A mass demotion

There are no PFDs here.*

Yesterday we called an emergency meeting of all our paddling gear, poured a few drinks, and broke the news as gently as we could. All the PFDs are now lifejackets**, we explained. We're sorry, but this wasn't our decision, we told them. We're only following orders.
The MsFits took it well. One of the Lotuses shed a few tears. The Locean asked for another shot.

* with apologies to Alex Kotlowitz.
** see the italicized portion at the end of the previous post.

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Stapleless Boat Building

Today Glen posted on the Kayak Building Bulletin Board a link to photos from the recent joint WCHA reunion and Bear Mountain Rendezvous 2008. Going through a few of those photos, something caught my eye (aside from many beautiful wooden boats). It was a series of photos that depicted a novel method of securing strips for stapleless building. Building with wood strips requires that the strips be held tightly to adjacent strips while the glue dries, and to the station mold for the duration of the stripping. Typically, staples are used to achieve this. Staples are fast and effective, but they do leave behind a row of little holes at each station. Many builders use clamps, jigs, tape and bungee cord (or all of the above) to hold the strips in place while building. I tried this initially while building the Guillemot, but I decided to revert to staples in the name of speed and efficiency. The method shown in Glen's photos from the BM Rendezvous uses a wire device attached to bungee to hold the strips down against the previous strips, the bungee is tightened using a chain that can be hooked to the right length to the strongback. Meanwhile, a strap which goes around each form keeps the strips tight to the forms. This latter component seems to solve one of the perpetual problems of some stapleless methods which would allow the joined strips to move away from the forms. In areas such as at the bow of the Guillemot kayak which have a concave curve, wedges would probably be needed to maintain the pressure to hold the strips tightly to the forms.

The straps and jigs are being assembled and sold as a kit by Ron Frenette of Canadian Canoes. The kits are pricey ($375) but seem like a pretty slick system for building a fine piece of woodcraft.

Teach early and often

After several days of paddling for fun -- something that goes by the term "personal paddling" in our kayak logs -- we were scheduled to teach a Level 2 class yesterday at Geneva Kayak Center. The class began at 9 a.m. at the Big Rock Quarry in Sugar Grove, but we had to leave our house pretty early to drive to Geneva; hitch up the trailer; load the spray skirts, life jackets*, paddles, pumps and paddle floats; stop for more coffee; and get to the quarry before the students arrived.

Time to get on the road. That's a.m., not p.m.

On the drive out, we reviewed our lesson plan, making a few modifications based on new ideas we'd been thinking and talking about. We wrote an outline on an index card and put it in a zip-lock baggie because we were too sleepy to keep more than one idea in our heads at a time, and right then, that idea was the need to drink more coffee.

Boats and gear are loaded up, and we're ready to head for the quarry.

Shortly after we arrived at the quarry, our students began showing up. They were excited, and their mood was infectious. Before long, the five-hour night was forgotten and time began to fly.

This is what makes it all worthwhile.

Six hours evaporated. We aren't even sure where they went. We worked on wet exits, strokes and rescues. We talked about safety and local paddling opportunities. And in the process, a group of strangers began to feel like a group of friends, and a group of beginners gained considerable skills. At the end, it was hard to say "good-bye," and many of them lingered, helping us strap down the boats and chatting.
Teaching is rewarding on many levels. Students force you to think about why and how you do the things that you do without thinking. They require you to figure out how they learn so you can effectively teach them. They remind you how far you've come as a paddler. And they reinforce your conviction that kayaking is a blast.

* Yes, we know. We wanted to write "PFDs," but we just got the following note from the American Canoe Association:
"USCG says 'Lifejackets'
"It has been clarified by the USCG that the use of the term
lifejackets is back and should be used when discussing the essential
piece of equipment all paddlers should have and should wear.
"The only time the term / acronym PFD is being used is when discussing
the types of lifejackets and/or regulation issues.
"It will be a challenge for many of use [sic] to change the terminology that
we use, but to keep with the winds of change we thought you should
know that the USCG will be using 'lifejackets' for general terms
and PFD for regulatory reference."
A challenge, indeed!

Crosstraining redefined

The BCU (British Canoe Union) recently revised its requirements for certified coaches, requiring more interdisciplinary skills. It's no longer sufficient to be able to teach one type of paddlesport; coaches are now expected to be able to teach students to paddle a variety of boat types.
We've begun an interdisciplinary approach of our own, too, though mostly in jest.

Stand-up paddling. Harder than it looks!

Skin-on-frame boat with Euro paddle. Sillier than it looks.

Ready, set, surf!

Yesterday, Hannah, Alec & Sharon took Clare (8) and her mom, Karin, to 63rd Street Beach.

Ready.

Set.

Surf!

Handmade in India: The team and the mission

Image: Book Launch function at the Rajiv Gandhi Handicrafts Bhavan, New Delhi presided on by Shri Shankarsinh Vaghela, the Honourable Minister of Textiles, Government of India.

This project was handled at the National Institute of Design from early 2002 when the proposal was drafted by the NID team and it went through many phases of research and design till the book was finally in print by the end of August 2007. However the book release was delayed for various reasons but we now hope that the sale and distribution copies will be available widely in India and overseas through the Mapin Publishing network as well as the Office of the Development Commissioner of Handicrafts, Government of India. The list of people involved in the various stages of work and on various aspects of its creation are listed on pages 562 and 563 of the book and this list is reproduced below for the blog post here.

Besides these contributors listed in the Credits pages we have listed a full set of implicit contributors in the form of an Annotated Bibliography from pages 551 to 556 covering the numerous crafts documentations studies done at NID over the past 40 years that have been a foundation on which this particular structure has been built for the production of this publication. Further, pages 558 to 560 has a list of all field contributors with whom our teams had interacted and drawn support from during the elaborate field work phase that was done over the four years when the content was being compiled and verified through forays in the field. Page 561 has a list of all Museums and private collections from which images or samples were referred for filling in some of the material that has appeared in the book. The bibliography and list of useful websites are listed in pages 556 and 557. We do hope that much of the material in the book will appear as part of the proposed web portal that is planned as phase four of this very interesting project in the days ahead. This would be modeled after the emerging web 2.0 paradigm and be an interactive platform that can assist our vast crafts community to connect with the world in new and exciting ways. This would be the foundation for the growth of the creative economy of the future that is based on the enormous crafts skills of India that we hope will be strengthened as we move forward from here.

