Off to Maine

We are flying out tomorrow to Portland, Maine. We'll be doing 3 days of paddling and staying at the Harpswell Inn during the middle of the week. The headquarters of H2Outfitters will be the home base for day trips. The area is protected by the finger islands that extend into Casco Bay. It should be a fun way to get started with touring on the ocean in bona fide sea kayaks.

The Portland area, Bath, and L.L.Bean haven, Freeport, will be part of the trip.

Waves on a Lake

Last Sunday, I went out for a technique-focused paddle. Not much sight-seeing but going to a secluded spot to practice various strokes. After watching recently acquired DVD's, I've been psyched to do more of this. I had good luck with most of the strokes I attempted. Since I was by myself and, due to warm temperatures, didn't bring the skirt, I didn't do much static bracing. I did practice a LOT of turns.

On way back to the put-in, I came around a corner of land and caught some decent waves kicked up by powerboats with skiers. This was great fun. With my Necky Manitou 13, the two-footers were enough to get my stern up and my bow down - even into the water. I didn't try to carve any turns. It was too much of a surprise and I had no time to get prepared. It was fun just trying to stay on them and ride them for a bit. I never felt like I would capsize. However, with a little coordination in the future, it seems possible to get some practice catching & riding little waves.

All the more reason to get a bona fide sea kayak in the 16 ft range.

Which Paddle?

A bazillion options. Okay, maybe not that many, but the variations are a lot to sort through.

I borrowed a 220cm Werner Shuna Performance from Great Outdoor Provision Company to try with a neighborhood lake trip. For kayak touring, they have 4 blade sizes, 4 blade material types, 2 shaft types, and 2 diameter sizes. This particular paddle is a fiberglass blade, the smaller of the two high angle sizes, straight shaft, and the normal diameter. It was perfect for a demo because I've realized I was (unconsciously) using a high-angle paddling technique with my low angle paddle. Now, I could see how it felt to paddle that way with a blade designed for it.

I took my own Aquabound 230cm Stingray and the Shuna and spent several hours on our lake. It was quite a lot more exertion with the Shuna since it catches a significantly larger amount of water. After using the Shuna for a significant chunk of the out portion of the trip, I swapped with my Stingray a couple times to compare & contrast the paddles with high & low angle styles. I learned the following:

• Paying attention to what I'm doing with my forward stroke makes a big difference.
• The low-angle blade shape suits a low-angle forward stroke better than the high-angle blade. Duh! Same with high matched with high.
• The low-angle blade seems to suit a high-angle style better than the high-angle blade with low-angle style.
  
• I am now looking to be a two paddle kinda guy eventually: one low-angle, one high-angle.
  
• Upgrade the low-angle paddle first: Camano or Kalliste
  
• I'd be looking at a 210cm length whenever the time comes to get the high-angle paddle.

I'm more comfortable with the straight shaft instead of a neutral bent shaft. Instead of feeling natural, the bent shafts have felt weird to me. And I think I'm more likely to revert to a clenching grip with the bent shaft versus a straight one.

So, I ordered a 220cm Kalliste. We'll get small diameter shaft for Kathleen. She'll use mine to decide between a Kalliste and an Athena. She'll also use mine to see whether she should go with the 215cm length or not. These are the Werner suggested lengths for us in boats less than 23" wide. We don't have boats this narrow yet, but it's all part of the broader upgrade plan.

Trip #18, Paddling Asheville, June 2010

I had a great time on a fairly nearby paddle today with Andy and Claire. It was a stretch of the Broad River in Rutherford County - trip #18 in Betsy Mayer's Paddling Asheville and Southern Appalachia. One of my favorite local trips so far is close to her trip #13. I'm definitely going to start working more trips from this book.

The put-in and take-out was somewhat steep. The put-in had a steeper incline - we used rope to lower our boats down. No pictures of my own since I dunked & ruined our camera at the May boat demo session with Great Outdoor Provision Company. Andy's will be linked here. The river had a steady, manageable current the whole 11 mile trip. It took about 5 hours with a lunch break and a tree hacking break. Claire and I got the break on the latter. Andy used his handy-dandy handsaw to cut some limbs to clear a way through a tree that spanned the river at one point. (We did use my tow rope to pull some of those limbs free. The next paddlers can thank Andy.) This, and an easy pull around, were the only serious blockages. We were easily able to navigate around other trees and rocks we encountered.

