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Good point. Onno is a one-man operation. It's sort of like dealing with an old fashioned hardware store vs. Home Depot. Nevertheless, there are probably horror stories dealing with big retailers too. Onno's foot bar is well designed.

Josko, Perhaps Wes already told you about his online reviews, but here are a couple of good ones. This and this. I'm thinking of an Onno for my next wing. I saw one at a Blackburn Challenge and it looked pretty good.

Andy, Hmm, I feel like a troll here. Matt is an experienced surfski racer and I’m not. So put my 2 cents in perspective: If I were choosing I’d choose the V8 Club over the V7 because it’s got to be significantly faster. That’s because: The V8 Club’s extra foot of waterline length increases the hull speed. The V8 Club’s glass lay-up is probably a lot stiffer than the V7’s plastic lay-up. The V8 Club is much lighter than the V7 (38.5 lbs. vs. 50 lbs.) Of course the V7 can stand more beating up and it’s cheaper. However, I don’t think you want a surfski for rock play and extreme durability. That’s the job for your sea kayak. Also, hauling around the 50-pound V7 would be a lot harder than for the 38.5-poumd V8 Club. I know you have the muscle for both, but it’s still a consideration (especially after a 3-hour hard workout). I really appreciated it when I went from my 50-lb. Falcon 18 to the less than 40-lb. weights of my Epic 18X Ultra and all carbon QCC 700X. So, all and all, I think the lighter and faster surfski is worth the extra $900. -Leon

The Epic V10 Sport is a 20-foot long wider ski (18.9")

Be careful Andy. The surfski people start out real sweet just to tempt you. “Rolling is a waste of time”, they’ll say. “Just fugetaboutit, we’ll teach you to remount.” “Throw away your GP sticks and learn to wing”. Soon the Borg takes over and resistance is futile. -Leon And some surfski people, I assume, are good people, bigly.

Oh, was I wrong? I thought only the shaft of the Club Carbon was hybrid. The blade too? -Leon

Andy, I'm almost certain that the Club Carbon is a renaming of the older Hybrid model. If so, it means that only difference is that the shaft is a hybrid of carbon and glass. That’s what adds the 2-oz. My SWAG is that the green shaft is slightly more flexible than the burgundy is because all carbon is usually the stiffest (but I'm not sure). I wouldn't worry about the extra 2 oz, especially since the slight extra weight is on the shaft, not out at the ends in the blades. And I doubt that the club is significantly more flexible since, if it were, I think Epic would mention that. Just my 2 cents, Leon

Yeah, yeah, I know. The Borg (McDonough, Dwyer, Chappell and Duggan) almost recruited me a few years earlier. My wife warned me that resistance is futile. Luckily I broke my leg and broke free. -Leon

Congratulations Matt. I’m so jealous. That was a fantastic feat. And to think, I knew from your Merganser days (before you want to the dark side). I just looked it up -- we both raced kayaks in the 2011 Nahant Bay Race (I was in my Epic 18X). I don’t think I ever beat you after that race. -Leon

Looks like a cool gadget. Too bad it doesn't also measure output power. That's what I need for a paddling optimization study I'm trying to do. I'm trying to determine how much to glide between strokes so as to minimize average power for a given speed. Some of the hype is garbage, though. For instance, here it says: The company claims the technology has been proven to increase speeds up to 4x for amateur kayakers and up to 6x for professionals. Wonderful. When paddling fairly hard I go at about 5 knots. With this gadget teaching me I'll increase my speed to 20 knots (5 x 4)!

Rob, Just so you know where I coming from: When I took engineering/physics and math in undergraduate and graduate school I often studied the original sources, at least when they weren’t too difficult to understand because of old notation and language. Sometimes I found that an original work was better than the later textbooks because they were written by the real “inventors” and sometimes had more pertinent examples. After studying the “originals” my textbooks and lectures became easier to understand. Nevertheless, I understand what you’re saying about CAM. The lack of documentation is what it is. -Leon PS Thanks, for the link to “The Common Adventure Model of Outdoor Programming”. It has much more information than the general article I previously read “A Model Theory of Outdoor Programming Approaches.”

