mhabich

I was able to take this course with Todd a couple of years ago. It's a real skill builder for us sea kayakers, and more fun than a barrel of monkeys going over Niagara Falls. The whitewater environment gives you the chance to walk the river and read the water and plan your moves, then see if you can paddle the plan.

Come join us at Chebacco Lake in Hamilton on Thursdays at 5pm until sunset though the summer. Practice strokes, rolls, rescues, falling out of your boat, or just watching kingfishers. It's a great place for new and developing paddlers to learn and experiment, and for experienced paddlers to tune up. Dress for immersion. A wetsuit is warm enough in early season, and keeps down the bruises from climbing back into your boat ten times a night. We meet at the boat ramp at the south end of the lake, and hang out in the cove to the left of the ramp. You can either get off 128 at Pine st (exit 49) and head north on the dirt road, or find Chebacco road off Rt 22 in Essex and avoid the dirt. No entrance fees.

Christopher, looks like you're all set now by dint of persistence or magic.

I’ll be there. I’ll do whatever is most useful

We have a similar chart up front at https://www.nspn.org/trip-levels/ Keep in mind that just one parameter has to be met to push a trip up to a given level, not an average or all parameters. Given the units used (wind in mph rather than Beaufort scale, for example) the chart seems to be of US origin, not UK.

Yes. Look on the front part of NSPN.org, Paddling with NSPN, Put-in locations. Updates always welcome.

You can keep up with Andy.

We were talking about rec boats once in a workshop when Keith suggested that if we’re not hunting for subsistence it’s recreation. Therefore, an expedition must involve the hunting of seals.

Two P&H boats on my car, and one’s a Cetus. Great camping boat, plenty fast, and I spent much of yesterday surfing in it...which reminds me that it rolls well too.

If you look around at any club day trip or camping trip, you'll see lots of Cetuses (Cetii?) and Explorers, some other P&H and NDK/SKUK boats, and some others. It's rare that you'll see a kayak with a rudder in the club. (Whether these observations suggest that these are the best boats or that we're all sheep I can't answer.) The Cetus and Explorer are proven expedition boats. Since they're popular, used examples from used hard/cheap to almost new are likely to pop up on the market. You could try a Cetus and an Explorer and work out from that baseline for speed/stability/maneuverability/capacity for your needs. Keep in mind that the entire outdoor equipment market, including kayaks and especially drysuits, is largely sold out this year.

Great session, good for anyone doing endurance efforts. It's just hard to eat enough. Recorded session will be posted at https://mita.org/online-events/, along with MITA's other recent events.

Chebacco sessions will run this year, Thursday evenings as always. I'll announce here when they get going.