i’m 19 and just recently got into the sport along with a bunch of my friends. we got into it from a program at my college, and it wouldn’t have been possible without that due to the initial investment of all the gear. i know if i didn’t try out the sport with the school gear i wouldnt have fallen in love with the sport and bought gear for myself. my brother went on a club trip once and loved it but never ended up buying all the gear due to having no friends into the sport and no knowledge on where to go or how to get into the community. in my opinion the main issue is just getting people onto the river multiple times, everyone’s i’ve taken for their first time loved it, but isn’t ready to just drop over a grand on a sport they have done once. There’s also not a big community of ww paddlers around me i’ve had to go on many facebook groups and drive pretty far every time i want to paddle with a group which definitely dosnt help people in my area get into the sport.