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Anyone remember Paddlewise.net?

SandMarks

SandMarks

Paddler
Joined
Mar 10, 2008
Messages
80
Location
Costa Mesa, CA
I'm a long way from the ocean now, but I love to reminisce about my time on the water and one thing that always comes to mind is Paddlewise.net. It was a place to meet kayakers from all over the world, some who have found their way here to WCP. I was an active poster there and enjoyed meeting and reading about everyone's kayak adventures.
I've lost all my old correspondence, except a random posting or two that somehow got saved, but I wonder what happened to that cache of kayak knowledge from all the years it was active. You can find the site still, but it's like the way back machine and attempts to sign up come up empty.
I'd give an eye tooth to pore over all those old conversation and wonder if they exist somewhere.
So anyone else remember PW? WCP seems to be keeping up the flame, although I don't know if it has the international following that Paddlewise had. I was always a southern West Coast Paddler and felt a bit like I was intruding when I posted here, though certainly no one ever made me feel that way. I'm glad to find this site still posting watery memories and still hope to write one or two more before I'm through!
Thanks for the memories.
Mark Sanders
 
SandMarks said:
I'm a long way from the ocean now, but I love to reminisce about my time on the water and one thing that always comes to mind is Paddlewise.net. It was a place to meet kayakers from all over the world, some who have found their way here to WCP. I was an active poster there and enjoyed meeting and reading about everyone's kayak adventures.
I've lost all my old correspondence, except a random posting or two that somehow got saved, but I wonder what happened to that cache of kayak knowledge from all the years it was active. You can find the site still, but it's like the way back machine and attempts to sign up come up empty.
I'd give an eye tooth to pore over all those old conversation and wonder if they exist somewhere.
So anyone else remember PW? WCP seems to be keeping up the flame, although I don't know if it has the international following that Paddlewise had. I was always a southern West Coast Paddler and felt a bit like I was intruding when I posted here, though certainly no one ever made me feel that way. I'm glad to find this site still posting watery memories and still hope to write one or two more before I'm through!
Thanks for the memories.
Mark Sanders
Click to expand...
I do remember paddlewise. A high level of discourse, including John (Winter?) providing pretty much a free seminar on kayak design and hull shapes. And then Sponson Tim wrecking it with his endless flame wars (that experience is the reason I try to shut problematic people on WCP pronto.) I am glad that many of the former paddlewisers have found a new home here and are contributing their expertise.

And please don't feel like an intruder because you're from the southern part of the West Coast - you're very welcome here!
 
Yes, I came on just after most of the Sponson wars had ended! Having missed them, I had actually already bought a pair and have to say, they seem to be holding up nicely, though I never used them much. John Winters impressed me and my first boat was a QCC 500XL, which I picked over a Matt Broze Mariner, mostly because of price! I still own it 23 years later, but always wanted a Mariner.
Don't worry, I never felt like too much of an intruder having corresponded with Doug Lloyd and I think Astoria Dave on PW. I got several invitations to come up north from people in the Washington area and had a few people come down to visit the OC as well. Thanks for responding.
 
The wayback archive looks like only the front end - I remember the interchange part being on some kind of email listserver and with later on: being choked with hundreds of emails from the sponsonguy steppin on and overloading anything.
 
Mick, I think you are right. All the correspondence was on a list server. It used to be that someone would let you request old posts, but I never received anything I tried to request. I never really realized how disruptively crazy sponson guy was!
 
Funny thing is - that the idea and even his resolution was entirely valid but just not to the extent that he pushed it and believed it.

I use a similar concept as a backup to backups that I've never used [except in practice].
 
I agree. I was never to enthralled with paddle float reentries and the sponsons seemed like they could be a life saver if someone became incapacitated on a trip. They still don't seem to have degraded much over the years, so I'll blow them up and stick them in a hatch sometimes for back up buoyancy.
 
SandMarks said:
I agree. I was never to enthralled with paddle float reentries and the sponsons seemed like they could be a life saver if someone became incapacitated on a trip. They still don't seem to have degraded much over the years, so I'll blow them up and stick them in a hatch sometimes for back up buoyancy.
Click to expand...
And that's the sad thing: the sponsons really would have a place for some paddlers. The problem was Tim's insistence that they were all things to all people, and that kayak manufacturers'/kayak retailers' refusal to make them standard equipment was a conspiracy, and that if you disagreed with him, you were part of the conspiracy.

It was that same time frame (the 90s) that I was working at MEC. MEC's paddlesports buyer actually brought in a few pairs of Tim's sponsons to test market (I took out a pair, tested them, and though they'd be great as "training wheels" for folks transitioning from SOTs to sit-inside kayaks, photographers wanting a steady platform, and paddlers for whom the paddlefloat rescue didn't work for whatever reason.) But in the end, the paddlesports buyer couldn't deal with Tim's attitude that "no one who buys a kayak from MEC should leave the store without a pair of these magical sponsons..."
 
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