JohnHuth

I have the Brunson one. It's a nice gadget. The one I have also tracks barometric pressure. For what it's worth, I like to go au natural these days and use the Beaufort scale. The only minor warning about a handheld anemometer is you will be measuring very local wind, and if you're in the shadow of waves, it might not necessarily be a good indicator of the sea state.

I do OK until I get to all that stuff about the intercoastal waterway....southbound is returning except for the gulf coast of florida, then northbound is returning, but this is all south of New Jersey...I guess it's logical, but still

Not completely related, but when I was paddling with Steve Maynard, he suggested making the path of the paddle through the water follow roughly the line of the "V" of the developing bow wake. He claimed that this kept the blade in a region where the water flow was laminar and not turbulent. I'm not completely sure this gives a good advantage, but it feels more comfortable and works well for me with the 'chicken-wing'.

[ I don't know if I can add much, or I've coherently read the thread, but I have watched that DVD about six gazillion times and thought a lot about it. As a background, I think what Brent was trying to do was to take the form used in competitive kayaking and adopt it to recreational paddling. In making that adoption, he chose to tweak some elements in competitive paddling for the recreational paddler to minimize the risk of injury. As with any discussion of form in an athletic endeavor, there's room for divergence of opinion, so I don't think there's any perfect solution. My comments are only on what I perceive as Brent's intent. The 'catch' is based on the observation that you get most power from having the blade as far forward as you can get it when you initiate the stroke. I think that's correct as the torso is rotated maximally if you do it properly, and you get the most power from your lumbar muscles contracting. Any slight braking would be mitigated by the extra power you get from the lumbar muscles. I also looked at Brent's paddling style and tried to imitate that. I noticed that just before 'spearing' the paddle, he has a slight pause. I interpret that pause as a way of making the entry of the blade as swift as possible to minimize any braking, yet allow for maximum rotation. I've played with that pause and now incorporate it into my forward stroke. For the 'chicken-wing thing' (as Brent calls it), I think that's his invention. If you look at competitive paddlers, they extend their forward arm and contract their lower arm. I believe this is to gain additional power from both the torso and the arm. I suspect that what Brent is trying to do is modify this form to reduce RSI-type injuries so that it minimizes and 'arm paddling'. In other words, if you locked your elbows at about a 120 degree angle, you could probably complete the stroke, modulo the spear with almost no arm action required. That's probably a bit inefficient, but the purpose of the chicken wing (I think) is to create a finish to the stroke that preserves the tendons in the wrist and forearm from repetitive injury, while this is less of a consideration for a short race where you want to get the most power out you can. This is just my interpretation and also my experience messing around. I will go into more of a 'racing form' mode if I'm trying to accelerate to catch a wave, and it might be a good practice on flat water to alternate a sustained paddle form and a sprint form just to get the two ingrained into muscle memory. Just a thought.

On Cape Cod, Goose Hummock offers rentals, guides, instruction and sells good quality gear. It's in Orleans. For higher end instruction - once past the basics, Peter Casson with EMS, John Carmody (out of Boothbay Harbor, Maine), Mark Schoon (out of Mt. Desert) - all great instructors at all levels. CRCK in Newton on the Charles where 128 and Commonwealth meet - good instructors and a number of courses. They also have kiosks further down on the Charles - one is at the Eliot Bridge.

Whoops! - I honestly don't know which are private or public as I'm now in Geneva and don't have my MITA guide. Apologies. To clarify on Bois Bubert - I believe you both have to be a MITA member, AND get permission from one of the conservancy groups, I forget which one.