Image: Screen Capture of the Credits page from Handmade in India. The full text is listed below.

Credits

Concept and Structure :
Aditi Ranjan, M P Ranjan & Jogi Panghaal

Editors: Aditi Ranjan, M P Ranjan

Preliminary Research: M P Ranjan, Jogi Panghaal, Kuntal De, Jonak Das, Mushtak Khan, Aditi Ranjan, Navrang Panchal

Library and Archival Research: Bhavneet Kaur, Archana Vidwans, Anuradha Nambiar, Vellachi Ramanathan, Deepa Varia, Nikita Mehta, Priyanka Bhattacharya, Vinutha Mallya, Sushma Shetty Sreenath, Aratrik Devvarman, Pooja Jha, Arghya Sinha Roy, M P Ranjan, Aditi Ranjan, Sangita Shroff, Zenobia Zamindar, Poorvi Das, Shankar Natarajan, Tush Singh

Technical Glossary: P Ramakrishna Rao, M P Ranjan, Gunjan Singh, Kuntal De, Aditi Ranjan

Index & Resource Mapping: M P Ranjan, Aditi Ranjan, Pooja Jha, Arghya Sinha Roy, Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen

Annotated Bibliography: Swadha Majumdar, Mann Singh, Aditi Ranjan, Nirmala Khadpekar

Copy Editing: Anuradha Nambiar, Sushma S Shetty, Paulomi Das, Priyanka Bhattacharya, Vinutha Mallya, Archana Vidwans, Diana Romany, Sushmita De

Proof Reading: Diana Romany, Vinutha Mallya

Book Design — Zenobia Zamindar, Girish Arora
Book Design Feedback: Subrato Bhowmick, Siddhartha Ghosh, Mookesh Patel, Mahendra Patel, S M Shah, Vikas Satwalekar, Anand Naorem, Uzma Mohsin, Devashish Bhattacharya, Bipin Shah, Paulomi Shah, Rajesh Dahiya

Photography Management: Deepak John Matthew, NID Photography Department, Girish Arora, Zenobia Zamindar, Navrang Panchal, Kinjal Popat, M P Ranjan

Assistance for Book Cover: Mona Gonsai, Neelakash Singh, Aparna Ranjan

Design Assistance: Krupa Kapadia, Kinjal Popat, Navrang Panchal, Keyur Payghode, Umesh Patel, Kajal Savalia, Rajorshi Ghosh, Jhumur Roy, Mehul Ruparel, Kapil Agarwal, Aparna Ranjan, Parinita Purohit, M R Patel, Shirish Shah, Suresh Modia

Proofing Assistance: Pragathi Offset Pvt Ltd., Hyderabad, Patel Printing Press, Ahmdedabad, Repro Scan, Mumbai

Field Research
NORTH:
Chandigarh: Divya Lahoria, Bhavneet Kaur
Delhi: Anuradha Nambiar, Shaurya Kumar, Amit Jain, Jonak Das, Kuntal De, Bhavneet Kaur, P. Alexander
Haryana: Sumit Saini, Ravinder Sirohiya, Bhavneet Kaur
Himachal Pradesh: Sandeep Trichal, Malhar Dhruv,
Shaswaty Nair, Paromita Banerjee
Jammu and Kashmir: Minali Singh, Sucharita Beniwal, Sharon Vellane, V Bhaskar, Mustafa Merchant, Chinar Farooqui, Farah Deba, Sandeep Trichal, Anuradha Nambiar
Punjab: Bhavneet Kaur, Divya Lahoria
Rajasthan: Anuradha Nambiar, Swasti Singh Ghai, Amit Jain, Poorvi Das, Chinar Farooqui, Errol Pires

CENTRE:
Uttar Pradesh: Bhavneet Kaur, Biswajit Hazra, Anupama Srivastava, Shantanu Jena
Uttaranchal: Praveen Nahar, Dhriti Dhoundiyal, Manish Pillewar, Sandeep Paul, Ashish Chaudhary, Bishakha Shome

EAST:
Bihar: Amit Jain, Sandeep Trichal
Jharkhand: Shaurya Kumar, Amit Jain
Orissa: Shaurya Kumar, Kadambari Misra, Amit Jain
Sikkim: Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen, Shweta Jain,
West Bengal: Jonak Das, Anirban Dutta Gupta, Dhrujoti Prasad Bhattacharya, Vydianathan R, Ramu Aravindan

SOUTH:
Andhra Pradesh: Vellachi Ramanathan, Sandeep Sangaru, Munir Vahanvati, Satish Nagendra, Kurma Rao
Karnataka: Hema Mathew, Jogi Panghaal, Mayura Ingle, Shashikala, Accessory Design, NIFT Bangalore: Tanveer Ratti, Vivek Saurabh, Lalan Parikh, Sanskruti Thorat, Sandeep Pradhan, Sanil Dhadwal, Shwetnisha Bansal Swagata Sarkar, Bibin Phillips, Abul Quasim, Saurav Kumar, Kadhambini Majhee, Divya Sanwaiya, Shika Agarwal, Vinay Kumar
Kerala: Anuradha Nambiar, Nikita Mehta, Kritika Malhotra, Ashokan Poduval
Pondicherry: Shankar Natarajan, Vellachi Ramanathan, Subhashree Karthik
Tamil Nadu: Shankar Natarajan, Shriya Sridharan, Hema Mathew, Vellachi Ramanathan, Ambika Sambasivan, Subhashree Karthik, Akhila Krishnan

