rick stoehrer

who? us?

was reading the part about the assisted rescue and wrapping the arm around the boat and then holding onto a deckline vs holding onto the coaming and was wondering if folks understood why when instructors teach this, they teach it the way they do and it involves the coaming and getting a truly secure grip? not that your way is in any way wrong, just that there are about a million ways to skin a cat (which is a gross expression, where the *^% did we ever get that one?) and another option in that grab... still bow to bow but they differ in where the rescuer holds the boat. if rescuer leans way over and holds onto that coaming with a good grip, the boat is stable as is the rescuer since you now have an 18 foot outrigger. even in conditions this can be made pretty rock solid for the swimmer to re-enter the kayak. if rescuer wraps and arm around the boat (how long ARE your arms? we've met - it didn't seem like you had that much up your sleeve - ha!) and then secures the boat with other hand on a deckline it isn't as stable and certainly not in conditions as the boat will be pitching (or is it yawing?) and while the deckline offers a good hold in one direction, it offers nothing but a slammed knuckle or two in the other and the boat may rear up on that side and smack your hand. if it can smack a knuckle, it obviously won't offer much support to a struggling swimmer. also, in conditions, staying out from between the 2 boats may be a better option than going between them as the swimmer (schwimma) may be pinched between a fully laden 'yak (rescuer) and their own craft. again, not that the other way is wrong. the "rule" such as there is a rule, is swimmer in boat, water outta boat. quick as you please and how ever this is accomplished is really not that imprtant so lets not haggle on little stuff but just so folks understand the reasoning behind the coaming and then can make their own informed choices. it's good that you found a way to work past the limitation of an inury! crafty devil. just a thought on the coaming vs deckline is all. mi dos centavos

popham beach is at the mouth of the kennebec river in maine, in phippsburg. the very long sand beach is formed by the river water coming on out and then swirling back around in a very large eddy and depositing all that lovely sand on the beach. due to the vast amount of water flowing out of the mouth and the islands right there off shore, popham is often the site of some very interesting waves and home to some very strong currents. saturday we got up and headed out around 8:30 or so with the ebb and along the way played in the eddy's formed behind the islands in the river and the outcroppings and everything else we could find. while the current was swift, there were little conditions to play in save the mouth between wood and pond islands. there always seems to be a little something going on here and today was no exception. the swells were coming in from seemingly every angle and we played and surfed them for a bit before riding the current out to seguin island. seguin island light is the 2nd oldest light house in maine and was commissioned by washington (george, not the federales) in 1795. it offers a great view around from cape small to elizabeth and then northeast. in the cove that serves as about the only landing spot on the island, we met an old acquaintance and all lunched together atop. the paddle back was uneventful and we rode the current in at this point and so there was no struggling against the water at the end of the day. from here we packed up, camped at hermit island and then 3 of the group headed south with chores abounding for their respective sundays. as it turns out this was a regretable error on their parts. the remaining 3 of us got up late, had a nice breakfast and then drove over to popham to see what we could play in today....our initial plan was to head northeast up the coast. this soon changed. as we drove in we could see through the break in the tree's the waves marching into shore in repeated sets going out half a mile! it was a day to surf at popham! we launched at fort boaldwin and paddled down the ebbing tide again and out the mouth. where yesterday there was a only a little to play in between wood and pond, today the waves abounded! much fun bracing and surfing here....we made it around wood and looked down the beach and what we saw was exciting! the swells were feeling the bottom and rearing up and setting down and rearing up, repeat....great rides to be had here with big breaking stuff farther down towards fox island! excellent, smither, excellent.... headed down towards fox and surfed - forwards, backwards, bongo...all manner of fun with water to be had. pulled off a pirouette (sp?) and was quite happy. the goal is to uncork one at will - there's the goal...this is quite fun. rode a few in for a loooong time and got off at the beach. once you figure out the idea behind the pocket on these things, you can really just fly! surfing along one larger wave as i was pulled back (going backwards) i had a fine view of janis, bracing along the top of one farther out...beautiful...until it grabbed her and down the face she went, briefly bongo'd before she leaned away and over she went. suzanne had the rescue sorted out before i could get there to throw on a contact tow and get them both out of there - great job. rescue down lickety split! there was no better vision than her on that wave crest just bracing onto the soft side....she is going to nail all of this soon and make us all look like rookies! we eventually tired, broke for lunch and rode those velvety waves to shore for lunch and lounging in the sun. a beautiful day! we launched later, a little fatter, rested and surfed for about another 2 hours before paddling back with the flooding tide and made it to the launch in record time.

