If I were alone, I would cry.
And if I were with you, I’d be home and dry.
And if I go insane,
And they lock me away,
Will you still let me join in the game?
- pink floyd

Oh, don’t think I don’t ask myself that question quite regularly. It’s certainly a fair question as well. I remember a particular conversation with a man last summer at one of the mid-west symposiums about this very subject. He opened of course by saying, “I follow your blog regularly”, which is always nice. Then he hesitated and asked, “What’s your goal?” Well, I know it may seem bloody abstract. Especially in this day and age, but I didn’t really have an answer. I mean, I just do because I do. . .

You don’t have to race to ride a bike. You don’t have to be the fastest or first to paddle a kayak. Often the joy in the things we do is simply in the doing. If we have a win, or make a buck or whatever while doing what we enjoy we can just enjoy the frosting. Still though, as I went through the task of updating KayakQuixotica I certainly suffered a few “Why” moments myself.

The surface is the easy part really. Like walking through a desert, everything looks the same. It’s not until the archeologists start digging that you begin to see the complexities under the surface. In the case of this website is comes down to 55 pages of regular content and another 1,449 blog posts added over 4 years. Lost in there among all the chatter, belly button staring, and random musings, are also an enormous number of posts about learning to paddle better, contemplations about coaching, product reviews, video clips, and even some nice interviews with some paddlers we’ve all come to know. So even if only 10% of all these posts were worth the read that’s still 150 articles! Most of those basically lost under the sand unless you search or browse by category or whatever. One thing is sure, if I’m going to keep this up I have to find a better way to sort.

Now of course I’ve had lots of practice dealing with websites and I sort of know how to organize. The problem is that with a blog type thing you don’t really think far enough ahead. Especially when I think back 4 years to when I had no idea what or why I was doing it, and I could have never guess so many folks would be here daily either following along with the chatter, reading old posts through search engines or browsing the regular content. So I did a bit of a hackneyed job to start with. Anyway, call this a cautionary tale for all you bloggers out there. Get organized before you have a mountain to move!

The next couple years will be interesting in the world of kayak blogging I think. I still see more and more folks coming online. Some blogs are now attempting to become “online magazines” and looking for profit,  some are seeking advertisers and using advanced layouts to resemble Time magazine. Of course our little sport is way too small to support a plethora of online magazines. Well, profitable ones anyway. There are only so many advertiser bucks to go around. Not to mention the fact that blogs still list fairly low on the “bang for your buck” scale of advertising until they really, really do a good job reaching a niche market. I’ve never really been all that sure there was a profit in paddle blogging, but maybe someone much more savvy than me will prove me to be wrong or stupid. (or both)

All that brings me back to this latest edition of KayakQuixotica. For my part it’s just simply enjoyable. I can write as I please with no one to determine what I may or may not write about within reason. No editors telling me not to be “flowery”, and no deadlines to meet. Changing the look serves me, as much if not more than anyone since I have to look at it more than anyone! Yeah, call it narcissistic, but it’s true. Thankfully I don’t have much cost involved in running the site either so I don’t need to beg for support or please everyone who potentially could invest. Of course as I’ve always said, I’m happy to have sponsors or advertisers but only if I love their stuff and they are happy to let me be me. Yeah, I’ll never have 2000 logos on my website with that attitude!!

In the end if “a change is as good as a rest” the new look will just freshen things up a bit and maybe help folks more easily find some content buried under the sands of time. Just the fact that I’m sitting here 4 year later and working through another re-design speaks mostly to the fact that you are here following along.  Which in the end makes it all worthwhile. I don’t know how to say it without sounding trite or phony but I appreciate that. Thank you, and I look forward to 2009 and another year of, as my new tag line says, “Paddling through life’s little adventures.”

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