WEST:
Chhattisgarh: Nityan Unnikrishnan, Rukmini Guha Thakurta
Dadra & Nagar Haveli: Nikita Mehta, Shehzad Irani
Daman & Diu: Nikita Mehta, Shehzad Irani, Vaishnavi Murthy
Goa: Aratrik Devvarman, Minali Singh
Gujarat: Nikita Mehta, Virsingh Kawar Chhatri, Purvi Mehta, Shehzad Irani, Malhar Dhruv, Deepa Varia, Yasoda Ramesh, Jyoti Sharma, Sumita Chaudhary, Rekha Meena, Jigisha Patel, Aratrik Devvarman
Madhya Pradesh: R Umamaheshwaran, Abhinav Baluni, Yasoda Ramesh, Jyoti Sharma, Shruti Phagre
Maharashtra: Nikita Mehta, Nirmal Jain, Milind Risaldar, Komal Khankhoje, Ketna Contractor, Chandrashekhar Bhadve

NORTHEAST:
Arunachal Pradesh: Ramu Aravindan, Mriganka Madhukaillya
Assam: Ramu Aravindan, Mriganka Madhukaillya, Sukanya Sanyal
Manipur: Mriganka Madhukaillya, Sukumar Haobam,
Ramu Aravindan
Meghalaya: Mehul Vadher, Shalini Sahoo
Mizoram: Deborah Zama, Priya Dhar, Rupali Rudra
Nagaland: Ramu Aravindan, Mriganka Madhukaillya
Tripura: M P Ranjan, Sandeep Sangaru, Dimple Soni, Shimolee Nahar, Nibha Jain, Aratrik Devvarman

Photography Credits
NORTH:
Delhi: Shailen Parker, Sudeep Chaudhury, Amit Jain, M F Jadliwala
Haryana: Ravinder Sirohiya
Himachal Pradesh: Malhar Dhruv, Shaswaty Nair, Paromita Banerjee
Jammu and Kashmir: Malhar Dhruv, Chinar Farooqui, Farah Deba, Minali Singh, V Bhaskar, Sharon Vellane, Sucharita Beniwal, Sundeep Sangaru
Punjab: Divya Lahoria
Rajasthan: Amit Jain, Bhagawan Das, Ashok Kumar Suthar, Sohan Lal, Rani Dan Joshi, Sunil Rakecha, Errol Pires, M F Jadliwala, Poorvi Das, Girish Arora, Sandeep Sangaru

CENTRE:
Uttar Pradesh: Biswajit Hajra
Uttranchal: Praveen Nahar, Manish Pillewar, Dhriti Dhaundiyal, Sandeep Paul, Ashish Chaudhary

EAST:
Bihar: Amit Jain, Anil Sinha
Jharkhand: Amit Jain
Orissa: Amit Jain, Kadmabari Misra, Ramu Aravindan
Sikkim: Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen, Shweta Jain, Karma Sonam
West Bengal: Ramu Aravindan, Anirban Dutta Gupta, Jonak Das, Jitendra Arora

SOUTH:
Andhra Pradesh: Ramu Aravindan, Munir Vahanvati, Sandeep Sangaru, Satish Nagendra
Karnataka: Ramu Aravindan, Hema Mathew, Mayura Ingle, M P Ranjan, Jogi Panghaal, Divya Sanwaya, Vinay Kumar, Lalan Parikh, Sandeep Pradhan, Shwetnisha Bansal, Bibin Philips, Saurav Kumar
Kerala: Kritika Malhotra, Ramu Aravindan, Ashokan Poduval, Sushanth C S
Pondicherry: Shankar Natarajan, Subhashree Karthik, Krishna Priya
Tamil Nadu: Ramu Aravindan, Shankar Natarajan, Hema Mathew, S Jayachandran, N Prassana Kumar, Krishna Priya, Akhila Krishnan, Subhashree Karthik, Ambika Sambasivan

WEST:
Chhattisgarh: Rukmini Guja Thakurta, Mushtak Khan, Jogi Panghaal, Rajni Srivastava, Shaila Kunhu
Dadra & Nagar Haveli: Shehzad Irani
Daman & Diu: Shehzad Irani, Vaishnavi Murthy
Goa: Minali Singh
Gujarat: Deepak John Matthew, Shehzad Irani, Malhar Dhruv, Munir Vahanvati, Purvi Mehta, Jigisha Patel, Rekha Meena, Aratrik Devvarman, Shankar Natarajan, Zenobia Zamindar
Madhya Pradesh: Abhinav Baluni, Jyoti Sharma, Yasoda
Ramesh, Mushtak Khan, Pooja Jha
Maharashtra: Chandrashekhar Bhadve, Ketna Contractor, Nirmal Jain, Poorvi Das, Navleen Singh

NORTHEAST:
Arunachal Pradesh: Ramu Aravindan
Assam: Ramu Aravindan, M P Ranjan, Saleem Bhatri, Amogh Chaugule, Deven Jamsandhekar, Kiran Katbamna
Manipur: Ramu Aravindan, Rupali Rudra, Aratrik Dev Varman
Meghalaya: Mehul Vadher, Shalini Sahoo, M P Ranjan
Mizoram: Deborah Zama
Nagaland: Ramu Aravindan
Tripura: M P Ranjan, Sandeep Sangaru, Dimple Soni, Aratrik Devvarman, Shimolee Nahar, Nibha Jain

NID Archives

Photographers
Deepak John Mathew: Architecture, Landscape
Jogi Panghaal: Kantha Textiles
Suranjana Satwalekar: Crafts, Textiles, Varanasi, Arunachal, Cherrapunji, Pithora Painting
Subrato Bhowmick: Prayer Rugs, Nirmal Toys
Nilam Iyer, M P Ranjan, Ghanshyam Pandya: Bamboo and Cane Crafts of Northeast India
P M Dalwadi: Manipur Pavilion
Rajesh Vora: Stucco Work, Madurai
S Balaram and Anuj Sharma: Palm Leaf Craft, Chennai
Padmini Balaram: Kalamkari
Swasti Singh: Meghwal Embroidery

