Bill Gwynn

DuPont Teflon Dry Film Lubricant I love this stuff. I use on everything from my Motorcycle chain to skeg cables, to squeaky doors. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...&lpage=none

You must not have read the article. That apparently is the issue. The town wants local kayakers to foot the bill, even though there will be an annual revenue of $40.00 per kayak stored.

I have a Kevlar Avocet. My experience is that the Kevlar itself holds up very well to abuse. But, the flex of the layup leads to lots and lots gelcoat repairs and spider cracks everywhere. So, for big impacts, the kevlar layup will stay intact, but the area affected will be much larger with more gelcoat damage, whereas a standard layup may actually hole, but the damage will be in a smaller area.

Same thing...no discrimination here.

I don't bring the swimmer over to my boat until I have got ahold of their boat. At that point, I feel pretty secure letting them hang on to me. It's a good place for the swimmer to be, you can keep an eye on him, help him, and there is less chance of him getting knocked about in conditions. Give it a try.

I think everything you need to know is on the Calendar Posting.

You can launch from Kennebunkport at any tide...true. But, once you get up to Cape Porpoise, if it is closer to low tide, there is not much there on the inside except for mud flats and the shipping channel. Kinda boring place to paddle at low tide. On the high tide, Cape Porpoise is a great protected scenic paddle. For those that want some adventure, you can shoot around the outside of the many islands there.

You can use the same method we all used when we were kids to find the leak in our bicycle tires. Plug the wrist gaskets with some appropriately sized water/soda bottles, you can do the same with the neck gasket. Get some air in there, then fill the tub and hold the dry suit underwater one section at a time and look for air bubbles.

The double float thing works OK, but if someone is so out of sorts that they are having trouble staying upright, it would be much better to do a rafted tow and have that unstable paddler being tended to personally. As far as paddle floats, they have many many uses, therefore are always part of my kit.

Hi John, I had responded to your email regarding this question. I must have got filtered. Anyways, you do not need PayPal to pay your dues. We use PayPal to handle the transaction, and you can pay with a credit card or echeck as well. Bill

A couple of my favorites: 1. Sea Kayak: A Manual for Intermediate & Advanced Sea Kayakers by Gordon Brown 2. Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation by David Burch

How much stock do we put in any forecast? Personally, I take any information I can get and put it all together in my head, then while standing on the beach observing actual conditions, make the call for the days activities. There have been many wonderful days of paddling that would have been missed had I just went by the forecast. Of course, other times, you end up just having lunch and an adult beverage at the local pub.

Her name is Lynne Cox. http://www.lynnecox.org/ She has been doing long distance cold water swimming since 1971, so she has been conditioning her body and "adapted". She personally attributes her ability to a very even layer of body fat.

Not kayaking related, but good info with video on cold water survival. http://www.yukonman.com/cold_water.asp I have never heard of any gender differences. Certainly body size/weight is a factor, but overall physiology/health would be a bigger factor.

I agree that this short video is not a great "Training Tool" for kayakers. It's not meant to be. I did however find it to be accurate information and in no way misleading. Anyone interested in additional information on cold water immersion and hypothermia, see the Hypothermia Page here at NSPN.

The Gasp Reflex is actually bronchospasm produced by the "Mammalian Diving Reflex". "Gasp Reflex" does not affect everyone, and may affect some others in even reasonably warm (60 degree) water. As Ed said, wearing your hood (as well as other appropriate cold water gear) will greatly reduce the odds of having this happen to you. Also, we should all be testing ourselves and equipment in cold water to see how we respond. At the annual NSPN Cold Water Workshop, we all get in our gear and get in the water and stick our heads in. It's quite an eye opener doing it both with and without a hood.

I must have seen a different video. The one I watched mentioned gasping at least twice.

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Hey Jon, Have you tried just some thin gloves under your pogies? They may be enough to "take the edge off" when you need to do things with your hands out of the pogies.

I have also found the reactor gloves too tight and uncomfortable. Thinner gloves and pogies together work well. For real extreme cold you can go with the nordic blue gloves. They are truly waterproof with a latex wrist gasket. You will give up a lot of dexterity, and they are a pain in the butt to get on without help, but they will keep you warm and dry.

Phooey...I can't make it

Right back at ya!

I got it...Floating dock. Gangplank on wheels. Rising tide. As the tide rose, the gangway rolled up against the boat and pushed it against the pilings. Yup, could easily happen to anyone.

YA!

Yup...Stickypod, they make a mount specifically for boats/kayaks. http://www.stickypod.com/boat_camera_mount.html