The water was clear enough to see some submerged stuff. And clear enough to see color differentials when the water went deep. This is an old theme for me - I'm just fascinated by the way the river bottoms change: sand, pebbles, big rocks; ledges of sand on an inside of a bend with deep drop-offs to the outside. The trees that were down gave me the impression that big water would roll down dragging behemoths from the river banks. That's probably not the case, but it was a compelling image in my mind.

We passed a pair of black cows, a pretty brown horse, a small dark heron, a great blue heron, several kingfishers, miscellaneous small brown things, a very big owl (that we didn't get close enough too), and a half-dozen turkey vultures by the water. Not a whole lot of wildlife, but the trip was very, very enjoyable.

I also got to put into practice techniques picked up from the Brent Reitz Forward Stroke Clinic dvd. This was recommended by a couple of guys I follow on Twitter, Bryan Hansel and David Johnston. Even with low-angle paddling, the "chicken wing" approach, of keeping the elbow up, even with the hand & shoulder, made a HUGE difference in how the torso rotation, and power in the stroke, felt. Brief description here.

Over the Mountain Triathlon 2010

The Over The Mountain Triathlon is an annual event where the swim is in Moss Lake, the ride heads toward Kings Mountain, and the run goes back out from Kings Mountain. Since we got boats, I've wanted to help out with this event. The email arrived Thursday afternoon saying they needed more on-the-water volunteers. It was the first I heard about it, but fortunately I had no plans. While Kathleen was preparing for the Certified Pool Operation exam, I paddled toward the public access where the swim starts.

With minimal instruction and none of the promised equipment (flotation device & whistle), I was back out on the water and headed towards another pair of paddlers that were positioned at about the halfway point. The swim course was a 7 facing down for 1.5 km. At 8am, the horn blew for the lead group to start. The leaders tore up that distance. At intervals, trailing groups started. No one became distressed or needed anything to hold on to. Several swimmers got off course. Some more so than others. One boat was orange, as were the course markers, which caused at least one person to cut the corner, lose time, and add distance before getting re-oriented. The last person out of the water had a regular flotilla escort as all the boats along the course trailed in behind him.

Here are the leaders going past me (with a path buoy way in the background) and the finish line with a lady just out of the water and a blue-capped person still in the water but approaching boat ramp.

ECCKF Round Two

We made it back to the East Coast Canoe & Kayak Festival in Charleston SC this past weekend. No pictures this time. We jammed the weekend full of master classes (expert teachers, not old learners) on the water, tent classes, vendor tent browsing, boat demoing, and a beginner's class on rolling (me, that is; not Kathleen). We only went for the festival deciding to hotel it rather than rent a place on Folly Beach. It was a good decision. As it turns out, we were beat at the end of each day and didn't want to do much at night. Kathleen threw out her knee getting out of a boat after class on the first day. And, by the end of the weekend, I had a massive crick in my neck from poor sweep turn form on the windblown pond and then unsuccessful attempts to roll in the last class on the last day. No trips in the area this time. Next time! And next time, hopefully, we'll have better boats to take the classes with. The Charleston Park & Rec folks had nice boats available for the classes but it's harder to learn technique in an unfamiliar boat.

Winter Warmup & Brown Water

It's been a cold snowy winter so far - very different from last year when we started kayaking; very few options for us to get on the water. It warmed up this weekend and I couldn't pass up the chance to paddle. I decided to do a quickie on our very own Moss Lake.

First decision was "what to wear?" Actually, it wasn't hard due to our experience last year and expecting the water to be colder. Even with temp pushing into 60's, I was going to wear my 3mm farmer john. I went with a lightweight long-sleeved paddle shirt to go over it. Oh, the other part that made it easy? A guy died a couple weeks ago on the South Fork Catawba River. Inexperienced, not dressed properly, then trying a river in flood stage. We haven't tried the stretch they did. It's a real mix of flatwater and rocks & shoals. Neither flatwater nor whitewater paddlers are fond of it - I think due to the mix of conditions that make it hard or unpleasant for one or the other. More later if/when we ever paddle it ourselves.