The campground at Jonesport is low rent, but you can put down a tent and park, which is pretty much all you need. The campground entrance wasn't terribly well marked when I was there, so it's easy to miss it. Jonesport itself is a bit of an odd place - you'll see that when you paddle down Moosabec Reach. The Gulf-facing cliff on Great Waas is a sight to behold - swells just reflect off it. I don't have my MITA guide with me, but I believe the Island I camped at was called Stevens - there are a couple of sites there and it's pleasant. I've heard Little Water is nearly awash at high tide - one big storm and it would be dicey. I also got permission to camp at Bois Bubert. If you have 3-4 days, you might want to think about hitting Petit Manaan - it's a got a population of puffins and is really quite something. The coast from Jonesport over to Bois Bubert is interesting, too - lots of rock gardens and interesting islands. It *can* get rather fog-bound at times, so be prepared for that.

Like Peter, I tend to be minimalist. Start with water - how much will you consume per day? Will you have sources of fresh water, or need to be self sufficient? I find that I go through about 6 liters per day, but I also used freeze-dried food. Dromedary bags are great for stowing and pretty versatile. Put them in first and low to keep the center of gravity low. Next food - if you like to go gourmet style, you'll want a chopping board and a bunch of tupperware cases to hold fresh food. Personally, I'm the backpacking type and will just bring along freeze-dried dinners, oatmeal for breakfast. The one thing I really like is having dry sausage and cheese for snacking. Remember that you'll be consuming at least 4000 calories per day, maybe more. Most freeze-dried dinners that come in 'serves two' packets will serve one active paddler. Cooking gear - for me a lightweight isopro stove. I figure probably one canister for 3 days of cooking. I have a titanium pop and bowl and spoons - not much more. Tent - I like a small tent that's light, but that's the backpacker in me. A down bag, a light foam mattress. Clothing - I partition my clothes into 'on the water' and 'off the water' - keeps it easier to stay dry. I bring a "survival bag" - basically a fanny pack with a buck knife, multiple means of starting fires, an emergency tarp, emergency flashing mirror - take this on walking trips to wander - keep it separate from the on-the-water kit of flares and kayak repair. Dry bags for everything you want to keep dry. A very good single malt scotch!! My biggest luxury in camp after dark is reading a good book with a headlamp and sipping single malt scotch and water. Can't beat it! It helps with the sleeping issue, too. Heck with Ambien. Bring at least one mesh bag per compartment - you can easily stuff your gear in these and walk it up to your tent site and back down again. Dry stuff out whenever you can! When packing remember to keep metal away from the deck mounted compass. One piece of advice for someone kayak camping for the first time - lay all your stuff out a couple of days before you are heading out and try to load up your kayak on dry land. If you can't get all your gear in, you'll need to make some adjustments - better to do this when you have a few days to mess around- rather than making snap decisions when your friends are impatient to get on the water. Oh yes, I'm in Geneva, Switzerland at the moment. Last week I was in Venice and saw a number of kayakers in the canals - what an idea!

Mahi mahi are pretty amazing in their speed if you're close to the surface of the water in a canoe. What I'd really like to see is someone film the phenomenon. There are other navigators who give it slightly different names, like "the glory of the sea" in a micronesian dialect - I suspect 'underwater lightning' is grasping for language to describe it. I honestly don't know what it is, but am just trying to chase down some possibilities.

Gary - That's the next mystery. I know that mahi-mahi (dolphin fish) are powerful swimmers and have very fast side-to-side dart, but would they be directional? Another candidate is the large spotted snake moray, Uropterygius polyspilus. It lives in the islands where this is reported, is nocturnal, but its habits aren't well known. I suspect that eels tend to move more slowly and wouldn't produce the kind of rapid flashes. Any suggestions are most welcome. John