Photographs from student Craft Documentations
Scanning
Bharat Suthar, Rajendra Patel, Umesh Patel, Dhawal Gajjar
Assistance
T S Rajendran, Chirantan Raval, Himanshu Mistry, Jayesh Leuva, Praveen Varia, Jayesh Parmar, Suresh Modia, Cromwel Parmar, Reena Narendran, Gopalan Nambiar, Divya Nair
Knowledge Management Centre:
S D Bodiwala, Swadha Majumdar, Himmat Singh, Anil Patel, Sangeeta Vyas and Staff

NID Project Administration and Financial Management
Darlie O Koshy, Executive Director, NID
Akhil Succena, Chairman Outreach (Former)
Shashank Mehta, Chairman Outreach
Aditi Ranjan, Project Head
Brahmanand Pani, Controller of Accounts
K K Bhaskaran, Project Manager
NID Delhi Centre: N V K Murthy, P Alexander, V A Anthony
NID Bangalore Centre: Shashikala Satyamoorthy, T S Nagarajan and Shaktivel, Hyderabad

Client Project Administration and Financial Management
S B Mohapatra, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles
Tinoo Joshi, IAS, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts)
V P Thakur, Executive Director, Council of Handicrafts Development Corporation (COHANDS)
Susheel Kumar, IAS, Additional Development Commissioner (Handicrafts)
Sandeep Srivastava, IAS, Additional Development Commissioner (Handicrafts)
Mushtak Khan, Deputy Director, Crafts Museum, Delhi
Durgesh Shankar, Chairman and Managing Director, CCIC, New Delhi

Credit acknowledgement is also due to the unnamed students and faculty members at the National Institute of Design who have helped in putting this book together through their lively interactions and occasional contributions.

We would like to acknowledge the offices of DC(H) across India, who supported and facilitated the field research. Further Regional Directors and Assistant Directors of Marketing & Extension Centres (named below) and their respective colleagues (too numerous to be listed here) helped put together a comprehensive check list of resources in and around their respective centers in a collective effort called Panorama Series, 2002, which was used as a base document for field work.

Regional Directors & Assistant Directors of Marketing & Extension Centres:
S Bhattacharya, Kolkata
B C Mohapatra, Gangtok, Siliguri
P Sasany, Sambalpur & Bhubaneshwar
R S Yadav, Deogarh
A K Saran, Madhubani
S P Moitra, Ranchi
A K Handoo, Lucknow
S C Bhardwaj, Agra
Amar Chand, Saharanpur
C B Singh, Barabanki
Mangala Singh, Varanasi
S S Gwal, Almora
S K Sinha, Mumbai
S V Deshpande, Indore
V Baskaran, Surat
A T Meshram, Nagpur
I G Kawre, Jagdalpur
T R Gajbhai, Kolhapur
S Z Hussain, Aurangabad
Kali Ram, Gwalior
A C Gangal, Panaji
P Sundramurty, Chennai
S C Deveramani, Mangalore, Mysore
Abdul Kader, Port Blair
G R Thampi, Nagercoil
R Chandran, Salem
S Gurumurty, Pondicherry
I H P Rao, Tirupati, Vijaywada
V Bhaskaran, Trichur
G George, Thiruvananthapuram
S A Razzack, Hyderabad
A K Handoo, New Delhi
V K Mahajan, Hoshiarpur
S L Dangayach, Jaipur
B L Meena, Jodhpur
Jagdish Prasad, Rewari
S K Tikoo, Kullu
Tajumal Hussain, Srinagar & Baramulla
M K Kaw, Leh
T K Kaul, Udhampur & Jammu
A R Chaudhary, Guwahati
S R Masram, Agartala
P C Dutta, Aizawl & Gauripur
S B Singh, Jorhat
S Z Hussain, Imphal
S B Singh, Kohima
S Dkhar, Shillong

Download Free Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Visio

Although not really CAD software programs, it is worth mentioning that there are several FREE graphic software programs which will allow you to edit photos and diagrams without the purchase of Microsoft Visio or Adobe Photoshop.

There are basically two types of 2D images: raster and vector. Raster images are "bitmap" pictures like JPEG and PNG without math definitions. Vector graphics are more mathematical depictions of geometry and formulas such as lines, arcs and conic splines. Some applications actually combine both of these two data sets in their native file format. My favorite application for raster image editing is free. It is GIMP.

Gimp is a large suite of free raster image editing tools (similar to Photoshop) which can edit, convert and enhance most popular raster image formats. Its functions include smooth image scaling and mode conversion, as well as path editing, selection tools, macros and the list just goes on and on. There are many books about GIMP. It runs on Linux and MAC OS X, as well.

Another handy tool to download for free image editing like Photoshop is Paint.NET. It downloads smaller than GIMP and doesn't depend on GTK but uses Microsoft .NET 2.0, so it only runs in Windows. It doesn't support near as many formats and tools as GIMP. Lighter weight and easy to use, however, some still prefer Paint.NET over GIMP so it's worth mentioning here.

A useful tool for free vector graphics and diagraming similar to Visio is Inkscape. Some confuse Visio and Inkscape to be CAD programs. It's an easy mistake to make. What they really are is vector graphics tools, mainly for diagram creation. But Inkscape can also edit combined raster and vector files such as Acrobat PDF (let's see Visio do that). It favors open standards like SVG but can also read DXF. If you don't have Inkscape yet and are reading this Blog, you should go download it. Simple as that.

Another new project similar to Adobe Illustrator is Creative Docs .NET. At this time, the project lacks data exchange with other software, but it is still worth having in a pinch and it's free.

Where's Waldo?

