:24pm

I definitely don't know the politics behind all of the responses to dave's post, but I've been thinking the same for the past few years.

When I started boating again about 10 years ago (after about 10 years off) you could usually get 2-4 trips a month through WKC. Like Wiggins said, going on trips allowed you to hook up with new paddlers and get a network going. After a few WKC trips I had a group that I could get on the river with sometimes 3 or more times a week. Still, there was usually a WKC trip going on the weekends, and a lot of us ended up leading many of these trips, partly because we wanted to give back.

Then WKC took a turn that killed it for me. Requiring an ACA membership, having to fill out more paperwork than my frickin' mortgage to go on every single trip, and having to pay the club and the ACA just pushed me over the edge. I got into kayaking for many reasons, one was the sense of community among paddlers. It used to be that if you saw someone with a boat on the top of their car you gave them a wave. Sometimes you'd meet them on the river and go out for a beer and some Mexican food after. It was tight. I definitely didn't get into kayaking for paperwork or to protect the "club" from a lawsuit.

Then along came professor paddle. I don't know if James picked up on the same vibe I had, but this site was an anecdote for me. It got back to what I loved about paddling. Someone wanted to hit the river, posted a message and the trip was on. I got out on some great trips with some cool people. If you wanted to know if someone was up for a run, you asked them. If someone was going to swim, it was probably going to be on a class III run or below, so not a big deal to me, just fish in their stuff, and get back on the river. Part of PP was an acknowledgment that we all shared a love of paddling, and getting out with some new folks was part of the fun.

Then I had a couple of kids and more demanding job, and so for the past 4-5 years, my boating dropped from 2-3 times/week to 4-5 times/year. All of the people I paddled with moved on. The difference now is that it's a real challenge to find a group to hook up with on the fly when I get one of those rare weekends when I can actually get out. Years ago I could get a WKC trip, after that a PP trip, now it's a tough.

I definitely hear the worry about having someone join a trip when you don't know about their paddling skill (or if they're a total nut job). But, I think we've lost that sense of a kayaking community that we used to have here in the NW - it didn't take long before you knew most of the people out on the river. Some were out everyday, some you'd see every few months. Sure it's fun to hit a river with your buds. But, it's also cool to get out with some new people, maybe see the river through another set of eyes, hear a story of an epic trip. Pretty soon, you were part of a larger connected group. Almost seems like a reflection of our times that people are becoming more insular. I think we're losing something that elevated kayaking above so many of the other sports we can enjoy here in the NW.

Maybe I'm totally off, and it's just a cycle. Or maybe it's not safe to post a trip. As I read my post, maybe I'm just getting to be a cranky old man! I think I'll go take a nap now.

Ahhh controversy.  We have some, but really I don't think it detracts as much as most seem to think.

The real question is:  Does anybody that wants to join a trip get skunked by the lack of posted trips.

I think if it was happening, that we'd see somebody post about it.  I think this site is awesome and was a GREAT way for me to meet people I never would have met before.

Thanks again for this site James, and I personally like the fact that we have so many different personalities here, it keeps it interesting.

dude dj.... love that avatar!

So, let me see if I got this straight.  Dave is lobbying for a more 'efficient' way to post or check on posted trips.  The 'log-in' is a time eating inconvience- got no patience for that sort of thing.  Is that right? 

Second, this state has an abundance of moving water, but the deal is most of it seems to fall in two distinct catagories:  Novice to intermediate and advanced to expert.  Very little middle ground.

So maybe part of the lack of posting for trips is that many folks who paddle the advanced to expert rivers don't post up for the many reasons already shared.  It would be 'nice' to see more trips posted for folks who are getting on classIII rivers but that is really up to individual community members.  There was a time when Jeff Bowman and others stepped up and posted regular trips out to the Sky.  But I can easily understand why folks who used too don't anymore... its some level of responsibility and maybe because they are already 'connected', . 

At anyrate, whatever it takes to promote the trip ticker is cool, but I don't think that can happen sans log-in. 

Can we make the avatar a scratch and sniff  :)   

 

 

 

 

Kiran:

Sorry to hear that you're only getting on the river 3-5 days a year, but people go through all kinds of phases/transitions in life; priorities change and we all experience it in different ways.

If you're interested in getting out on the river more often, it's really just about getting back into the community. Once you get on someone's mailing list or become familiar with people who paddle regularly, it's really easy to find people to get out with (most of the time). If you haven't already, I'd suggest hitting up some pool sessions to meet people, subscribing to SeattleKayaker (a yahoo e-mailing list), or just post an inquiry-- I'm sure people will respond!

I paddle anything from class II+ to IV on most weekends and the occasional weekday (now that we're reaching the Winter Solstice & there isn't as much daylight). There are a few of us hitting up the Sky tomorrow if you want to join (BD is easily portaged, if you haven't done so before).

Best of luck to you!