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>One problem I have with this bill is the way Tom Leech (the >harbormaster) has been promoting it. He has violated >copyright laws, digitally altered photos, I would appear he has given opponents sufficient powder to hoist him upon his own petard. Once his credibility is damaged, it will be hard for him to regain it. In politics you can fudge many things, but once to are caught simply falsifying stuff, your toast. In an odd way, credibility is the coin of the realm. Ed Lawson

>I sent emails to my reps last year, but never received any >acknowledgement from my elected officials. Since I do not have a dog in this fight, it would be prudent to be quiet. However, since NH gets its knocks here from time to time I will just say one thing we like up here is the fact if you don't like something you simply call your Rep and talk to them about it. After all, you know them, they know you, they expect to called about things because that is their job, and we expect them to listen and get answers because that is their job. Ed Lawson

>Suzanne, > >How would this person take a look at themself >water>? In a mirror? And, if so, how? This is quite >intriguing, really. ; ^) Details, details. Having someone take a series of pictures might be one boring way to do it. Personally I rather like the image of using a mirror. Maybe by two kayakers with a full length mirror sideways held in place with bungees balanced on their respective fore and aft decks. Hmmm, maybe it could also be rigged for use by people to see what they are doing wrong while trying to roll or whatever. The possibilities are endless. I mean who knows what Gillian might do with it. Ed Lawson

>Thanks for the response. > > What I really need to do is do remove the seat (just a few >screws) and assess the knee clearance for my body type. Oh. I don't think Gail would let you do that to hers. It does get down to how the kayak feels when you wear it. I like small cockpits for day trips, but it was just a bit too small with winter gear when I paddled one and I'm 5' 10" and 180#. Ed Lawson

If you just want to sit in one, Kittery Trading Post has them and they are happy to let you try it on. I suspect the inlet is iced over, but you could try the boat there too. Just flat water and while that will tell you some things, that is not where it shines like most good boats. Charles River has some too and sure they would let you try it on for size. FWIW, my wife has found the Force 3 to be a great boat for the smaller paddler. For fast, long day trips and camping the Forces are great boats. Somehow they are lively, but utterly unflapable in rough water as well as nimble, but track well. Ed Lawson

> I >actually snoozed in a tarp with a heavy duty reflective >blanket, a minimalist sleeping bag and thermorest. If we'd a >hard rain I would not have been happy but would have >survived. Never underestimate how weatherproof a tarp outfit can be. Common wisdom is they do not protect as well as tents, but they have kept me dry in some wet times. The beauty of them is they can be light and airy or bunkered down and can be made to fit nearly anywhere. Unless rain is a distinct possibility I prefer to go to sleep looking at stars and use nothing, but if a shelter is needed, I pick a tarp over over a tent everytime. Well, bugs and snow might change my mind. FWIW, LaFuma makes some great warm weather sleeping bags that are very light and compact. Google for LaFuma and 600 or 800 to find. Just right for a small, go fast kit. Ed Lawson

>I haven't spent much time looking for OSS that can open >them. > Supposedly this can be done using GDAL and GRASS, but I have not spend the time seeing if all the parts work since I cannot get the chart files from NOAA to start. Ed Lawson

>... and I'm a big fan of camping, but new to the idea of >planning to bring only what fits in a kayak or two... Past >camping trips have involved a jeep-full of stuff. Its always interesting to see differences in perceptions/experiences. I normally camped for a weekend using a small rucksack with less volume than the typical front hatch so I wonder how to fill all that space. Actually I am excited about all the easy living stuff I can take like one of those folding foam chairs. Ed Lawson

>If you find that the site never returns I have all of east >coast charts saved on my laptop... I believe you run Linux on it. What do you use to view the charts? Ed Lawson

My suggestion would be to have half day or full day workshops at most on the following topics: Weather, specifically on how to use forecast info and observations to make judgments at launch and on the water. Navigation...yes I know there is a class now, but I am thinking of a short class with some practical on water field work related specifically to kayaking. Outfitting/Intro gear stuff Another suggestion is to have workshops linked to a practical application on the water say something like camping to be linked to an actual camping trip as it is one thing to sit in a room and talk about stuff, but only by actually doing it will all points/advice become real and the nice sounding theories get tested. Easier said than done, but you asked. My suggestion is to somehow have all this stuff not be just a collection of workshops, but in some ways to be coordinated to enable a motivated new member to become competent to take modest coastal journeys in a group by July and sufficiently confident to explore surfing and rock play if that is their interest. By modest I mean 10-15NM day trips and maybe weekend trips on the Maine coast in good, but routine, summer conditions. It would be good to have a basic first aid for kayaking class, but not an overkill course since that is best left to organizations whose day job it is to provide such training. Personally, I don't think much of safety as a workshop topic. Rather safety should be the result of learning and practicing what is presented in the workshops as a whole. Ed Lawson

