Quote:

forget the skid plates - go out and buy yourself one of those electronic dog training collars and put it on your bow paddler - hit a rock, and you hit the button - its called aversion therapy

That's funny ;D

When I used to trip with others, my bow partner was a guy from Boston who was an accountant by trade. He looked the part right down to his wire rimmed glasses.
He wasn't much of a outdoors man/fisherman, but was a great cook and kept in shape, so becasue he weighted maybe # 150 dripping wet, and I'm about # 190+, he was the designated bow paddler.

I would get so frustrated, because no matter how much I reminded/cautioned him we ended up slamming into a partially submerged rock at least a couple of times a day :o

I would yell at him for being blind and he would say " My vision is 20-20 with my glasses"  :-? Finally I figured out what the problem was?

I noticed he would thingy his head up/down a couple of times as we approached a landing or fixed object. Turns out that not only did he have lenses as thick as coke bottles, he wore TRI-FOCAL's :'(
He could see the rock from a distance, but would quickly lose it, trying to re-focus as we got closer.

Once I figured out what was going on, I just had him yelling rock waaay before we were even clsoe. so I could slow down and see it myself.

IF I had the dog collar , he would of been howling the whole trip ;D