At least I am trying to be humorous... Besides, it's not that frivilous if you think about the sport now. When we started this, it really was a surfer motivated, more iconoclastic type of sport that had far more "seat of the pants" attitude and gusto.

Look at the original tapes of Surfers Phil Edwards, the great stylist, and Hobie Alter, both who were integral in the development of the beach cat. Those early tapes of Hobie busting through the surf on the 14 and Phil and Hobie letting it all hang out... that is what seems to be missing from the new Cat sailors laden with gear and mega-buck boats.

I guess the paddle thing was just a point I was trying to make along these lines. Seems the sport has lost a bit of this feeling to me. The other day, I was out and I saw this guy on a Miracle 20 with every single piece of gear on you could find. I would bet his accessories cost more than my boat. My point? Not really much of one as most, including me, would ultimately say whatever floats your boat. Yet a part of cat sailing is gone with all this crap. At least in my view. And a lot of these gear heads couldnt sail their way out of a paper bag.

You learn to make do and survive without all his stuff and use your wits and WATER SENSE to make it through difficult situations.

What does a paddle have to do with this? Not too much...but I guess I will manage without one.

kh