> >otherwise assume >solo. Do you mean we will not be graced by the presence of your betrothed on Sunday? Ed Lawson

> >Now if we used a different model... ummm... just speculating >;-))) > Just as an observation of trips happening this past summer season and not to throw a grenade in the room, it would seem SNG or private trips have become the mode or model of trips available to those looking for paddling opportunities on the NSPN website. As an aside, I personally believe anyone planning on joining a SNG/ private trip should be capable of determining whether a trip is or is not within a level of difficulty they want to try which means doing some homework and understanding what conditions are like on the date of the trip. When I saw folks asking SNG/private trip posters what the NSPN level the proposed trip was and if they had the skills to go on the trip, I must say it gave me pause to post a SNG/private trip. As a rank beginner, I did not mind asking others to go along on a trip assuming we were all making informed choices and taking the risks we willingly accepted, but I really did not feel competent to guide or make decisions for others nor to put those who would likely be along who had more experience and skills in the position of doing so either. So it seems to me there may well be a segment of the membership whose expectations concerning SNG/private trips may not be in harmony with the concept and that might be a problem. I rather suspect this coming summer will tell us all a great deal more on this topic. Ed Lawson

Depending upon conditions and time (need to feed animals and then get to Goffstown pool session), may well show up to watch the true paddlers play from a safe distance. Ed Lawson

>Tides look right for a circumnavigation of the island. Low tide is around 12:30PM, When were you thinking of going through Chauncey Creek? Ed Lawson

Theory and >Practice of Show-n-Go and Private Trips Throughout History, >Volume 1, Tripping in Ancient Greece and Rome Rats; starting with Ancient Greece. I was looking forward to your treatment of Noah's journey as the provisioning details would be of great interest, but I suppose that leaves more room for a thorough treatment of Odyssus's journey which hopefully will include a description of the appropriate BCU strokes for navigating Charybdis and Scylla. Ed Lawson

> >Yup. I think it was Mark Schoon who told me about the >"straitjacket" roll. Its one of the rolls on the list for the Greenland competition and considered, so they say, to be the hardest. You can find a video of Cheri Perry doing one at: http://www.qajaqusa.org/Movies/movies.html Ed Lawson

> >When I got to the sweep roll, I'd check the attack angle of >my blade a few times by doing preliminary passes with the >blade on the water before I'd commit myself to a roll. I think there are a million ways to approach this and everyone develops their way to get it "down", but one reason I eventually stopped trying to see things and kept my eyes closed was it was easier to focus on the feel of things like how the blade felt in the water. If it didn't feel right, I stopped and adjusted and tried again. The other was I can barely chew gum and walk so trying to watch the paddle just confused me into failure mode. > > (it's actually physics- >you're transferring rotational intertia that you've gotten >into your body from the windup,...) spoken like a true physicist and oh so true. To me, I needed to let go of thinking about all the discreet steps and simply uncoil the torso, it all just works for the reasons you gave. The stuff about diving paddle, hip snap, blah, blah, whatever just don't matter. If you just unwind all those things take care of themselves. Of course getting to the point of unwinding is not so easy (still have lots to do on this) and perhaps the steps are a good way to get there. We all learn these physical tasks differently so I suppose its good to have all these different and this is what works for me ideas so people can pick and choose along the way to developing their solution to the task. Ed Lawson

>My best rolls are done with little or no muscular >effort-.... Also it's my personal >observation that women seem to be able to roll easier then >men---has something to do with lower center of gravity and >wider, more powerful hips I think----anybody else notice >that? I suspect it is for the same reason women are excellent climbing students. They immediately start doing the right things such as relying upon balance and finesse while men tend to try the brute strength approach which doesn't get you very far. Women progress more quickly as a result. Ed Lawson

