Bob, I know the UK koi scene pretty well as an American, anyway? Been a BKKS member all through the late eighties/ early and mid nineties and I think I've attended the National at least four or five times. I have seen the great rise of UK koi keeping, its decline and resurrection. And it has been fascinating to watch the USA and Japan go through their own versions of that same cycle.
It would seem that in the beginning, every thing being new, the great excitement about the hobby is infectious! The enthusiasm is very high and you can cut the good will with a knife!
But as with many things, a certain percentage will get to the " been there, done that, have the tee shirt" point in the hobby. This takes its toll on the ranks and the enthusiasm. And also the koi show. Typically over any five- six year period you get a pretty hefty rotation of hobby membership. The core that remains naturally inherits the benefits and responsibilities of the club.
You touched on another reality of the hobby. It soon becomes apparent to all but the super rich that koi keeping, at the higher levels, is a VERY expensive hobby! Couple this with that fact that some koi do die along the way and all koi do pass a thing called ‘ sell date’ at some point and become near worthless momentarily, and it is understandable that some become disillusioned. But as I always say to friends that hit this wall of reality, and therefore a crisis about the koi show and their hobby, There IS a hobby beyond all that!
The koi are innocent! They are the same koi that we all fall for in the beginning. Enjoying watching a small koi, a really good koi, grow and develop, is still a thing of fascination for me. Just the other day, when I replaced the indoor lighting in my indoor system, I was struck by how one particular koi has grown and how broad and powerful it looked cruising under the new bright white metal halides. I was renewed.
So do I wish koi were cheaper? Most definitely! Do I wish politics and petty people stuff was left outside organized koi and the koi show? You bet! Are there control freaks, obnoxious ego maniacs and jerks in every koi club? Yep, I’m afraid so. But there is also ‘the salt of the earth’ and the ‘kindred spirit’ to be found in every koi club. They are guaranteed to have those too!
I’m a realist- you take the bad with the good- as long as the good is better than the bad! LOL
As for the question of whether the learning is better or greater on the boards than in REAL LIFE? Ahhh, yes real life experiences are better as they are broader and REAL! Look at it this way, you can study koi in pictures or you can study actual animals and discuss them with other people. Which do you think is a more valuable experience????
And I find the clicks on the boards to be MOST fragile and fleeting! In real life, people actually break bread together, become friends outside the hobby etc. Internet clicks come and go but I have made several ‘ friends for life’ in the real world of koi keeping. And around the show? The best friends of all. I’ve been to weddings, engagement parties, retirement parties, pond openings, funerals, births and anniversaries of koi friends and their family. I have friends in 15 states, nine countries and four continents thanks to koi and koi shows. This is not from the Internet, I assure you! That would be delusional and creepy!
The boards, in my opinion, are most of all convenient and fit the consumer’s desire to have information at one’s finger tip. Notice I used the word consumer. Boards are also excellent for stimulating thought, getting broad view points etc. BUT I can tell you, I learn more in one afternoon with a Japanese heavy weight or a long term hobbyist/kindred spirit who has experienced what I have but maybe has a different read, than I learn in six months on a koi board. Just the way it is.
Rambl’en Reilly