joe - the water is deep. so rule #1 is pretty much don't bail ! barring that, rescues would have been a challenge. what we did was we had a couple in the race and then a 3 in the eddy essentially downstream keeping an eye on things ready to enter the race if things went south. we woulda worked it out but we ended up not having to do any rescues as everyone stayed upright and never left the boat. one of the things we talked about afterwards at dinner that night was performing rescues out there and talked about doin them the next time we came back. next time...we'll see how that works out and i will post and we can all review. it's a far different world than paddle float in the harbor and it'll be good to practice this stuff out there. have a great weekend !

the mouth of the north/south river is nowhere to be unless you kinda know what you're doing. water there can get a bit confused. a few years back a fella died after "liberating" a row boat and then getting caught out. alcohol was a contributing factor as i recall.... besides that though, seem to remember some other incidents there. nice to see that everything worked out though - no one got hurt; that's great news!

i know, right? although not sure we have a level for this: fast pace not very far conditions like crazy it was very intense. i wouldn't put this in a category that we have for official trips. one of those things where each is given the conditions, you are comfortable with your mates and then you go see what happens.

only know a few - none of 'em were there. sounds like WH was a blast!

glad you folks went and had a good time @ the hole....really would liked to have done a sat/sun thing on that one! the one time i went down to wh it was pretty quiet - that time with you, linda, bryan....fast but not very lumpy.

ken - did you guys make it down to the "hole" on sabado?

we'll gloss over the getting out and getting back part. suffice to say, it's 5 miles or so off the coast of mystic in CT. and to get to race rock island beyond fishers (where all the mayhem is), you ferry glide across the last half mile channel in 6+ knot current on ebb (seem like ALL of long island sound goes through there) to get to the 300 hundred yard long by 100 foot (or thereabouts) eddy behind a very eerie looking lighthouse. think the adams family goes to sea. from the eddy you look out SW and see the furious standing waves, swells and confused seas (6+ foot standing waves with the same delightful 6+ knot current) just a few short yards away. so we gathered our courage, did a quick gut check and launched into this malestrom...paddle, brace, surf, repeat. one moment your chum (who is all of 10 feet away) is 8 feet over your head, the next he's 8 feet below you or you just can't see him. and forget about hearing one another, all you can hear is the sound of breaking waves and the grumbling/rumbling of water hungry for you to blow a brace. pretty cool. the water being so dynamic makes things interesting and if you don't have your sea seat and a brace by this point, this is not a good place to "work on it" there isn't all that much that's forgiving here. all i could do was keep giggling and singing the theme song from gilligans island...the part about the "...weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the would be lost..." the farther we got into this very bumpy bit of water, the bigger it got...very, very exciting...time for more singing... ...did that and drifted down the 300 hundred yards or so and then really had to "punch" to get through the eddy line. rode and surfed that eddy line back to the lee of race rock light and then did the whole thing again. after a few hours, we were pretty tired, ferried across back over to fishers island (again, fast current, rough water and we got a chance to surf against the currrent in ferrying back and to make a bit of headway against the race - pretty cool) and then skeedaddled over to the beach. had a spot of tea, rested and chatted about what we just saw/did and then paddled back at a far more laconic pace than the paddle out had entailed. in all, a great day in challenging conditions! many thanks to greg paquin down in connecticut for the local knowledge and introducing us race newbies to a great stretch of boiling water!

i am really glad that worked for you. you had some great rides last nigth and that beach was very forgiving and the conditions really good for practice. you were totally beaming! ha! it was cool! on surfin back through it... to clarify, you just bring the rudder around into a brace and then once broached and the wave plays out a bit more with the force diminishing, you bring the brace forward and bow rudder the bow back out to face the ocean vs the shore. this uses the boat/blade in a more elegant fashion and then you don't have to "bully" the boat around. saves energy and time and so gives you MORE PLAY TIME!

paddle around huh? heard that about you...dang tramp.