Here is a navigational oddity that I've been playing with for some time. David Lewis, who is rather famous in Pacific Island navigation circles, reported a phenomenon that is called 'te lapa' or 'underwater lightning'. He reported three Pacific Island navigators who claim to have seen/used this. According to the reports, on dark, overcast nights, they would see flashes of light leading to islands when they were many nautical miles away from islands that pointed toward islands. There have also been some reports of this by others, although another anthropologist, Rick Feinberg, says he tried, but could not verify it. There is no real causal mechanism attributed to underwater lightning, but I found the topic difficult to stay away from. The informants went to some lengths to distinguish this underwater lightning from normal bioluminescence kicked up in the wake of a canoe or from waves crashing. I showed some of these reports to a colleague who specializes in dinoflagellates - single celled organisms that photosynthesize during the day, but give off light at night when hit with a pressure wave. My colleague, Woody Hastings, said he had seen something like this from fish darting. We couldn't really figure out how this might give directional information, but I decided to do a test. I got some dinoflagellate 'starter' from Woody and cultivated 3 liters of the little guys and then poured the concoction into a long trough and pulled a fishing lure through and photographed it to see if it looked like underwater lightning - at least my impression of what it might look like. Here's a YouTube with it:

It depends on the air and water temperature. Lightest, I'll wear either polypro or capilene long underwear. Colder, I have some polartec fleece pants and pullover. I find the biggest problem is when I stop for a break. I'll often get hot and sweaty under my drysuit while paddling, and when I stop for lunch, a cold wind will carry away my body heat. For this, I carry a second pull-over and a normal cold-weather shell in a dry bag. When I pull up, I'll take the upper part of the dry top off down to my waist and then try to towel off and shift into my 'land' clothes for the break. I'll also carry a second set up upper body wicking garments for the afternoon portion of the paddle. Getting one of those 'instant tents' is also a good idea, as you can change inside them without getting too much chill.

A presentation I gave - shameless self promotion: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/10/know-your-gnomon/

Threads tend to get hijacked. I'll look up the work by Severin. I did manage to find a compendium of translations of the Brendan stories and compared the curragh building techniques. Obligatory qajaq reference - the construction of curraghs and Greenland qajaqs have a lot of similarities - skin sewn on frame, and waterproofing by smearing it with oil or rendered fat.

Sounds about right. I might say "out" for "aut", but it's anyone's guess. There's the dilemma of "j" pronounced as "i" and "c" - as in "Veni Vedi Vici" There are modern standards set by the Catholic church, as ecclesiastic latin has certain conventions, but what that means translated back to ancient Rome is anybody's guess. Along those lines, I'm trying to translate some latin passages from the voyages of Saint Brendan from a 900 AD manuscript. There's a passage where the construction of his boat is described. Medieval latin has many idiomatic differences from classical latin and this is driving me crazy! For that matter, I'm also trying to translate some bits of Old Norse. I'm at the intersection between sailing lore and Old Norse scholars. One group doesn't understand the other and I'm straddling the two communities. Mariners, it seems, were too preoccupied with voyaging to write down anything, so it was left to some lowly scribe to write down the oral tradition from what presumably were tales filtered through a game of telephone over 200 years. Not an easy task!

In addition to my sea kayak, I have a Wilderness Systems Pamlico - 16 ft. It has a reasonably amount of hull space to mess around with fishing gear and is pretty easy to troll with. I've caught my share of blues and stripers with a fly rod in it. Obviously, you can't go out in really big waves but I've handled it in some surprising conditions. On the other hand, fly fishing out of a sea kayak is more of a challenge - it can be done, but it's not easy. I think landing a bluefish in the middle of a busy channel in a sea kayak has about the 'highest degree of difficulty' I can imagine.

Those intercostal muscles take a long time to heal, unfortunately. I've had some strains. As I get older, I'm to the point where if I don't have an ache or pain somewhere, I'll call the ambulance- because I've lost all sensation everywhere. I think you can try a few things - test the motion, perhaps with a weighted rod while sitting on an exercise ball. That can give you a sense of the pain when you'd be paddling. If it's unbearable, stop. If it's bearable, go overnight or a couple of days without exercise and see if it flares on you. If it doesn't flare, try an easy paddle, then give it a couple of days to flare. If it doesn't flare, you can graduate to more stuff. I have a sore deltoid which was due to some swimming and early season poor forward stroke mechanics. I alternated a number of different activities to give it time to rest in between sessions and worked on my forward stroke. It's a lot better now, but it was an issue of getting it a few days of rest in between sessions.