Second decision was "where to go?" This wasn't hard either. With Kathleen not able to go, I didn't want to go far or stay out for long. I wanted to go to the Mystery Waterfall and see if the higher rainfall this winter made a difference. This would also make it a short paddle. Since we were going to run an errand, I didn't want to stay out long.

As I'm prepping to go, I realized that last time, after a long break, I'd forgotten to take something. I meant to look at my checklist, but did I? Noooooooo! (Turns out, I only forgot a small face cloth to dry my hands.) Good to be doing this again none the less.

While the lake had some minor flooding during the big rains, the water level was normal full pond. There was floating stuff about. Less than what we've seen before when we were on the water more consistently. After all, a week of no rain had allowed some degree of settling or stabilization of the stuff that gets washed through the creeks. I picked up some floating debris in the open water.

The lake water was very brown. Not surprising, really, but it got me thinking. A pharmacist, who works where we get our prescriptions filled, lives on our lake and was commenting about the changing color of the lake water over the course of a year. A little Googling and I found this nifty explanation of lake turnover.

When I got to my destination, I was surprised to see the buildup of a sandbar that kept me from getting past the 'gatekeeping' tree. Disappointment. Compare this to
this:
And then I discovered this affordable lakefront home (only one of it's kind on Moss Lake that I've seen so far):

Finally .... I've speculated previously about proper clothing for days like this. I saw that NRS has a 3mm shortie and a 0.5 mm shortie. I think I'll try the thinner material. But then again, if I wait too long, I'll have even less reason to buy something.

No Paddling, but Interesting Observation

We STILL haven't hit the water since October. However, I am amused to see posts on the Catawba Cruisers forum as winter paddling comes on. I'm very impressed with the activity of the group and the trips they plan - and megabummed about not being able to join them. The amusing part is the cold water experience of Jenny ... and how much it is paralleling our own. I will get a link to her site over there in the right column once Google fixes the JavaScript bug in their "Configure Link List" add link widget in Firefox 3.5.6. Until then, here it is: zen kayaking

Duck Cove - Osprey, Big Fish, & Really Big Snake

We brushed the cobwebs off our kayaks and headed out to Duck Cove today. This is upriver from Mountain Island Lake along the Catawba River. It borders a waterfowl refuge. We didn't see much in the way of waterfowl at mid-day. We did see two osprey - which were much bigger birds than I was expecting. No pictures, but I did bring my birding binoculars and got a good look at the white of their underside. No diving for fish either. They just circled. We did see what they were looking for - big honkin' fish. I don't know fish. Maybe they were carp. But we saw lots of them, usually in pairs or threesomes, that were 2-3 ft long. [UPDATE: They were grass carp. Imported for vegetation control.] The cove is very shallow, only a foot or two deep through most of its stomach-shape. When we too close for comfort, they kicked up quite a dust cloud swimming away from us. Some even kicked up a wave. As for the leaf peeping, we saw sweetgums that had turned already and a number of drought-stressed poplars that were yellowish.

Our put-in was at Killian Rd. We started on a smaller cove/inlet and went up the main river channel just a bit to get to Duck Cove. After circumnavigating the cove, we went a little further north to find another creek scouted by others. On our way up, we caught sight of this:

From a distance, it looked like a branch/log, but it didn't move with the current. It kept cutting across heading for the other side. Kathleen wasn't too happy at the time. And she didn't want to see the pictures I took. I don't know snakes either. I'll update the post with an identification later. The impounded river had to be 150 yards across. I was amazed a snake would try to cross it. I wouldn't believe it unless I'd seen it. And, you can keep your Loch Ness monster jokes to yourself. I was moving. The snake was moving. I used my photo processing software to adjust the contrast. Unfortunately, I can refactor the focus. The thing had to be about 6 feet long. [UPDATE - Fellow paddler, Mike Slater, says it was a banded watersnake. According to that article, my "snake" story exaggerates it's length by 50%.]