is that like steak tips? anyways, besides where a helmet... with the time i'm spending surfing lately maybe a word of advice to be heeded or ignored as you feel the need but what the heck, it's a message board...so here it is. surfing again last night with a chum, she was leaning back almost the entire time on the wave; she'd catch it and then immediately start with the lazy rudder (didn't turn the torso, exposing shoulder and not very powerful) and be leaning back on the rear deck. leaning back actually slows you down and i think folks do this because it feels like you are getting more power from the "lazy rudder" but not as effectual as doing a bit differntly... catch the wave, LEAN FORWARD...this make the boat go faster as your weight is now heading essentially down hill and freeing up the back of the boat from the wave...so you end up in front of it in the pocket, speeding along. then, when you rudder, either be erect or lean forward a bit and ROTATE YOUR TORSO to do your rudder. this FORCES your legs to do what you want/need in order to be in this position...also protects your shoulder from exposure to too much stress. this i have found to be far more effective in controlling the direction of your boat.

that would be your basic hair spray propelled spud. my experience is that the higher the alcohol content the better to fill the chamber (ray net? i think was the brand? it worked wonders)and then once you hit the ignition (which can be jimmied from the auto "click" starter on your basic gas grill and installed just as neatly) chmber sparks, ignites and el-boome - will pretty much propel said spud through a car windshield (in the JUNK YARD, you dang hooligans) with great force and much drama.... binks...you little macgyver!

morning! the sirocco is essentially a plastic gulf stream which is pretty much a clone of an orion...same designer, just tweaked a bit from co. to co. while the boat length is always a consideration, i think that a bigger factor with this boat will be the shape of the bows/stern. i owned an orion and it was a very fun surf boat but there were some things she didn't so as well as some and while my "newbie-ness" was/and maybe still is, probably a bigger factor than anything else, these were my experiences. she pitchpoled which was raucous, if wet, fun and bongo'd quite well. with the bows/stern as fine as they were, she pierced into the surf a bit much and it was sometimes quite difficult to go straight, but what the hell, that's half the fun and you get to work on your bongo! with all the width amidship, if you commit to a leaned turn, most of the boat was outta the water and you could turn her quite easilly. those are my experiences anyway and maybe others have something different to add. sing likes the short boats for their unbelievable responsiveness on a wave face and how you can make those little puppies, turn, dance and pretty much do whatever the heck you want (with an apt paddler mind you) and while the skills certainly have cross over advantages, i prefer the long boats. if a sea boat is what you paddle, being comfortable in surf in one can be an important aspect of your sea kayaking. besides, there's nothing like seeing the whole dang 17 feet or so spit into the air from a wave....pretty cool. of course if it's you being spit, you don't enjoy the view as your eyes are clamped shut but your friends get to enjoy it!

it was definitely an eye opening experience - it's one thing to understand and "know" and feel how your hips affect a boat but it really brings it home with rather dramatic and time sensitive results when you take the blade out while surfing! oh well, yet another in a long list of things to work at...

in a developing tuesday night pattern, i surfed at long beach again last night. i was joined by an unnamed compatriot after he left work early for a "doctors appointment". so that would be a dr. long? we launched at 5 or so from pebble on the rising tide and putzed along shore (very along shore - great practice and fun when you are dang near on a rock) heading east and then out to circumnav milk where we played chicken along the shoreline with the dumping surf (the difference between excitement and destruction can be a very fine line and it's quite fun to see/feel and ride that razor wire) and then back along to the lee where we sat in about 6 inches of water and waited for the clapotis to meet and form those fun "zippers" when they converge! we did this for a bit and eventually felt silly that we were getting our jolly's in only 6 inches of water and so headed direclty over to long beach to see what surf we could find. and we did find it. the swells started to feel bottom at cape hedge there and then curl around a bit and into shore. most were chest high with a few larger. nice long, low swells that weren't moving particularly fast and were easy to catch and ride. and we did ride them....forward, backward, bongo and such. they were stellar conditions for gentle surf practice. nothing dumping with a great sandy bottom to run into if you did happen to run into it. i switched paddles with my chum and tried his powermaster blade last night...was very similar to having a shovel in the water! that blade face moves A LOT of water and while i don't think i'd like it for a long haul, it's pretty wonderful for surfing where you need lots of power very quickly but aren't really going very far (under your own propulsion anyways!) offered lots in way of moving your boat around. also, tried to surf sans paddle...tom mentioned how once he caught a wave, jp would more or less toss his paddle away...figured okay, lets try that and see what happens and while i didn't toss the paddle away (for gods sake, i'm not that crazy or that good and jp has a healthy dose of both!) i did take it out of the water and tried to control the boat with my hips alone....with mixed success. well, mostly the mix was all that sand in my ears, hair and nose but mixed none the less. occassionally i had the boat going where i intended and the rest of the time had to dip the paddle back into the wave face for control. it was great practice and really makes you realize what your hips/legs should be doing and i came to realize how much i "bully" the boat around with a paddle versus what i should be doing with the rest of my body. really, this should all be working in synch and i think that sometimes, i rely to heavily on the blade. i will contnue this practice as best i can until that % of time control is acheived is bumped up a bit. this seems very wortwhile practice. we left once the tide came up and the waves left, happy again with the performance of the avocets and how long beach has joyfully surprised me two tuesdays in a row.

