so its the same quandry that many others isolated from club environment have. I have sooooooooo much to learn.

long time but maybe appreciate it more?

First canoe is on its way here to "bayou country".
I understand it's one used by a team member out in SoCal so "she's" at least an "experienced" little craft.
(Not just huli'ed alot...but with "gusto"!) This has been a long time coming, too. First started 'looking into this stuff' years ago but just was not ready to commit the money needed to try it out or shoulder the extra ship costs.
Not just waiting for boat to make its way around the route to here!

When people start out in a more traditonal club for the big canoes, they do have feedback from others.

I do appreciate the posts and feedback on this site for this purpose.

It's hard to measure how well participation is encouraged by the small boat makers...

(at least for me...[following is update 7/12/2009] maybe the humble nature of island culture..."here, take boat and paddle out...be quiet and see what the water has to teach you" maybe?)

I have witnessed effect of some of those lessons when watching Kaua'i World Challenge...cutting too close to rocks on shore will teach someone LOT$!... There was also that visiting paddler who got so focused during preliminary race that he overshot end and was about to paddle around the Na Pali coast until he was picked up by catamaran tour boat...was a big concern that he had be lost at sea for a while.

Last night I got word that my search for first canoe is nearing end so soon I can lay to rest some of this speculation of my that has been ongoing for all this time! [end of update]

Visit The Reef

looking forward to trying out my own oc-1 fairly soon now after all this time monitoring Keizo's site here.

Too long a story for now....