The other creek was quite neat. Both Duck Cove and this creek had rather clear water. With the shallowness, it was quite easy to see to the bottom - of only a couple feet or so. Is with my previous post, when I can see under the water, I find what's there much more fascinating than the land above it - the undulations, the sand/silt patterns, the shells, the branches & other stuff in the water. With some leaves on the water, it was interesting to see their shadows on the bottom. For the most part, they did NOT look like the leaves. They were much more rounded. I guessed that the way the leaves sat in the water was part of it. But I also noticed that a small stick didn't have a noticeable shadow at all. The light refracted enough around it to make any shadow very faint. The big shadow here is my boat and paddle:


Finally, for posterity's sake, here are a couple shots of the put-in & take-out. I'm standing on the packed dirt road off the paved Killian Rd. The dip is deep enough that I didn't trust getting our truck through from both directions. We parked on the side of the road. If you can get through the dip, there is space to park offroad. The put in is just to the left.

Belated Trip Report with Neighbor

Between weather, work, and activities, not much paddling going on. Two weeks ago, we geared up to go on our home lake, but on the morning of, Kathleen wasn't up to it. She suggested calling our next door neighbor, John. To my pleasant surprise, he said yes. This was his first time in a kayak. He took the more stable of the two. He took to it well.

Afterwards, I kicked myself for not bringing the camera. We saw a number of pretty flowers in bloom. Two stand out - an orangy trumpet-shaped flower that was rather small & delicate and quite abundant on the bushes - and a vine that profuse light purpley violet stems of flowers. We had seen the later floating on Buffalo Creek and wondered what produced it. And I was correct in my suspicion - it was kudzu!

John had a great time. As we were paddling up the creek, he was telling me that they're using a variety of grasses in wetlands to suck up and aspirate volatile chemicals and experimenting with a poplar hybrid with their deep tap roots for groundwater plumes. He's an environmental geologist that does polluted industrial site cleanup work.

Upper Catawba - Riverbend Park to Lookout Shoals Dam

Today, we made it to the stretch of the Catawba River that we'd had to bail on at the beginning of the month. We were able to put in at the Riverbend Park, near Conover. We weren't able to start as planned because Duke Energy wasn't releasing enough water. We arrived at 8:30am to find Andy standing on rocks about a quarter way across the river. "Tide's out," he said.

Fortunately, a horn went off at 9am and a guy fishing gathered up his stuff and scampered up to the bank. Within a few minutes, we heard a rush of noise as Duke started running water through one of it's turbines (or whatever). With their re-licensing this year, Duke is supposed to be much better about these releases during the weekends to support recreational use of the river. So, we were to get started after all, and away we went:

The first couple miles, at this water level, had rocks to avoid but not enough to cause problems. We scraped over a few but nothing like the aggravation at Landsford Canal. We saw the bald eagle pair that nests nearby. Not much I can do picture-wise. The only picture I took has the bald eagle launching, but it's fuzzy enough to qualify for a "UFO In-Flight!" article.

At each island, we took the narrow path. At the second island, after the river bends south, we stopped at a sand bar to munch. After putting in again, Kathleen saw what she initially thought was an otter. We'd heard they were about. Upon our return, and discussion with Ranger Lori Owenby, it may have been a mink. No picture, but here are Kathleen and Andy at the bar:

After this, the trip shifted to placid, impounded river. Because of our "narrow side" of islands, we missed seeing the big rock outcrop to the wide side of the longest island. Oh well, it gives us something unique to look forward to when we return. For future reference, this island had 4 or 5 duck blinds along the narrow side. I'd not seen any around here before.

The trip duration was right at the 3.5 hours that Lori had predicted. According to the river map, it's a 9.5 mile trip. We loaded Andy's kayak into our truck at the Lookout Shoals Lake access and headed back to the start. Overall, nice trip. The temperature stayed in the upper 70's and cloudy. We were sprinkled upon occasionally but it was light and not really very noticable.

