Don’t cross over to the “pushing”.

With Gauley season and the first releases of Cheoah coming up, this thought occurred to me.

Story first.

New Zealand-South Island-1992. Kayaking the Kawaru. We approached this abandoned bridge. People were bungee jumping off the bridge, some getting dunked, some not, before they rebounded up in the air. Eventually they stopped bouncing and they were lowered into a waiting raft which got them to shore.

We got out to watch. After inquiry, we found that people were paying AJ Hackett company (kind of like the NOC of bungee jumping) NZ$50. An MD from VA was standing next to me. Ever alert to business opportunities we started to count. $50 KA-CHING! $50 KA-CHING! About $100 per minute at the height of the frenzy. We started to speculate about where in the SE US, we could do this. And then we said “No way. We could never get liability insurance for it.”

A Kiwi overheard this and asked “Liability insurance? What’s that mate?”

We told him.

He looked at us. He looked up at the jumpers.

He looked at us again. He looked back up at the jumpers.

In a confused and somewhat frustrated and agitated voice, he pointed up at the jumpers and declared “Blimey!! No one’s pushin’ ’em mate!!”.

And so it goes in the boating community. “No one’s pushin’ you mate!” Or should be.

So my thought is when it is time for you to make a decision, make it and live with it. No one is pushin’ you mate!!

For those who are encouraging others, try hard to stay on the “encouraging”

side of the line and don’t cross over to the “pushing” side of the line.

Have fun. Be safe. Come back and tell the stories.