Today I’m off to Riverfest in Wisconsin Dells. I don’t know what to expect exactly other than I’m told there will be hundreds of people and I have a clinic to run with no assistance and likely not enough gear or clothing for “drop-in” paddlers. While it will be a nice warm day, the water will be cold. As I started up loading all my extra stuff I thought about how when I first started paddling the first bits of gear I tried influenced what I bought later. Yeah, I got a lot of junk early on too. Events like these remind us that we only have one chance to make a first impression.

The paddle we hand out to new paddlers, the boat we put them in, the jacket we hand them and so forth will stand out in their memories. If they really enjoyed their introduction  and continue to explore paddling, chances are they will shop for the gear they used their very first day on the water. If a jacket doesn’t fit, a paddle is too long or a boat feels too squirrely they are apt to write the brand off unconditionally or worse, the sport, simply for the sake of a negitive experience. You can tell someone that the boat is more advanced or whatever but the experience not the words, will often stick with them. It’s much more important that you have them feeling comfortable on the first go. That means no cold swims, no rescues, no 230cm paddles, and absolutely no itchy paddle jacket collars if they can be avoided.

Now here’s something.. Can you guess where I do most of my, “first introduction to paddling” time? Right along the rocks at my local lake. I can’t count how many times people hiking by on the shoreline will call out to ask some basic questions about kayaking like “What kind of boat is that?”, and usually including a sentence like, “That’s always something I wanted to try…”.

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