You can definitely get yards of ripstop nylon online and grommets for cheap, if you're willing to sew. The problem is that sewing ripstop nylon is a real bear. One of these years, I'll get a sewing machine that's up to the job, but for now, I'll buy the tarp.

Phil - That's what I was thinking - a lightweight tarp and some lines and lightweight stakes might make for a decent shelter. Certainly enough to cover the head and torso. If it's raining, you can still cook something under the tarp with a small stove.

I own a bivy sack but haven't actually used it. I have gone on some trips where I've packed it along for a "just in case" grounding, along with some extra food, a lightweight stove. Can anyone who has actually stayed overnight in one give me any recommendations? I'd normally carry a lightweight compact tent when camping, but since I have this as a backup for a longish day trip, I thought I'd ask. I'll probably do an overnight somewhere just to test out the logistics. Thanks!

From your clip: Psychologists think this "scarcity heuristic" derives from our fundamental need for personal freedom. We have a visceral reaction to any restriction on our prerogatives as individuals, and one way this manifests itself is in distorted notions about scarcity and value. I will personally attest to this. My wife and two daughters have been dragging me through American Idol night after night after night, while I do the cooking and the dishes. I'm about ready to paddle through a waterspout spinning over a rock garden at this point!

These "the water's cold, should I warn paddlers?" thread is a rite of spring for NSPN, as I see it - a bit like getting out the lawnmower for the first time. A similar "there are sharks in the water" thread heralds the approach of autumn, but, unfortunately we appear to have one shark who isn't with the program. I agree with Peter that any advice should be 'friendly' in order for it to stick as a message. I rescued a couple who capsized in a rec kayak and towed them into shore - they'd left a sheltered harbor and entered Nantucket Sound, where the waves were choppy and the wind was up. The woman clearly didn't want to go back out, but the boyfriend saw it as a matter of pride. Rather than get into an argument, I said, "hey, I can throw that puppy on top of my van and drive you home in three minutes, it wouldn't be a problem at all." You should've seen the look on the woman's face when the boyfriend relented. Regarding cold water swimming, you can acclimatize to cold water by gradually immersing yourself in progressively colder temperatures. I did this experiment myself, and found that over time, I went from tolerating about 40 minutes in 50 degree water to 45 degree water. It took about a month. I will say that there's a real "cliff" in the body's response somewhere in the 45-50 degree zone where the survival time drops very quickly with each lower degree of temperature. One or two times my core temp dropped and I realized I'd overdone it. Although I don't advise anyone to repeat this experiment, knowing how your own body reacts to hypothermia can be very helpful so you can recognize it in others. On classic response in an early stage victim is to deny it.

Ah!!! 50 minutes! Now, *that* I'll believe - at least it's closer to my experience. I thought it was swimming 50 meters, which I hope doesn't take 50 minutes. What is it 50 minutes or 50 meters?

Yes, I think cold shock can be a bigger problem. Part of it, too, is related to the temperature difference between the air and the water. I've paddled on top of 38 degree water when the air temperature is 75, and it was a scary feeling, even though I had a drysuit on, because I knew that if I dunked, the transition would really knock the beejeezers (an industry term) out of me.

I guess my fundamental objection to the 50-50-50 rule is that it's so far away from reality that it distorts the lesson. Most studies give a strong chance of survival after an immersion of up to 90 minutes in 50 degree water. That's hardly 50 meters of swimming. On the other hand, there's a big "cliff" of hypothermia lurking just below 50 degrees F. Go from 50 to 47 degrees and you'll find a marked difference in survival time. If you're taught an ironclad rule, find it's wrong, then it undermines the credibility of the instructor and invites the notion "well, if they're wrong on that, what else are they wrong about..?" Yes, erring on the side of safety I suppose is better, but wouldn't it be better to say: drysuits for temps below 55 degrees, wetsuits for temps below 60 degrees? Understanding the rationale sticks better than a simple mnemonic.