Demoing Tampico and Tracer

In the search for a new boat for Kathleen, we drove into Charlotte, Great Outdoor Provision Company, today hoping to demo two boats from Hurricane Kayaks. We were able take out a Tampico 140S and a Tracer 165. I had looked for nearby spots to paddle and picked a launch point at McDowell Park which borders Lake Wylie/Catawba River. We arrived at 1pm when the store opened, loaded up the two boats and headed out. Here they are - all pretty in their trylon plastic colors.

Now, actually, I should have known that Sunday afternoons on a big lake were not ideal kayaking conditions. Well, I did, but I thought we'd be able to scoot up to one of the feeder creeks or rivers without much trouble. Unfortunately, the wind and waves proved to be a limiting factor so we didn't end up getting far upstream. All in all though, we weren't there to see the scenary so much as to try out the kayaks. Two demo lessons learned in the process:

1. It's better to paddle someplace you already know.
2. If you're trying a stretch boat, pick someplace calm.
   

I'd been kinda psyched that the Tampico would be a good replacement boat for Kathleen. I was real curious about the Tracer for whenever we decide to get second pair of kayaks. I'm still happy with my Necky Manitou. We may even keep it as a newbie boat in case we ever have guests. Here is Kathleen in each boat. Note the shape differences here and in the picture above.


Net-net: both of us liked the Tampico, even if we could not figure out the back band adjustment. Kathleen felt smooth in it and powerful. I had the foot pegs in as far as I dared and it still wasn't enough for Kathleen to brace properly. It's looking like we'll be asking for a specialized foot peg track placement with our next purchase (of whatever boat) for her. While the Tracer was tippier, I didn't notice it too much. What I did notice was it's tendency to keep turning once I started the turn. It looks like there are some techniques that we would need to learn to use this high-rocker boat effortlessly.

As we were puttering about in the cove area, we came across this unusual heron. It's rather small in the middle of the frame - my picture using the digitizal zoom on the camera didn't come out very well. The coloring looks like a Little Blue Heron, but the shape and legs are like a Green Heron. My bird books say the Little Blue stays on the coast. I look forward to a proper identification.

First Moonlight Paddle

Various paddling groups in the area organize full moon trips at night. They inspired me to monitor the weather to do the same on our own lake. It seemed like a really good idea to try this on water we knew instead of water we didn't. After throwing in a late night long drive to some other place, the local option became a no-brainer.

Saturday, after church, looked best for us. We made it down to the access ramp around 8:30pm while there was still light. And we were out on open water before it started getting really dark. Armed with our nifty Petzl headlamps, we were night boating compliant. Errrr, not armed; headed, actually. These LED-based doodads are on a headband. Ours have several brightness levels and a flash mode. So, we're sure to catch anyone's attention, except for the bass boaters hellbent on getting to their next fishing hole. There were mostly pontoon boaters enjoying the night just as we were. We saw our next door neighbors on the water before it got completely dark.

We wore our long-sleeved summer weight shirts to try them out and reduce surface area for mosquitos. I brought bug spray but, surprisingly enough, didn't need it. The only thing that attracted bugs were the headlamps when in a cove. The temperatures were pleasantly cool so the long sleeves were perfect.

We headed up the cove to Kathleen's parent's house. She called them on the cell phone when we were coming around to their view of the water. I just know Bill was muttering "blankety-blank kids" then hollering "you look great, kid!" We continued on up their cove. It was near the end of this one where a pontoon boat nearly snuck up right behind us.

The moon was pretty. However, not having nearby objects on the horizon, it looked small the whole time. The lake surface had mesmerizing undulations. I think these are the longer wavelength waves, caused by boat wakes that reflect off the shores. Not being able to see them coming, we would just sit in the water and experience them going past us.

We puttered about for 3 hours total, not getting back to the ramp until 11:30pm. A very pleasant night out on the water. We'll be doing this again soon.

Lake Lure

We finally made the trek up to Lake Lure today. It was Plan B. Plan A had been to paddle the upper Catawba River near Conover, NC. The idea was scuttled by the put-in being closed by high water from Duke Energy needing to bleed water from its reservoirs. We have wanted to go to Lake Lure since the very beginning of the year. This was the trigger. We needed a fairly easy out & back trip and I figured the lake would get more crowded as the summer kicks in.