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At least it is in Rio for watching women’s beach volleyball.

Josko, I just remembered why a towline would useful for solo paddling. I didn’t have one on a day when I saw two nondescript women on SUPs. They were caught in an outgoing tide in the Palm Beach Inlet and couldn’t paddle against the current. Luckily a contact tow on one with the other holding the back of the other’s SUP worked. -Leon

Rob, Other than this article I couldn't find anything on CAM, especially as it should be applied to sea kayaking. Can you point me to something else in writing? Thanks, Leon

We didn't formerly agree that we were literally following CAM rules. In fact, I don’t know what are the exact CAM rules for kayaking. But I assume that they include: Safety. Paddling Plans. Destinations. A sense of group awareness.

Yes, obviously I agree with Bill as well. And that's why I aborted the crossing. Everything else is a lot of noise. You guesstimate the probabilities of various adverse events and make your decision based on your own threshold for risk. Other’s may have different estimates or higher thresholds. If your conclusion is different from the others then so be it. In real life CAM doesn’t have to be a suicide pact.

Then the group wouldn’t have leaned from my experience with risk analysis; i.e. when it’s smarter to quit.

Rob, Your advice brings up some awful memories for me. I used to paddle with a group that followed the BAM (Borg Adventure Model). No matter how strong I felt against a particular paddling route I was told that Resistance is Futile. The group would tell me to get my butt back into place in the pod and shut my mouth. Seems like CAM is no better for me. So I joined SAM (Self-involved Adventure Model). In fact, I’m leaving for a SAM trip in a few minutes. Wave to me if you see me crossing the waves between Lanes Cove and Plum Island. I'll be in my orange over white QCC 700X today. -Leon

I'm waiting for the video that shows how to roll it. The Mirage Drive doesn't work in water depth below about a foot. So you need a place to store your backup paddle. It wouldn't be very comfortable to lie down on it. That's what SUP paddlers do when they hit the rough stuff.

Rob, You might be right. Although at the time when I separated from the group the conditions were still within everyone's ability, they were getting worse and worse. If I were teaching a class on paddling into worsening conditions then perhaps I’d go along with CAM theory. But, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." If the theoretical construct of CAM is against my practice for cases like the one I posted then count me out! My reason for paddling with a group is not confined to providing experimental learning. It’s more for safety and companionship. I’m not a paddling instructor, although many people learned to paddle from paddling with me. Furthermore, on the few official CAM trips I attended, I noticed that I was usually the only one staying close by to another paddler - usually the slowest paddler (even though I was capable of paddling circles around everyone). Peace, -Leon

Josko, I wasn't in over my head and neither were the other paddlers. As I think I implied, my recommendation was to change to a safer course and that's what I did. I wasn't trying to force the others to join me. So my responsibility ended. If they didn't follow me and I became aware (via VHF) that a rescue or tow was needed I would have gone back out as fast as I could. But, instead, they did follow me to the shoreline for lunch and to chew me out. -Leon

Rob, I understand what you are saying but I don’t know how to answer the question directly. Let me put it another way. Suppose I’m a passenger in someone’s car and I notice that the driver is not maintaining a safe following distance. Clearly there is no imminent danger. On the other hand, if I worn him he’ll probably get angry and I’ll possibly prevent him from learning a lesson; perhaps to be extra vigilant so he can quickly hit the brakes when the leading car does. Back to the on-the-water situation. I’m fairly confident that any combination of us would have completed the crossing without mishap because all of us are skilled paddlers. But, because of the deteriorating conditions and that fast ferry boat crossing Marblehead, I didn’t think it was worth the risk to continue. We’ve all made the same trip many times so the reward was limited. I’ve probably done it over 100 times. As I later discovered surfing the rollers towards Beverly beaches was more fun. -Leon

They said I broke the CAM rules by leaving the pod. We didn't discuss whether it was a CAM or any other type of trip. But there was no paper work to say it was a CAM trip. We just paddled.