Somewhere on the road between Grand Marais and Chicago. Who knew?

ironies of paddling, part three

Paddling along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

When students sign up for day trips during a kayak symposium, they typically are given a choice of beginner or intermediate trips. Those who plan and lead the trips take a few things into consideration in determining the skill level of a trip: distance, length and number of crossings*, and overall potential for conditions**.
Students who sign up for trips are supposed to take only one thing into consideration: their own paddling proficiency.
But how are they supposed to know whether they are beginner or intermediate paddlers? Those are vast and highly subjective categories. Is a beginner a complete novice? Someone who has paddled only occasionally? Someone who can't break three knots without a tail wind? Someone who hasn't paddled that distance before? Or someone who's just terribly insecure or paddles with too many people with greater skills and experience?
I (Sharon) regarded myself as a beginner well into my third year of kayaking. Yeah, I had a reliable roll and could paddle pretty hard and pretty far, but I was paddling with some fairly spectacular kayakers, like Bonnie Perry and Andrea Knepper (and Alec, who is slightly embarrassed that I've mentioned him here), and by comparison I felt like a novice.
A few days ago, I helped lead a 12-mile trip along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It was billed as an intermediate trip, and 17 students signed up. By the standards I set for myself, none of them were true intermediates, and the trip was challenging and exhausting for many of them. But they all made it and they all had a good time. This trip was a serious stretch for many of them, but by taking it on, they improved their skills and their confidence.
So were they intermediate paddlers after all? Probably not, and they certainly had no business attempting that trip on their own. But with five instructors to guide them and handle the issues that arose (which included issuing a "securite"*** to motor boats we couldn't see through the fog, executing a rescue close to the cliffs, and towing one paddler for five miles), they were intermediate enough for this trip.
In any case, I'm glad they didn't ask me before signing up. So here's the irony: Even though they had less experience and training than me, they improved my understanding of what a beginner or intermediate trip truly is.

* crossings are non-coastal portions of trips when paddlers are more exposed and less able to take refuge at shore.
** conditions refers to wind, waves, fog and weather.
*** "securite" is a notice to mariners over channel 16 (the emergency channel).

The power of symposia

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the midwest supports eight kayak symposia, from the old (Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium) to the new (Windy City Symposium), from the family-oriented (West Michigan Coastal Kayakers Association) to the all-female (Ladies of the Lake). Some are traditional (Greenland Symposium and QUJAQ Training Camp). Most are “bicultural” (Door County Sea Kayak Symposium, Inland Sea Symposium). But all have some key attractions in common: They offer an opportunity for students to take a wide range of classes from numerous instructors in a concentrated period of time; they enable vendors to demonstrate and explain their gear to potential buyers, and potential buyers to test paddle a variety of kayaks; they provide beginner and intermediate paddlers with access to top-notch coaches from around the country and the world; they feature presentations by world-class kayakers who've completed expeditions the rest of us can only dream about; and they enable a gypsy group of local kayak instructors to reconnect several times during the summer months.

The rodeo at the Western Michigan Coastal Kayakers Symposium, where students and instructors apply their paddling skills to absurd challenges.

Many symposia include trips. Here, students and instructors paddle through the Apostle Island sea caves during the Inland Sea Kayak Symposium.

Doug Van Doren checks out a waterfall along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore during the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium.

Most of us who teach at these symposia do so as volunteers. We provide all our own gear, pay for our own transportation, and donate our time. Students are sometimes baffled by this generosity.
In fact, it's really not so hard to understand what motivates us: a desire to offer newer kayakers what was once offered to us, a dedication to sharing our enthusiasm and knowledge about a sport we love, and the pleasure of hanging out with other people who feel the same way.
In the five short years that we've been paddling, we've grown very fond of our fellow midwestern instructors. We are a family of sorts, full of larger-than-life characters, crazy stories, mischief and compassion. We strip in parking lots, debate the stink-resistance of various types of clothing, eat one another's food and watch out for one another. If that's not family, what is?
Students pick up on this camaraderie. We still recall our first symposium, where we were impressed by how much fun our instructors were having and how much they enjoyed one another's company. Thanks in part to them, we became skilled enough to offer the same inspiration and instruction to the next cohort of paddlers.
Symposia aren't a substitute for taking full classes at a reputable kayak center. They're more like a tasting menu, while full-length classes are a multi-course meal. But symposia are where community is built and sustained, and the midwest is fortunate to have so many.

I have finished the kayak and it is much faster than my roto-molded dagger apostle. The final dimensions 17' long with a beam of 21 inches (vs. 33" for the Dagger). I paddled it this morning at high tide with it going out and it performed well. It is fast and maneuverable but it doesn't track as well as the Dagger (doesn't have the wait or beam of the dagger either) but it did not seem to pull to port or starboard. It just might be more work to handle in rough seas. It is not as tippy as I expected but it does not have a lot secondary stability. However, I found in flat water I could put it on its side and maintain good control without rolling. I will need to do further testing in some waves. Overall, I was impressed by the performane.

Another Rant: How to Merge

Here is another driving-related rant from my old web site, posted in a slightly edited form.

First posted: August 4th, 2005.

Why do so few Saskatoon drivers understand what a friggin' "free flow lane" or "lane added" sign like thisor a merge sign like thismeans. Whenever I drive somewhere and am using an exit lane to the right that joins another road as an added lane, I end up behind some idiot who STOPS in the middle of the bloody road thinking they've got to merge with and yield to the traffic when what they should be doing is getting up to speed and then moving left into the adjacent lanes if they so wish. Many folks are just as confused regarding how to merge. Again, they STOP and wait for an huge opening in the traffic before they enter the lane and continue on their merry way oblivious of the frustration and danger they cause. If any car should appear on the horizon in any lane, they must wait for all traffic to pass before they too can enter the roadway. Often it seems that the problem is due to the person wanting to go directly over to the left lane. Here's an idea: get up to speed and do a couple of lane changes in quick succession after properly shoulder checking. Occasionally they're just going to have to resign themselves to NOT doing a left turn 100 feet after the botched merge, and just taking the next road. Rarely would this add more than a minute to the drive, it would be safer and quicker for everyone, and I'm less likely to blow my top when I'm stuck in peak traffic behind this goof and we'd all get home sooner.

I think I'm just going to go for a bike ride and avoid these idiots altogether.

