Editorial: Focal Points in 1998

February-March 1998

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

By Alan Wilson

As we enter our eighth season, we continue to welcome more and more paddlers to our circle, to the community of all paddlers. We welcome you to a network of subscribers, writers, photographers, correspondents, distributors and advertisers - the friends who help us bring you WaveLength every two months. This year we look forward to making new contacts around the globe as the word gets out that our magazine is available on the WWW, as well as the usual kayaking shops and outdoor stores in selected sites around North America. We look forward to bringing you another year of informative articles which help us all explore the skills and joys of paddling safety and wilderness experience.

WOMEN IN PADDLING

As this issue was coming together, we realized that all the major articles are written by women and about women. (No offense guys.) This unanticipated concentration of material earned it the feature title for this issue.

Sea kayaking attracts people of both genders because it's one of the most gender-equalizing activities available. Most paddlers, regardless of age, size, sex or experience, cruise at near the same speed-roughly walking speed. Finesse is far more important to good paddling than power.

Surveys have shown over 50% of casual paddlers are women. Many tour companies now offer women-only trips. Some companies are owned by women. And young women are finding sea kayak guiding an attractive career option (48% of professional guides are female under the age of 25).

Sea kayaking is an arena which is being used by women to seek their identities, their physical and spiritual strengths, their healing and their freedom. But this doesn't mean there aren't gender tensions to be worked out. For example, 90% of professional instructors are men. Stories of lingering sexism in instruction and guiding indicate that male /female dynamics remain an important issue in terms of safety, client satisfaction, guide turnover, etc.

We believe that with the proper tools, leaders of both genders can facilitate the progression not only of individual skills but also understanding between the sexes.

To that end, we invite your response to the questionnaire on gender issues on page 21. The confidential data will be compiled by one of our researchers for our April/ May issue.

MOTHERSHIP KAYAKING

In the year ahead, we will also be looking at a new way of travelling which is starting to make an impact in the paddling community. Over the last few years, we've watched as a number of kayak operators have begun employing motherships or support boats. This is a different sort of kayaking, a less intimidating way to get started, a way to build skills and experience for future unsupported tours of your own. Supported kayaking can be a pleasant and safe way to kayak out of season, to distant locales, and offers an alternative if you're physically unable or unwilling to undergo the rigors (and the joys) of camping.

COMPACT KAYAKS

In conjunction with our look at mothershipping, we will explore compact kayaks, the smaller breed of day kayak which can be easily carried and launched by anyone, or added to power and sail vessels. After anchoring boaters can launch for an evening's exploration of the coast's subtler byways, rock gardens, kelp groves, narrow channels, rivers... Such kayaks are intended primarily for day-use, with little or no cargo capacity, a minimum boat. This category includes inflatables or foldables, as well as the smaller breed of hardshell sea and whitewater boats, or wooden home-builts and kits.

OTHER TOPICS

1998 is the UN International Year of the Ocean, so we will inform you of issues and activities throughout the year. And we plan to take a special look at Alaska... our neighbor to the north. What wonders await on glacially graced fjords? What issues do we share? We invite your input on any of these topics. -AW