josko

My Kokatat (2012 Meridian) dry suit leaks in more places than not. It's time to send it back. I've heard that Kokatat's gotten quite 'difficult' wrt warranty repairs. Has anyone been through the proceduree recently, and how did it work out? Just curious what I'm up against.

FWIW, I took an unplanned dunk at almost the same spot yesterday (3/30). Things worked, and boat was moving again in less than a minute, but my monitor recorded an amazing heart rate jump during the event.

Thanks folks; it looks like I've got some foam carving in my future. What do people find as the optimal width of the foam backrest?

Where do you get 3" bulkhead blocks?

Thought about replacing my backrest with a foam block, thinking it would allow more rotation (since support is just a few inches on either side of the spine), but I'm having trouble finding them for sale. Does anybody know a link that has back foam blocks for sale? If not, what kind/thickness of foam shold I think of getting to cut out my own? Has anybody tried them out, and how do they compare to backbands?

Guess the government doesn't want us to know which way the wind is blowing.

It's amazing how much paddling gear is out of stock nationwide! Who bought up all this stuff? On a related topic, what do folks carry in their leader PFDs?

Here's to starting another seson: https://activities.outdoors.org/search/index.cfm/action/details/id/124285&act=15

Safest thing is to not paddle at all... especially in winter. But people should be allowed to set their own risk thresholds.

Here's a note from a Woods Hole friend, an excellent paddler. There are lesons here for all of us: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When that happens, finding our way back to the put-in will be the least of our problems.

Who's got a good supply of 'our type' of PFD's locally? I need to get a leader/rescue one and a low volume one for fitness paddling and would like to try out as many as I can. CRCK didn't have much in stock. FWIW, I'm on Cape Cod. Failing that, what are folks' favorites for a group leader PFD and for fitness paddling?

Faye Dangelo and I are waiting for a weather window to go paddle Monomoy, hopefully later this month (2/21). Let us know if you'd like to be included on the email list. Entrance to Pleasant bay has changed significantly, and the gap to Monomoy is still pretty wide.

Buzzards bay downwinder, anyone?

Went out for a (Kokatat drysuit+smartwool layer) fitness paddle during the last cold spell and started seriously overheating as soon as my heart rate nudged up a bit. What do folks wear when paddling hard in cold weather? The intersection between safety and non-overheating is escaping me so far. I recently came across this: https://www.supskin.com/products/paddleskin-surfski-suit Has anybody tries this for local cold weather paddling?

Kevlar is notoriously slippery in cleats. Is this stuff any different?

You can splice thin line into one the right size for the cleat. West Marine can do it for you if you don't do splices.

And Goose Cove Resort went uspcale. Way, way upscale: https://aragostamaine.com/about/

If you're in Northern New England, John Carmody comes highly recommended: seacliffkayakers.com. In South New England, Greg Paquin is also widely recommended: kayakwaveology.com IMHO, there's a lot of novice/wannabe coaches locally, with folks getting a mixed bag of experiences. Some caution in coach-picking is advised.

Calculated max HR is 165, so >148 for 90 mins is right up there. Forrest Horton and I are egging each other into downwinders. It's working out great. Agree that downwinders look just like HIIT's. Paddle, eat, sleep, fix body, fix boat, repeat... Life doesn't get much better.

Here's my pulse for the first serious downwinder in the V10 (Saturday) . Stayed upright, though. A little more in control today in a Taran:

Trip is now full.

There's room for one on an ambitious (L5) downwind surfing trip in Nantucket sound tomorrow. Please contact me by this evening if interested. Prior wind-wave surfing experience expected.

Maybe slightly off-topic but in Southern New England, a scary number of formerly public-access places have gone to residents only, using Covid as justification. One can only hope they go back to public access after the pandemic, but I doubt that will happen.

Got a close look at a sandbar shark yesterday. Clearly longer than my paddle, maybe 250# or so. Really cool animal.