>Check post in the "Events & Commercial Classifed" >Conference...Is there any interest? Several of the NH members will be there and some non-members as well. The water is warm, the pools nice, the people great, and fun had by all. Ed Lawson

>Hmm, being the nutty kayakers that we are, the hitch the >heathans SNG will take place in Bar Harbor September 8, >2007. Neat and I suspect we will be wandering around there that weekend. Just a thought...Look up Keepers House on Isle A Haut, check out the Oil House. There are worse places to go to be together in your own world, but not many better. And you can kayak over to it. Ed Lawson

>Any tips on core and arm exercises I can start doing to >strengthen roll-muscles? > I am the last person to be giving advice about this, but it is slowly dawning on me that torso rotation and by that I mean rotation starting at the base of the spine not simply moving upper body is the single most important skill for nearly everything related to paddling a kayak. To that end, yoga is something to work with as well as core and flexibility exercises. My $.02 is don't worry about arm strength, especially for rolling assuming you will be doing some type of sweep or layback roll. Using your arms to sweep the paddle will just cause you no end of problems. Sweep the paddle not by moving your arms at all, instead you uncoil your torso to sweep the paddle. May sound odd, but once you focus on it that way it is remarkably easy. However, this in turn means you need the flexibility to wrap around the kayak and twist you torso from the base of the spine and uncoil it with whatever speed and force is required to roll the kayak you have. Most any good modern exercise book will provide info on improving core strength and flexibility as it has become a hot topic recently. For yoga, beginning classes are easy to find and valuable. Otherwise, just play in and around the boat upside and down. Ed Lawson Who on occasion rolls and on occasion does not.

>What they didn't test well at all was waterproofness, Agreed. > For a kayaker, that's far more important >than whether the radio transmits at 5 or 6 watts, Since you have to double the power to make a meaningful difference, there is no difference worth mentioning between 5 and 6 watts. I think in addition to waterproofness, battery operating life, max clean audio output, ease of handling and operation with cold hands/gloves are very important features too. > Perhaps >their new models are better, Although I prefer Yaesu ham HT radios over Icom, I never liked the Yaesu radios built around the chassis that is known as the HX 470 in the Marine version. Other Standard-Horizon marine radios seem much more like hardened commercial gear than modified consumer radios and I suspect they do much better. >but I'd want to see more >definitive testing before choosing one over the prove M88 >and M1V from Icom. Being from Missouri, I consider that a wise stance. Ed Lawson

Powerboat-Reports has done two reviews this year of handheld marine radios. The following link is to the report on the more epensive ones: http://www.standardhorizon.com/PDF/Powerbo...ortsArticle.pdf The results show why the M88 is highly regarded even if it did not "win" the review whatever that means. The Standrd-Horizon 500 is selling at Hamilton Marine for $140 which makes it a great deal for a great radio. I know members of the club found another model from Standard-Horizon lacking, but this is a different radio and seems to be from the commercial/military line as opposed to the ham/aircraft line so in theory tougher. If you look the TAC radios carried in Iraq you will notice the similarity. Another review by Powerboat Reports of inexpensive radios found them to be on par performance wise and the Uniden radios did well along with the HX270S which at $99 is a real bargain. Lots of choices in good radios seems to be the message. Of course we all have our favorites and the M88 is the radio of choice for some with good reason. Ed Lawson

After nearly a month of obligations, but not really having the desire to paddle either, I had the urge today when we closed the office at noon. It was either a short paddle on the ocean (its an hour away for me) or a longer paddle on Lake Winnipesaukee. Not the ocean, but an east wind and eight mile fetch into the broads made it not flat. With a water and air temp of just under 40, not a place to take lightly either. So I grabbed minimal stuff, loaded the Anas and GPs, stopped at Dunkins to fill the thermos, and off I went. Over the next three hours and 10KM I had the luxury of a lake to myself, the enjoyment of paddling a wood GP and a boat you wear, and the pleasure of my uninterrupted company. After a few lightly rolling crossings and wandering about island shores, I was back near dark feeling a bit tired, but knowing why I paddle. We all have our reasons for, what we seek while, and the pleasures we find in paddling. Today was a good day for mine. Ed Lawson

>If negative remarks were made, who cares? Bingo! I thought its about having fun messing around with/in boats. Whats fun is for each to discover in their own way and should not be a concern of others. Well, granted there are those safety issues and such. Ed Lawson