Paddling Helps Memory

[Glenn MacGrady]

"I keep a river log. A record of all the rivers and sections I’ve run. It dates back to 1989 and lists almost 300 rivers."

"It turns out we do almost everything with our memory: it is tied to our emotions, our reactions, our habits and routines and is the key driver in how we make decisions."

"Our experience is really about how many memories we’ve accumulated, not how many we remember."

"The mandate then, is clear: paddle a lot."

Memory Game: The Surprising Reason Why Research Tells Us To Paddle More

We do almost everything with our memory, conscious or not, but can you build up your skills by paddling even when you don’t remember it?

paddlingmag.com

I've never been one for keeping lists or diaries or much memorabilia. I once kept a list of every bar I visited in my wallet, but lost that list in my early 20's and I haven't had a drink in the last 34 years, so I won't lose much sleep over those lost memories.

When I moved east from California I did write down brief notes about each New England whitewater river I paddled in the relevant pages of the AMC's whitewater river guide, and I did a similar thing for Florida day trips over the years in a Florida paddling guide. I now do get pleasure in rereading my notes from those trips and wish I had done more of that.

I'm not sure paddling in general, while mentally pleasurable and having other palpable benefits, helps my clearly failing old-age memory at this stage. But spending time on the web, where I can look stuff up instantly, and returning to the daily New York Times crossword puzzle after a 61 year hiatus do seem to help. Once I remove a memory block for a word or name I used to know intimately, the block seems to be removed for a time . . . as, unfortunately, new ones inexplicably appear.

 

[pblanc]

Yeah, I had a log at one time, but I have forgotten where I put it and now I can't find it.

 

[Erica]

I took notes or a log on most of my trips. I can even lay my hands on most of them. But they are sketchy, some of them. I wish I had written more.

The paper photos from film cameras on early trips are faded.

I haven’t written up day trips in Florida. I wish I had.

 

[jdeerfoot]

I have been keep trip journals for many years. It is the only way I can remember specifics of the trips I have taken.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Speaking of memory, it is clearly fading as I continue to age. The following poem describes the probably inevitable phenomenon well.

***********************

Forgetfulness​

By Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue
or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall

well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

*************************

On the bright side, a NEW STUDY just published by Columbia and Harvard scientists shows that a daily multivitamin supplement improves memory in older adults, and I've been taking daily vitamins/minerals for 52 years.

 

[TrailBlaser]

I journal all my trips, but even though I am retired, I have trouble getting around to putting them up on my blog site to share with family and friends. I've pretty much given up trying to do it during the paddling season, so I guess it is going to have to be done during the off-season.

 

[kbobb]

I think journals/logbooks are great - they really help me with fishing - places, water conditions, bug hatches.

But.... the fish are bigger, the mountains taller, the girls prettier, and the rivers wilder - when I tell the stories just from memory!

 

[kbobb]

Interesting topic and the author does provide anecdotal recollections, but unless I missed it, does not provide peer reviewed research that indicates paddling helps memory. Did I miss it?

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Interesting topic and the author does provide anecdotal recollections, but unless I missed it, does not provide peer reviewed research that indicates paddling helps memory. Did I miss it?

No, he didn't cite peer reviewed research, but I'm not sure how, as a practical matter and controlling for all the vast variables, one could do a RCT of the memories of frequent paddlers vs. the world. Or who would pay for such a study.

Besides, peer reviewed research in the soft and even hard sciences is way overblown. Peer reviewed research has shown that most peer reviewed research can't be reproduced—this is called the "replication crisis"—and, worse, that the non-replicable (false) studies are cited more often in other research than the replicable studies are.

Unfortunately, "the science", in vast areas of universal importance, simply doesn't exist . . . or is just a cherry-picked opinion or bias; or even, on occasion, outright academic fraud.

 

[kbobb]

While I don't disagree that the quality of some peer reviewed articles is decreasing, the alternative, anyone can write anything they want on the internet, isn't acceptable in some fields.
The pressure to publish, both for academicians and journal editors, is great and I believe that less than optimal studies get put out to fill journals and CVs.
Current research methods on Alzheimer's dz and CTE in athletes may provide a framework for memory/paddling studies, if anyone is even interested but unlikely to be funded.
However, after 39 years in the medical profession, peer reviewed clinical research studies drive standard of care and while not always perfect this data and the resulting recommendations are generally most beneficial for patients.

 

[yknpdlr]

I know it is true, every time my wife reminds me to remember how many canoes I already have.

 

[Nick Pending]

I know it is true, every time my wife reminds me to remember how many canoes I already have.

I know what yknpdlr says. I seem to remember fewer each time though! My last purchase was a boat I originally bought new in I think 1996, then soon after sold to a friend who needed one. I bought it back from her about 10 years ago. I don't know if a "repurchased" canoe would truly qualify as "another" boat?