Comments on: Risk-Taker?

By: Donald Keller

Donald Keller — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 14:09:03 +0000

Thanks for this and the Sneakbox articles. I grew up in New Orleans and was fortunate enough to sail in the lake and canoe/kayak in the bayous with my dad and go fishing in the marshes with my grandpa. Will definitely try to inspire this adventure in my kids. Thanks!

By: DALLEN BOUNDS

DALLEN BOUNDS — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 18:00:48 +0000

GREAT JOB! You still got it…

By: Peter Hendrickson

Peter Hendrickson — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 17:46:30 +0000

As the risk, real or perceived, grows, the senses sharpen and we take notice of the small details we ignore when all is well. That totally-in-the-moment situational awareness is the reward, one you've won so many times over. Thanks for the long piece, Chris. And for continuing well beyond Sea Kayaker.

By: Christopher Cunningham

Christopher Cunningham — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 17:12:52 +0000

In reply to Marty Johnson. Right your are! My apologies for the typo. I've made the correction. —Ed.

By: Marty Johnson

Marty Johnson — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 17:42:57 +0000

“Susan Butcher, a dog-sled musher who had competed seven times in the grueling 138-mile Iditarod sled-dog race in Alaska.”
938 miles!

By: Thomas Buzzi

Thomas Buzzi — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 23:18:51 +0000

I generally prepare for my wilderness excursions. But preparation goes only so far. The un-expected has its own ideas of what will happen. No one goes out to die. But facing a threatening situation and being able to dig deep to endure it is a high reward for living one’s life. I really enjoy reading about others who reach out beyond the comforts of home. Every adventure they have is different from my own but all contain that last-day feeling of accomplishment.

By: Brad Kurlancheek

Brad Kurlancheek — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:40:34 +0000

Beautifully written, Chris. Thanks

By: William Dowdell

William Dowdell — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 21:26:24 +0000

I very much agree with the statement: “the real risk would have been to let the dreams it inspired pass and to enter adulthood without following in his wake”. I am 76 years old and am still married to the woman I love, working at a job I enjoy, and exploring Narragansett Bay with family and friends in a boat that I built when 65. All of those things required evaluating and taking risks.

In my early 20s, as an Army officer in the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta, circumstances compelled me to formulate a strategy for dealing with risk. Risk was unavoidable and had to be managed effectively. It was easy to see that goals, not fears, were the more effective drivers of decision making.

Excess fear and caution are paralyzing and multiply risk. Siezing the initiative and managing fear-enducing risk with knowledge and preparation diminish actual risk.

Missing out on living by avoiding reasonable risk is a tragic waste of that life.