You can find the Saskatchewan Driver's Handbook here, including a section on signage here. It is disappointing that SGI does not include a section on the type of merging and driving discussed above in the guide, though they do discuss highway merging which is relevant. You can read the "Drive Right with Tim Felzak" column or watch the video clip

Handmade in India: Book Launch in New Delhi

Handmade in India
Edited by Aditi Ranjan and M.P. Ranjan
Book design by Ms. Zenobia Zamindar and Girish Arora.
576 pages, 3500 colour photographs and 140 maps, 9.5 x 13.5” (240 x 340 mm)
End matter includes a Technical Glossary, Annotated Bibliography, Craft Categories, an Index and also a detailed Acknowledgement and Credits.
Co-published in association with COHANDS and Development Commissioner of Handicrafts, Government of India, the book is produced by Mapin.

Image: Front and back cover of the new book and one sample page from the Rajasthan section dealing with the Ajmer metacluster. The book is to be released for the public on the 21st of July 2008 at a brief function at the Rajiv Gandhi Handicrafts Bhavan on Baba Kharakh Singh Marg, New Delhi by , Shri Shankarsinh Vaghela, Honorable Minister of Textiles, Government of India. The book is distributed by Mapin and will be widely available in bookstores in India and overseas.

Handmade in India, An encyclopedia of the crafts of India is a tribute to the Indian craftsperson and is organized by the geographical distribution of the crafts across all states and regions of the country. The Indian craftsperson has demonstrated an uncanny understanding of materials which is combined with a mastery of the tools, techniques and processes that have evolved over the centuries through social and cultural interactions, a tribute to the creative design abilities of the village society. The Eames India Report talks about a search for the values that is uniquely Indian and it is here that the study of Indian crafts will help inform current and future actions in the continuous evolution of the economy and the form that it takes in shaping the culture of the land. Today this craft continuum constitutes an enormous resource that can be harnessed for the future development of our society, particularly as the backbone of a creative economy that is enabled by the embedded knowledge in the traditional wisdom of the sector as well as the digital technologies that help connect this ancient skill to new and future opportunities for the craftspersons across India. We will need to make this enormous knowledge base accessible to planners, business and the rural and urban craftsmen as well as connect these to new local and global opportunities for these skills and resources to be reinterpreted in imaginative ways.

Image: Sample pages from the Rajasthan section. Each section has a master State page which is followed by the Meta-cluster pages and in each of these are the Crafts pages. Shown above are the State double page spread (top left), the Jaipur meta-cluster spread and the Blue Pottery craft (top right), the Ajmer metacluster spread with the crafts of Phad painting and Miniature painting on wood (bottom left) and finally the double spread that includes the crafts of Mojari making, handmade paper, felt products and the Bahi – the clothbound book crafts of Rajasthan.

These examples, we believe are some of the foundations of the creative economy of the future in a web enabled world and easy access in both directions which promises to link the craftsmen to new markets across the world. For this scenario to happen there are several steps involved and the book will be the first in offering insights and data on this vast resource as well as be a vehicle that can provide a platform and a structure to enhance this knowledge. Using the new digital networks and tools of access and interaction that it provides, this knowledge can be put to good use provided the required investments are made in infrastructure and training to realize this inherent potential. It is our intention that the information as well as the framework of situated keywords provided in this book will help all concerned with the promotion, development and use of the crafts of India and that they would be empowered to build a sustainable network of live information. This we believe will help our craftsmen re-connect with world markets, just as they had been doing for centuries in their own village and in their trade route networks of the past, and now the world can be their new village economy, if they are enabled and empowered to change, to meet these new circumstances with access to information that is both live and relevant.

Image: Two models that were prepared in the early 90’s to capture the scope and intentions for the promotion of the crafts sector in Rajasthan and across the rest of India which led to the setting up of the IICD, Jaipur. We were asked to imagine and envision the format and scope of the new Institute for Crafts in Jaipur and today this is an active centre for the creation of change agents hwo are capable of working in the transformation of the crafts sector in India. We will need more such initiatives in the future in India.

“Handmade in India”, is the first of three books, in the series Crafts of India, that are planned. It provides a geographic organization of craft distributed across the length and breadth of the country and shows how craft permeates even the remotest corner of India. It is a confirmation of more that 40 years of effort by faculty and students of the National Institute of Design who have sustained their interest in the crafts of India as a design and development resource for the country when few other organizations showed real interest in what was seen as a glory of the past. That it is a living resource as well as a resource for the future is something that we would strongly advocate and call for sustained investments from both government and industry to ensure its continuity. The realization that it can steer the creative economy for the benefit of an estimated six million crafts persons is a real possibility. These craftspersons have kept this knowledge alive in a tacit living form through their actions and traditional methods of transmission which we are now trying to capture in an explicit format between the covers of a book.

Image: A small collection of colourful toys from a variety of materials by Indian craftsmen from many locations that are featured in the book.

We have had thinkers from the past comparing the crafts of India with the oceans of the world, vast and impossible to put into a bottle of any kind. We are very aware that it is only the whole earth and its gravity that can act as an adequate container for the oceans and water bodies of our planet’s ecology. Our crafts traditions and practices can be compared to this vast ocean and it is only the tips of the ice-berg that are visible in the book and we hope that the web and the digital networks that are built in the subsequent phases can support and play the role of making the rest of the hidden volume visible and accessible in the days ahead. It is a pleasure to see the realization of a dream and the fructification of the efforts of several generations of NID designers as well as a large team of contributors who have made this book possible. With sustained support from our sponsors The Development Commissioner of Handicrafts, Government of India, the COHANDS, and the expertise of Mapin Publishers as well the members of our Institute, the National Institute of Design this product is a reality today. They have provided us the opportunity of producing this work and we look forward to an active period of cooperation in taking this forward to the next stages through books two, three and beyond on the web as a major portal for the Handicrafts of India.