look at that....he-he-he-he....makes me think that i really, really need to 1. have fun cam 2. go to appropriate fun cam places 3. be as tough / good / giggly in the face of watery chaos

fabulous. a government agency researching our sport. i feel better already knowing the coasties are on it. gear, any gear, will never obviate the need for skills and practice and experience. education, not legislation. why is it sometimes folks feel obligated to save us from ourselves? educate, train and then let people make their own decisions. if paddlers understand a situation and then decide to take a risk...isn't that kinda their own business? and i know it isn't you carl, but what was the name of that sponson jacka$$ that trolled the webs for awhile extolling their marvelous virtues? man, if this were to ever pass to law....that is going to be one really unpopular dude!

key largo to key west - 115 miles. you can either drive down in a cargo van/trailer (surely someone in this group has a trailer? and if you drive in shifts your looking at 24 hours so long as long as doc jeff isn't driving!) and use your own boat or fly with your gear and then rent from a company called florida bay outfitter/frank & monica woll right across from pennekamps in key largo. last time i spoke with them they had some decent boats to rent. figure take 7 days for the paddle (take some time to see some things) and then 1 on either end and so then on a 10 day cycle that leaves you an extra day in the middle for weather. if you wanted to stretch it out to 2 weeks, then you've got 12 days on the water and have the time a plenty to do the entire thing in the back country and go up into the snipe keys on the gulf side (someone described them as a paddlers paradise) and poke around. inumerable species of birds, sharks galore (little cute ones, not the big "come and eat you whole" ones) and tons of fish. saw a big ole' sea turtle and paddled amongst some curious dolphins. if that don't make the hightlight reel, nothing will! did that trip solo one year. pretty cool. spent the proverbial week one night on indian key in a big blow...it was memorable. the folks along the way were colorful and kind and it totally re-energized my faith in the goodness of people! that could be either an expedition or merely a destination depending upon how far you were from rte 1 and a beer and a burger!

last night after braving the traffic N (and not to knock the over 60 set, but sheesh! do some of those folks realize that really, when travelling on route 127 it's okay to AT LEAST APPROACH the speed limit??!!) and a quick phone call to Liz (Help - where again is that beach?) i made it to pebble beach in rockport. Which for the geographically challenged is right off of 127a by turks head motel. in any event i arrived at 7 to see mr crangle already in the water and playing to his hearts content....jealous, i started to quickly unload and with a little help soon joined him. from pebble, we headed down to long beach past a bit of a headland (turks head, perhaps? dunno, didn't have a chart with me) and over to long beach where the swells were coming in, breaking rather quickly and spilling onto the sandy shore on the low tide. we played there for a bit and while the combat roll worked quite well (SHAMELESS PLUG - thanks to the brilliant Dr. Zilberfarb - orthopoedic genius!!) i didn't get any really great rides. although i did pole vault rather nicely when the stern dug into the shallow sandy bottom.....and over...yahoo! ride of the night was mr crangle, speeding down a wave face with the tube of the wave curling above him. as he looked up and saw/realized the soon to be outcome...it was funny and great and everything you want to see in a boat! after it broke on him and tossed him over, he did a quick high brace while under there, it rolled him back up and he bongo'd the wave into shore. beautiful! the weather was fantastic and the colors as the sun set pretty nice...the sea went from that great blue/gray with the reflection of gold/pink to a flattter gray as the sun went down. above us there was an enormous cummulus cloud rising thousands of feet and the different vertical surfaces reflected the same varying hues of the sunset....yeah, in all, not a bad way to end the day. thanks to mr crangle for answering the call to the beach late on a tuesday afternoon!

