Re: Canoe and kayak safety, sponsons

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Scott Bemis) typed:

> I understand due to unusual advertising bouncing around the Internet
> regarding sponsons, this is quite an emotional topic.
>
> [snip happens]
> 
> And yes, they are view with disdain by many and much hated on Internet
> newsgroups - (like bicycling around with training wheels).

Not really.  I don't think anyone has argued that sponsons are not of
potential value when they are viewed as one element in a larger
toolkit of safety skills and devices.

It's not "sponsons", per se, that are hated, but the feller that
markets them by calling "murderers" everyone who teaches any other
safety skill, or the use of any other safety device, and who would
have the use of sponsons mandated by government for all boats
(including whitewater boats, which are completely outside of his
experience, and outside of the experiences you describe).

If he could have discussed his device rationally, and recognized that
it is not a universal panacea, he probably would have been welcomed as
a valuable and creative member of this newsgroup.  But he is obscene
(in his unfeeling references to boaters who have drowned) and
obnoxious -- an inarticulate and irrational spammer -- and nobody
really wants him around.

-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
--
======================================================================
                Richard Hopley, Winston-Salem, NC, USA 
rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net                            1-301-775-0471
      Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll.
rhopley[at]wfubmc[dot]edu                               1-336-713-5077
  OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters.
======================================================================