Page 150 - 2022-08-01 Paddling Magazine

think they need a different frame material or wheel aerodynamic bike with deep-dish wheels and ceramic will try to do it faster, longer and stronger, and others
diameter every couple of years. And when that doesn’t bearings vanishes, either because the gear wears out will cheer them on. I would be lying to suggest I’m
work, they invent a whole new product category, like or gets replaced by something better, or the benefit immune. If anything, I’m just trying to protect my
gravel. Carbon replaced aluminum replaced steel. is neutralized by everybody else buying the same paddling experiences from being corrupted by my
Next comes electronic shifting. Then electric assist. equipment. In the world of competitive sports, the own devilish competitive streak. I spent a morning
I’m their worst nightmare because I bought just top-of-the-line gear becomes a baseline requirement, last summer obsessively watching the Tour de France
one cyclocross bike for commuting two decades ago raising the price of participation. The only true win- riders battle in the Pyrenees, bloodthirstily eager to
and have used it for every type of riding since, from ner is big business, which has figured out how to see who would crack on the Col du Portet. All the
Ironman racing to group road rides to trails. I made con us into spending twice as much, twice as often. while multitasking on my phone to check out how
my bike as long-lived and versatile as my kayak. Can And once sports become competitive, they are inevi- my trail run metrics stacked up on Strava.
you imagine what other industries would say if you tably plagued by scandal and controversy. The never- There’s a place for competition. But I love wilder-
suggested their products should last for as long as ending push and pull of governing bodies struggling to ness canoeing and kayaking all the more because they
we keep our kayaks and canoes? ensure a fair and level playing field while individual com- take me away from it. The whole notion of going into
This nonstop cycle of specialization and obsolescence petitors try to squeak out every possible advantage. And the wilderness is to remove ourselves from the culture
is driven by a business mindset that goes hand-in-hand now there’s the issue of transgender competition, where where such comparisons are possible and to pretend
with the competitive mindset. Nobody ever mentions all at the very time our culture is moving away from binary we’re traveling in a place where there aren’t even any
this so-called innovation is an environmental disaster, identification and toward greater diversity, competition other people to compare ourselves to.
a hyper-acceleration of our disposable culture, or ques- gatekeepers are fortifying their definitions of who can The experience is genuinely playful in that it is
tions whether it is good for the sport’s participants, those compete against whom, all to elevate the winners to a outside the ordinary. It’s too dazzlingly rich and
poor suckers who have to shell out for the gear. When podium. This controversy just underscores the fact that complex to quantify and measure, a Zen koan in
competition creeps in, the gear soon becomes more the only pure competition is ultimately with ourselves. contrast to the linearity of conventional sport. How
technology than craft; we start to take for granted that I prefer sports where the individual experiences are fast we’re paddling and the equipment we’re using
it will be worn out or obsolete within a few years, like unique and participants focus on internal measures doesn’t matter, as long as we get where we need to
an iPhone or a computer, instead of a wooden canoe or of success and the pleasures of the moment, rather go—not just in space but also in spirit.
kayak, which can be indefinitely repaired. than the elevation of the end goal, and where the
Soon enough, whatever competitive edge you equipment is secondary to the experience. Contrarian columnist Tim Shuff is a former editor of
get from the carbon-plated running shoes or the Sure, anytime humans take on an activity, some Adventure Kayak magazine.