dear evil sing - the avocets were just brilliant for surfing! we all switched around quite a bit as we had a buncha boats there but for me, the avocet was sweee-eet. got broached and then still able to pull the bow out and around to continue surfing....really got to do whatever i wanted in that boat. and yeah, it is a short boat so i know that's what's goin on...it had little to do with me, i am sure! but boy...didn't everything on saturday just feel right! tried 2 ww boats but don't know enough about them to tell you why they handled the way they did....one, you had to let the bow bury herself, lean back and then just go! the problem was getting too far ahead of the wave face it was just so fast....truth be told, i enjoyed them but had NO IDEA what the hell i was doing in them! fun though! squirrelly little things...you turn 360 with a stroke for cryin' out loud...the problem was going straight (210 paddle is way too long for this) and it seemed like almost everything was a derivative of a sweep....chris g though seemed to make his necky rip behave quite well and he had a grand ole time....especially once one of his bud's punched a hole in his sirius.....err....yeah, we'll fix that right up....

forlack of what you actually call it. we surfed this weekend and took lots of pics from shore with my fuji digital but at the speeds we were going (not like mach 2 or anything but still, you are moving right along...) a lot of the shots were of the back of the boat, the, end of the blade, etc. i didn't notice it a lot when we went to costa rica but most of those shots were of plants, birds, mountain, etc and stuff getting lost wasn't an issue. is the camera you use quick to take the shot after the button is hit and still auto focus? would like to get something that is digital, waterproof and can be used for action shots. thanks and welcome back! really looking forward to seeing the photos!

with the surf in on saturday, all other obligations were cleared from the deck and a group of us got together and headed to a spot that shall go un-named. we arrived at 8:15 and a few of us had already had an hour in the water - the surf was breaking onto a beautiful sandy beach and the waves in the morning were from chest to head high dependind on where you were in the set and just lovely. with as many folks as we had in the group, we had a large selection of boats to play in - ww, to shorter sea boats (avocets) to longer touring craft (explorers and greenlanders) this was to be fun! we had one small problem with a sirius (huh....they aren't bullet proof apparently) and some fiberglass and gel coat repair need to be made before that see's the water again. additinally, we cautiously took out a newbie into the surf and she did wonderfully, grinning and laughing at the antics of others the entire time. which is good as i shall marry her...oh yes, i shall and it's important she not get broken in a boat... i swam. yes, i typed that out loud (it was shallow...head dragging on the sandy bottom (helmeted, yes) and at some point you just get out) but had the best runs of my life on that beach! the avocet is a dream to paddle in the surf - what a wonderful boat! i endoed and pulled out the roll while vert. and paddled out - the coolest thing i have ever or ever will do in a kayak! totally jazzed! at one point, several of us were on the same wave, parallel, each running down the wave face...on purpose yet! pulled out of the wave and paddled off pleased as punch! on the whole we were there until 4 or so and quite exhausted by the time we left the beach. today, we are a bit battered a bit bruised and still smiling from the sand in our hair and the new scratches on our craft.

okay, so you concede that heavy handed was not what you meant? help me understand restrictive. huh? do what you want. post a sng and paddle to your hearts content! it's the foundation of the club! who said you can't? the club is based on paddlers helping paddlers and that's great! it's what we all enjoy and love doing - we all love sharing our passions with folks that feel the same way! can anyone disagree with that? on this we're probably all united, yeah? so what's the issue with certification and politics? i don't remember seeing any lately and we have committee's established at the general meeting to handle the nuts/bolts of the club's "vision thing" (as liz n. puts so aptly!) is your gripe that there are committee's and a board to review the club's "vision thing"? as a reader, i don't know, you aren't being terribly clear. and in the end, who cares? get a boat on the water and paddle. it isn't worth arguing about while the sun is shining and the water is calling.