11-01-2003, 11:29 PM
[cool]I would like to think that with age comes wisdom. In float tubing, using your head to figure it out, and then proceeding slowly will help insure that you don't go butt over teakettle. Some young fellers get all charged up and think they are invincible. They just splash out and flop in the water any old way they can. That's what results in getting wet clothes and broken rods. I have seen it happen.
You did it right, Dryrod, my friend. Although, when some of us kneel, it is only to pray that we can get back up.
Having owned or field tested a major number of the tubes, uboats and mini pontoon craft on the market, I have been surprised by the liitle eccentricities each has in designs and capabilities. You have to develop a separate checklist of things to do on each launching and beaching, for each different craft. This is especially true when your craft has a stabilizer bar to hold the two sides of a uboat or vboat together. Different designs reauire different procedures for attachment.
Once you have taken a new craft out and worked out the processes it becomes second nature. The first time you try to launch a new craft, however, you are reminded that you still don't know it all. But, it is always fun...especially for the onlookers sometimes.
It is not a prerequisite that you make a fool of yourself when you get your first float tube. The newer open front models make things a lot easier. But, the old round tubes sure lassoed a lot of rookies around the ankles and threw them for three point takedowns (wrestling term).
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You did it right, Dryrod, my friend. Although, when some of us kneel, it is only to pray that we can get back up.
Having owned or field tested a major number of the tubes, uboats and mini pontoon craft on the market, I have been surprised by the liitle eccentricities each has in designs and capabilities. You have to develop a separate checklist of things to do on each launching and beaching, for each different craft. This is especially true when your craft has a stabilizer bar to hold the two sides of a uboat or vboat together. Different designs reauire different procedures for attachment.
Once you have taken a new craft out and worked out the processes it becomes second nature. The first time you try to launch a new craft, however, you are reminded that you still don't know it all. But, it is always fun...especially for the onlookers sometimes.
It is not a prerequisite that you make a fool of yourself when you get your first float tube. The newer open front models make things a lot easier. But, the old round tubes sure lassoed a lot of rookies around the ankles and threw them for three point takedowns (wrestling term).
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