It's a pretty reservoir, up in the mountains, and an easy 1.5 hr drive. The route via US74A/64, coming from the east, is very popular for motorcycle rides. The town has several restaurants with outdoor seating. Much better than the town of Chimney Rock, up the road a little further. We paid the $22 annual fee for each boat at the Lake Lure Marina and used their single lane boat ramp to put-in. Here's a view from the water (with a pair of blue kayaks that came in as we left):

The hills are quite nearby and have nice rock faces in spots:

We went up the Broad River, just past US74/64. We couldn't get far before the rocks blocked us. We found a small side creek that led to a retaining pond. The pond was home to scads of Canadian geese, their yung'ns, and a pair of white swans(?). The homes on the lake are a real mixed lot - some huge stone houses, some mobile homes, and lots of boat garages. On our lake, the lake-side "style" is plain old docks/decks, or roofed boat houses. The garages here were complete with wooden doors on them - kinda quaint. We also saw big turtles and a lot of swallows. There were fewer power boats than I expected on the water, so the mid-afternoon timing worked out just fine. We only went as far as where the lake tee's out to the north. Maybe that northern finger has more interesting hills and wildlife.

Look close in that upper pic above. Besides Katheen in the foreground far right, I think I've got a picture of Chimney Rock, complete with US flag flying, up in the rocks, about middle right.

We will definitely be back in the fall when the leaves are turning. Another summer trip is likely. It was rather breezy today. Hopefully, that breeze will be there when it's stagnant in the piedmont in July & August. We took NC9 south out of town. It was an easier and faster drive than coming through Rutherfordton. (Remember this for the next trip.)

Rocky Shoals Spider Lily

We made the trip to the Landsford Canal State Park near Lancaster SC today. The draw was the springtime flowering of Hymenocallis coronaria, a rare lily that grows amongst the rocks in this section of the Catawba River.

The previous week's Catawba Cruisers group paddle sounded like quite an adventure. A number of new people, fast current from all the rain, grounded boats, flipped boats, and snakes. Andy was willing to go again. Gwen, from Great Outdoor Provision Company, was organizing an afternoon paddle. So, we decided to do this short stretch twice. We were joined by Terri and her son Blake, in the morning, and Pat Long in the afternoon. This was also our first shuttle experiment. It was also our first effort to dodge rain. It's been raining ALOT lately - which is really good for relieving our extreme drought conditions, but not so good for long distance paddle trips. The storm have frequently involved thunder too, so we didn't even try to paddle Moss Lake. But this time, only lightning was going to keep us off the water. Besides, the remnants of the canal, history, and prospect for stopping at GOPC, gave us enough rain-out options to make getting out of the house worthwhile.

We drove through some rain to get there and had a couple minor misturns on the way. But we got there only 5 minutes or so after the agreed meeting time of 10am. Andy was looking at his watch when we pulled in to the rather small and crowded parking lot; but he knows we're never on time. He, Terri, & Blake were already unloaded and waiting by the river. We dropped boats and gear by the parking lot ... And then I realized I'd forgotten to bring our paddles. Doh! I've done this on local drives down the road to our neighborhood access ramp, but it was a first for a road trip. Damnation! Andy had a spare paddle, just like ours, which Kathleen borrowed. I bummed a paddle from the park rangers. Terri, Andy, and I drove to the parking lot by the take-out. Andy drove us back and parked up the road in the increasingly crowded main parking lot. This is a nice little park - it's sized for normal use, not peak use when the lilies are blooming.

The river is flat right up to the park. We paddled out and tried to follow Andy as he traversed the rocky shoals. Now, I know what rocky shoals means - it is to be taken literally. There are rocks freakin' everywhere. We scraped over bunches of them. Got caught up on bunches more. Fortunately, none of us fell out. We did get rained on. It was actually rather enjoyable. I had my [brandname] hat from ECCKF and it worked really well. No lightning, so no scramble. I also forgot my camera so I have no pictures. But here are Andy's.