Aditi Ranjan & M P Ranjan
Editors: Handmade in India
National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India
19 July 2008

For further information contact:

The Council of Handicraft Development Corporations (COHANDS), New Delhi.
Email: cohands4 (at) vsnl.net

The Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Government of India, Ministry of Textiles, R K Puram, New Delhi
Email: dchejs (at) nic.in

National Institute of Design, Paldi, Ahmedabad 380007, Gujarat
Email: outreach (at) nid.edu

Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd, Usmanpura, Ahmedabad 380014
Email: mapin (at) mapinpub.com

The cockpit was made from 1/8 inch plywood which I rough cut to the shape of the opening. I cut the hole more precisely with a jigsaw and to hide the end grains I used 1/8 inch strips of oak rounding all the edges with sand paper. Before I finished it I did test it out with a spray skirt.

Local paddler profiles, part two

Sharon with Lyn on a Chicago beach.

Every community has its unsung heroes—people who make a difference without fanfare. The kayaking world is full of such people. Often they're instructors who patiently teach a wide range of students, making them better and safer paddlers. In the coming months, we plan to profile some of these people, with a focus on ones in the midwest.

Lyn helps a novice paddler get settled in his boat at the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium.

Lyn Stone is our first victim in this endeavor. Sharon first met Lyn in 2006 at Ladies of the Lake, a kayaking symposium in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. (It moves around. This year, it will be held on Drummond Island from August 21 to 24. Get the details at Down Wind Sports.) The meeting was classic Lyn (and Sharon, for that matter). Sharon showed up for a BCU three-star training without her spray skirt, which was hanging back in the campsite several miles from the put-in. Lyn, true to form, had a spare and offered it to Sharon.
We later learned that Lyn has a spare or a repair for practically every essential piece of gear. She's has a remarkable depth of knowledge about kayaking, but she shares it selectively, not boastfully, when it's requested or needed. And she's bicultural, in the paddling sense of that term; she prefers a Greenland stick but teaches mainly with a Euro paddle.
Alec first met Lyn at a Geneva Kayak Center staff training the following year, where he was impressed by her down-to-Earth attitude. But best of all, she's always willing to help out, whether a friend needs new deck rigging or a student needs coaching.
Lyn is part of our instructor cohort. She and Sharon were certified together by Sam Crowley in September, and the three of us have trained and taught together since then. We rely on one another as we refine our ideas, reflect on our experiences, and grow as paddlers and instructors.
After we returned from Michigan's east coast, we spent one day paddling our home waters with Lyn. We put in at the 59th Street harbor and paddled past the fishermen and docked motorboats and out onto the lake. We retrieved balls and balloons that children had lost while playing at the 63rd street beach, and took at detour into the 57th Street harbor to visit Maynard Welch, the retired harbormaster who continues to best represent the spirit of that lovely harbor. (For a profile of Maynard, check out the Nov. 22, 2005 issue of the Chicago Tribune.) Then we paddled down past The Point, where we held our engagement party 20 years ago. The water was a little bumpy, with wind waves refracting back off the rocks, and boat traffic was light. We stopped on a lovely little pebble beach to eat lunch and watched two dogs repeatedly compete to retrieve a buoyant rubber bone from the water.

Dry suits are our best effort to replicate what these swimmers were born with: fur.

Paddling partners have numerous roles. We watch out for one another's safety, encourage one another to continue improving, and support one another when our bodies or our confidence isn't up for the challenges that confront us. Yes, we're local heroes, if only to one another. Then we hang up the neoprene and, like Clark Kent, go back to our day jobs.

Autodesk Escalates War on "Open DWG" File Technology

progeCAD and similar products continue to win user confidence as low cost substitutes for overpriced CAD. And American corporation "Autodesk" is getting mad. Passive resistance to DWG clone technologies has developed into all out war, both in the court room and in the board room.

The Open Design Alliance (ODA) is a nonprofit consortium of CAD companies cooperating in a rare way to clone one of the few major reasons people still pay Autodesk prices - the binary DWG AutoCAD file format. The ODA posts regular updates of their robust DWG and DGN libraries on a website for member use in their own software - software like progeCAD.

When Autodesk itself was invited to join the ODA, the company declined. Gradually Autodesk began a long series of legal attacks on the ODA. On November 13 2006 they officially filed suit for their "Trusted DWG technology" which superficially warns users about opening DWG files that didn't come from their own AUD$6000 CAD system. They are also litigating for ownership of the letters DWG as a trademark belonging to Autodesk. The problem is that the USA trademark office doesn't recognise file extensions as "trademarkable". DWG is really just another file extension like ".doc" or ".txt".

Meanwhile, Autodesk finally realeased their own "RealDWG" toolkit to compete with the ODA, the caveat being that any applicant must meet with Autodesk's approval as a developer that will not compete with any of the Autodesk high-priced product line. It was quite an effective move to begin cherry-picking "realDWG" converts from important ODA contributors, undermining it. ODA gets its funding from its members.

Autodesk has quickly made their next move in this apperantly two-prong gambit to weaken the ODA. Following at the heals of the completed million-dollar Autodesk assimilation of Moldflow, Autodesk has announced a new "cooperation" with their next unlikely target, Bentley Systems(Microstation). At one time, Bentley was a serious AEC market competitor. Then, in February 2008, a key Bentley developer changed sides to Autodesk. Strangley, Bentley Systems has now been approved for use of the Autodesk "RealDWG" toolkit. A press release was posted celebrating this "Advance in AEC Software Interoperability". Now think, would you let your worst enemy watch your house while you were away? The truth is that Autodesk is as unconcerned in promoting real file interoperability as they have ever been. The endgame in this gambit really stood later in Bentley's own reaction, stating that their ODA was "now irrelevant". There is further speculation that Bentley Systems is next in line for Autodesk assimilation.

progeCAD is a product that reads, writes, edits and converts Autodesk DWG format files in a CAD interface very similar to AutoCAD 2002. Some consider it a clone. Recently this product has become very stable and robust so that even large companies are saving thousands by replacing expensive AutoCAD installations with progeCAD.

