3 Kayakers Pointedly Ignored Me

[Charlie43]

Anytime I have a boat on the roof racks --or am launching/landing-- I get one of two reactions. Some people walk over, admire the boat, and ask if I built it.  Others make a point of ignoring me. They don't say “Hello” when I look their way and subsequently refuse to make eye contact. It happened again at Smith and Bybee this morning.  

I was coming off the water with a good looking, vee-bottomed, double-knuckled pram on the dolly and wheeled right past three kayakers getting ready to put in. Their boats weren't bottom-of-the-line. But they were plastic, which meant my boat trumped theirs in terms of tradition and prestige, and not a one of them would make eye contact.

This what I think is the underlying dynamic. If someone has spent a lot of money on a plastic boat, they don't want to be upstaged by a homemade wooden one, no matter how pretty the wooden boat might be. This is too bad, because there's room in the world --or on the water-- for both.

[MarkR]

Who knows why they ignored your presence.  I've found a lot of plastic boaters are just oblivious to the wooden boat.  A boat is an appliance to them and it just doesn't matter.  That's OK - they don't share an appreciation of a well-crafted vessel which is the product of human hands, not a chopper gun and a mould.  

A lot of boaters are focused on one type of boat - if your boat isn't the type, then they don't care.

Some fisherman seem to think that the only thing that floats is an aluminum boat.  

There's a place in this world for all of us.  Maybe, sometime in the future, two of those guys might sit down over a beer and say: "...remember that guy with the little wooden boat at Smith & Bybee...?"   We never know how we influence the world by following our own paths.

[Charlie43]

Mark,

Thoughtful reply, thank you, though I'm still annoyed at them (and others). I could tell from their body language they had seen me and were choosing to ignore me. Somewhat the same thing happens in cycling. Them not kitted in cycling drag --at least to the extent of a jersey- AND not wearing a helmet get no recognition from me. But everyone else I pass on a road or trail gets a nod or wave. Same-same whenever I see a wooden boat anywhere. I'll always stop to admire. Most often it's a kayak from Pygmy --whose lines are distinctive -- or a stripper canoe. Not my kind of boats. But it brings joy into my day to see them and to chat a bit with their builder-owners.

Charlie

[MarkR]

I feel the same way about helmets   Wear one or you don't value your brain!  (I have personal proof, surviving a 40 mph rag-doll event.)  

As for boats, it seems that there are those that truly approach their boats the same way they approach their toaster.  That you have a really cool wooden toaster doesn't matter to them.  (grin!)

Matters to me.  Thanks for the opportunity to row that lovely little pram this morning.  It was delightful!  Except that it needed a better oarsman in cramped quarters!  But at least I didn't break one of your oars this time!

Cheers!

[Charlie43]

Mark,

A couple years ago, someone disrupted a rowing race in the UK, claiming that rowing was "an elitist sport" and shouldn't be tolerated. The same accusation is made of sailing.  The same can be said of high-end wooden boats. There is merit in those accusations.  But the solution to the perceived "social inequality/social injustice" shouldn't be to take away those activities from them already pursuing them, but to point toward the avenues of access that do exist for those who would want to join.

Most of the envious won't follow up, of course. Rowing is a brutal sport, requiring many hours each week of grueling effort, as does sailing, as does high-end boat-building. I think that effort should be acknowledged, not disparaged or banned, which is why I expect a nod and wave when I'm on a bike or in a boat I built myself and why I'm quick to extend one to others, not from a sense of "elitism", but because it's fun to encounter other members of my "tribe".

"Did you build it yourself?" is my favorite question.  
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I'm glad you broke that oar. Had I been a half mile off shore when it happened to me, I'd have been in serious trouble.

Charlie