Thanks for posting Christian (although I'm not sure if you were including me in that, but that would be OK, a lot is open to interpretation online and sometimes we write stuff that gets taken the wrong way.)  To be clear, I was joking about hightailing it out of an eddy, since I have paddled a lot with JP in the past and it has been lots of fun.  But it does really seem that this thread, which started out as an etiquette pointers thread, turned into 'what really bugs the crap out of me that other paddlers do' thread - which is fundamentally a rant and maybe is natural, considering the overall topic, but still kind of a bummer.

We've all been newbies, too.  Personally, I like to let people know when I'm on a run for the first or second time and don't necessarily know the lines.  I also feel like a newbie when I'm trying a new boat or paddle.  My point isn't that newbies are bad or undesirable to boat with, it's that it's always good to let people know that they're going to be boating with a newbie.

Sorry to dredge this thread out of the bottom of the PP forum intertidal zone but I thought of a new pet peeve.

It concerns right of way, large groups, and eddies.

So your with one of those monster groups of people that ends up putting on the river at once, it's a river that either not everyone is super comfortable with or requires individuals dropping into rapids one at a time.  I find that instead of people give way to the upstream boater, or in this case the person at the top of the eddy getting ready to peel out, they just peel out as they see fit.

As I understand it upstream boater has right of way, so with that said if your gonna peel out of an eddy do it proper, don't fade out of the bottom of the eddy without looking upstream.  Peel out of that eddy like you were taught, with purpose at the top of the eddy.  I find too often on these days with crowded eddies people peel out without structure or awareness of who might be queuing up at the top of the eddy.   

So next time your on the rio with a million of your closest acquaintances take a look at the guy at the top of the eddy trying to peel out but can't because someone else is fading out of the bottom with no look over the shoulder.

Thanks.

I guided the South East for 3 year and I understand your point, but we're better than a lowest common denominator attitude. I do admit that this area has a much smaller and more in tune boating community, but because of that we all know each other (for the most part) and we have to see each other on the and off the river regularly so taking a moment to be cognizant of these issues never hurts.

A little introspection goes a long way.

And like JP said earlier this is Forum to draw attention to things that would be impossible to if you tried to address each person individually.

Thanks for the input.

First off I'd like to say that I've appreciated, even enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts, but I think it's important to distinguish the differences between "universal human etiquette", "boating etiquette", and people's personal pet peeves...

Just sayin'.

Speaking of, how many boats can you fit on your mini dave? I dont expect it gets that great of gas mileage though the way you drive it.

It sure is fun to drive fast in that thing though...ask James, we had it up to 115mph the other day...weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Uh oh...sorry sherrif Wiggins...uh that wasnt in your county....it was on a race track...ya, thats it...race track...