The lilies are indeed beautiful, both in mass and up close. They root into dirt filled crevasses in the rocks and need occasional flooding. This is one of the largest of very few stands in the US. I'm amazed they just let canoers and kayakers come and walk amongst them. Surely, they take abuse from the foot traffic during blooming. However, they seem to be thriving and the park encourages paddlers.

We thought the afternoon trip would be different from the morning one. I thought Gwen was going to be bringing flatwater boats but his entourage was almost all whitewater craft. I also thought he was taking a different route. But, alas, it was the same one, so we just did it a second time. We stayed a little more to the middle of the river this time. (We were river right in the morning.) It was very tiring and tedious to be pushing past the rocks. The repeat pass has put us off a second trip. We may come back to see the canals and paddle up the Catawba. But, unless we get whitewater boats, I doubt we'll be scraping up the bottoms of ours again.

Paddling Everywhere, Just Not By Us

We've been kept off the water by a string of weekends with unpredictable heavy rain and thunderstorms. As the weather has warmed up, there are lots of people paddling in a variety of locations. All too distant for us to want to drive to & fro only to be rained out. I am now stir crazy and must do something. Hopefully, we won't be dodging thunderbolts. But come heck, or even high water, we're going to see the Spider Lilies at Landsford Canal State Park on the Catawba River!

Stroke Videos

Via @SeaKayakStMarys and @bryanhansel ... a selection of short video clips demonstrating a retinue of kayaking strokes.

UPDATE - May 18: Check here for animations of various paddle techniques.

ECCKF Wrap-Up

UPDATED: Apr 26 - added the pictures

Kathleen and I had a great time at the East Coast Canoe & Kayak Festival in Charleston SC. We are definitely going again. We tried to take advantage of everything available, made several on-the-fly plan changes, and had some unanticipated coordination challenges. We took our two Italian Greyhounds and rented a 1 room cottage on Folly Beach for a week. Ray and Dorothy, some paddling buddies, were going and we wanted to hook up with them. Here's what we did - commentary follows.

• Thu evening - Eastern Horizons movie
• Fri morning - sunrise paddle on Folly Creek
• Fri afternoon - lessons: Basics and Beyond the Basics
• Fri evening - Russell Farrow on Glaciers & Narwhal (Vacation from Hell)
• Sat morning - Nigel Foster demo on kayak control; Ken Fink on wind & waves
• Sat afternoon - rescue demos; vendor viewing & gear gathering; Danny Mongno on low/high angle paddling
• Sat evening - dinner ticket & traffic fiasco; late dinner; "ballet" with kayaks & canoe
• Sun morning - lessons: Combine & Refine and Support Strokes
• Sun afternoon - more vendor viewing; kayak demoing