It is obvious that Autodesk is now at a de facto state of all out war against such products. Should they win, businesses will have no choice but to pay big AutoCAD prices. My gut tells me that Autodesk is scheming something parallel to their 2010 release to finish the ODA for good. Is the world's best hope is that the EU will take the same anti-trust motions against Autodesk as they have against Microsoft? Maybe the ODA needs to move to Europe?

Food and AnthroDesign: Approaches and Attitudes for India

Image: The Indian “Thali”, a platter with a mixed set of offerings that are balanced and cooked to suit the occasion and the season, each region has its own varient and the exquisite food can be served on a leaf plate or all the way up the ladder in a silver one. Pictures sourced from Google image search for Indian thali.

This year the theme for the Design Concepts and Concerns course at NID Gandhinagar, Paldi and Bangalore deals with food. With rampant food inflation that has hit the economy over the past nine months and the looming threat of a runaway price of oil which has slowed down the world economy is a context in which we felt it would be prudent to see if a bit of applied imagination could help find new ways out of these pressing dilemmas. Indian food comes in a huge variety across many regional and climatic zones as well as cultural and social categories that has a long tradition behind the form and pattern of consumption by the people of these places. While there are many similarities across zones, the differences are palpable and give a sense of distinction through both form and flavours. These are influenced by a huge variety of factors both local as well as global, and the change in both tastes and habits are rapid as they are deeply protected by the same people across all age barriers. Can we understand these dynamics and apply this understanding to discovering new ways forward that can help the economy, the health of the population and solve many associated problems such as poverty, malnutrition and hunger in our society? We do believe that design and innovation can not just solve some of these problems but also address the larger threats of climate change and political inequity through a better understanding of food surplus economy and access to healthy food to all humans across the planet.

Image: Fruits and vegetables on the streets of Bangalore captured by an avid photo documenter, Rajesh Dangi, who shares his pictures on flickr rajesh-dangi’s photostream and on his blog called Bangalore Daily Photo.

Having said that, we can now look at the micro details of food production, distribution and consumption in our own locations and juxtapose these with global trends and changing aspirations of people. The tools that are used by designers are many and one of the significant new tools is called anthro-design or design-ethnography which helps us understand the finer aspects of human aspirations and behavior which determines to a large extant the choices that will be made by people to satisfy their needs. These can also help us understand the facts and fiction, myths and realities that we have to confront in the process of shaping alternatives that can be then decided through the group processes of politics and social and economic negotiation. The texture of reality is very important in design thinking and action and that is why designers need to go out and look at the reality even if a whole lot of information is available in the form of socio-economic study reports and market statistics. Imagine if someone told you that a street vendor made a living selling a few kilos of guava, mangos, or cucumber by offering a service of slicing the fruit with a knife and a sprinkling of salt and masala, a subsistence living that is. Where does the value come from which he can make a living? A service offered where it is needed and appreciated and that which is informed by the local knowledge of seasonality and local preferences for taste and nutrition and of course the economic reality that fruit is expensive in India and not affordable to most but desired by all. You will not find many market survey reports on these guys but they are all over our streets if we care to look. Rajesh Dangi,s pictures give us an honest view of this reality on the streets of Bangalore.

Image: Series of images from the Time Magazine story about What the World Eats. This is based on the research in the book titled “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats” by Peter Menzel, Faith D'Aluisio

The champions of anthro-design are growing in India and around the world and many new design companies and institutes are offering real research services to help understand the mind of the diverse user of services and products that is the foundation for any design and innovation programme. The discussion list called anthrodesign at yahoogroups.com is an active list that debates and shares insights about the skills and tools of the emerging discipline. Dori – Elizabeth Tunstall teaches the subject called Design Anthropology as an Associate Professor of Design Anthropology at University of Illinois at Chicago . Her blog Dori’s Moblog, is full of insights and very informative podcasts about the subject. Our own graduates have been offering this kind of research as a service to their corporate clients both in India and overseas. Uday Dandavate, an NID alumni, had set up the company called SonicRim along with his teacher, Liz Sanders from Ohio State University. Manoj Kotari, founder of Onio Design, Pune offers trend research to their clients as does Locus Design, Pune handled by three NID graduates, Chandrashekar Badve, Milind Risaildar & Siddharth Kabra and in the South, in Bangalore the IDIOM, which is the biggest design office in India, offers these services with a focus on retail business services. IDIOM is founded by NID graduates Sonia Manchanda, Jacob Mathew and Anand Aurora working in concert with Kishore Biyani, the retail mega star in India, the founder of the Big Baazar and Pantaloon and the Future Group in India.

Image: Nokia Mobile Development Report prepared by Centre for Knowledge Societies in Bangalore. The digital version of the report can be downloaded from this link here as a 15 mb pdf file.

In Bangalore there is another compelling presence in this business which is the Centre for Knowledge Societies which was founded by Dr Aditiya Dev Sood. CKS offers such design research insights into local markets and populations by mapping their aspirations and visually capturing the fine texture of the local along with statistical parameters that can inform innovation and design action in a variety of industries. The CKS report for NOKIA on the Mobile Telephones in India and more recently their “Emerging Economy Report: Societal Intelligence for Business Innovation” that offers insights on populations in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Egypt and Keneya. This report is however a professional offering that can only be afforded by the multinational corporates however some information is available on the website. CKS has been in partnership with the Doors of Perception in assisting John Thackara in managing the DOORS events in India and this puts them in very good company indeed. John has been a impassioned advocate for design use at the local level and in his path breaking project DOTT07 with the Design Council, London took up Food as one of the thrust areas and his Doors of Perception too continues to promote the idea of local food and sensible consumption. Jogi Panghaal, an NID graduate and member of Doors, was the first design guru who sensitised us to the finer sensibilities of food in human society with his course offering called "Ways of Eating, way back in the early 90's.

Well, we now know that anthro-design both meaningful and also draws big money, and it is a way forward to sense and find attitudes and aspirations that lie below the surface and something that can provide us with design insights that no amount of hard facts and knowledge that science can provide. AnthroDesign is also something that designers do all the time to make sense of the world around them and to get an insight into the minds and emotions of the users that they wish to serve.