The movie was my first exposure to top-flight sea kayaking. Beforehand, I was more leery than interested, now I can definitely see the appeal. Will, of Coastal Expeditions, led the sunrise paddle. It was a nice jaunt through a tidal marsh area. We saw a bottle-nosed dolphin. We had signed up for 3 of the 6 classes offered by H2Outfitters and ended up adding a 4th to round out their complete set on various strokes - very useful, since all of our previous stroke knowledge came from our watching DVD's not people watching us & providing feedback. H2Outfitters had a bunch of boats for the lessons. We were in Perception Sea Lions on Friday and Prijon Catalinas on Sunday. The Prijons felt very wobbly to us newbies - a good lesson to avoid hard chine boats until we're more advanced. I flipped mine while going gonzo practicing low braces - but it gave me an opportunity to try a heel re-entry seen demoed by Cathy Piffath the day before. Kathleen has gained a lot of confidence and now wants to step up from her Pungo 120. Since we didn't plan on buying a boat there, we are waiting. However, it probably won't be too long before we're looking to sell & buy. In retrospect, we regret skipping the BBQ dinner on Friday night. I salivated at Dorothy's description of the beer and others told me the food was better than Saturday's. We returned for the Vacation from Hell presentation - very interesting for capturing the on-shore experience, not nearly as much on-water shoots as in Eastern Horizons; overall, a good pairing though. On Saturday, we wanted to catch a variety of sessions. Nigel Foster is freakin' amazing in a kayak - now we know how graceful kayaks can be on flatwater. Jeff & Cathy's demo of rescues was interesting, informative, and, as already mentioned, timely. After Ken Fink's talk, we knew what a Sea Kayak Carolina staff member meant when he warned us on Monday about the fetch near the mouth of the Folly River. Danny, of Werner Paddles, was entertaining during his talk about paddling styles. Who knew that competition between paddling vendors is a trash talk sport? Actually, that was a tiny percentage of his session, he was very informative discussing technique and paddle/shaft shapes. Unfortunately, I left the dinner tickets at home and, unbeknown to us, had to fight Folly Beach Sea & Sand Festival traffic back to the cottage. I was an hour late to dinner, the crowd was thinning, and I missed Ray & Dorothy. I did have a nice, but short, chat with Steve, the Charleston Co. paddling program director, his wife, and the guy who was directing the festival. After dinner, and after bumming some bug spray, Alison Sigathy and Karen Knight were incredibly graceful in their greenland kayak and canoe respectively. After the second set of lessons and Sunday, we tried sea kayaks by Nigel Dennis, P&H, and Wilderness Systems. The Current Design folks had packed up, so we missed trying theirs.

We only missed one component this year - master classes offered by experts, but not necessarily for experts. With the basics under our belt, a season of practice, and we'll be signing up for a number of these next year. We didn't get to do any other paddles due to high winds. I look forward to paddling to the Morris Island Lighthouse next year.

Here's Kathleen at the H2Outfitter's location for on-the-water lessons.
And fellow paddlers on Folly Creek in the tidal marsh:

Consensus on Warm-Air Cold-Water Wear?

I posted a question on the Mecklenburg Regional Paddler's forum about recommendations for clothing or "behavior" when the air temperature is warm and the water temperature is not. I'd previously speculated that I'd carry a scooper and pour cold water down my shirt if I wore my current gear - an 3mm Farmer John and a 0.5mm longsleeve top (both from NRS).

The general consensus was towards a "shortie" farmer john - single piece wetsuit with mid-thigh shorts and vest-like upper. The idea was ... protect the core in the water, allow the extremities to sweat to release body heat generated by paddling in the warmer air. At the ECCKF, we'll be talking with other folks too. Stay tuned!

Practicing a Self-Rescue

After Kathleen's previous excitement, we bought a variety of extra safety gear and I got psyched to practice getting wet myself. Today, the weather was wonderful. I just had to do a bunch of yard cleanup chores before she would let me go play in the water. I enumerate here all the reasons why my experience was much easier than hers:

1. Planned
2. Calm lake
   
3. Wetsuit
4. Two float bags in the bow
5. Paddle float
   
6. Water not quite so cold
7. Watched self-rescue video beforehand
   
8. Kathleen ready to go with PFD, ropes, and backup paddle float.

As we were watching The Dolphin Eye's "Practical Kayaking" DVD, I realized that we'd never actually seen the self-rescue section. We'd only watched the buddy rescue demonstrated in Ken & Nicole Whiting's "Recreational Kayaking" DVD. Here's the spot we used. It's at the end of our neighborhood's cove; photo taken from the adjoining neighborhood's decent-sized dock.


Here's the video of the first attempt (with color commentary by Kathleen):


Here's the video of the second attempt (Yikes, I wonder if I can do anything about that dorsal still for the image preview. Thanks, YouTube, it's very flattering!):


Context for references in the videos: Andy is our friend who was with us on the South Fork. Walter & Patty are friends on the lake who came by, in one of their boats, while we were getting started.

A very fun experience. And I feel good about succeeding both times. (Afterwards, I was kicking myself for not having tried some bracing techniques to see if I could recover from a tilt.)

I did discover one thing about the kayak dress code... If you do, in fact, dress for the water temperature, you better get in the water on warm days like this, or you'll roast. I wonder if bringing a scooper and pouring water down my neoprene shirt would be the best practice. ;-)