billvoss

Good. First because this week was supposed to be Robinson Pond in Hudson, NH not Cobbetts. :-) Second, because I was just getting on to say I thought we should cancel today's session anyway! So July 22nd, lets try again for Robinson Pond in Hudson, NH.

The continuing saga of my search for the perfect Greenland paddle for me. But first an aside based on a PM'ed question. If you are interested in any aspect of Greenland Kayaking, the two sites that I recommend above all others are http://www.qajaqusa.org/ and http://qajaqrolls.com/ both of which provide a wealth of information from beginner to advanced. Particularly relevant for this thread are the "The Perfect Greenland Paddle" and the Qajaqrolls Greenland Paddle Manufacturers page. To understand why I want a shoulder-less paddle also read Gnarlydog News review of the Shoulder-less Northern Light paddle. When I started this thread two whole days ago, based on my web searching I had pretty much narrowed my choices down to Gearlab or Northern Light Paddles. My fervent desire for a shoulder-less paddle definitely eliminated most of the mass-market Carbon Fiber paddles. Yesterday I decided to also search for a custom Carbon Fiber paddle alternative. I found a promising possibility in the UK from Cedarboats Europe, and sent them an inquiry. I got a very nice response, and they were able to make the paddle I thought I wanted yesterday with two little issues. The first issue was price. With shipping from the UK the total charge would be about $770, gulp. The other issue was that he wrote "the earliest I could produce a paddle would be the beginning of September." Last night Doug was nice enough to lend me his Carbon-Fiber 2-piece Superior Kayaks paddle at the surf session. The paddle has shoulders, so I was not considering it. However, it is also the first time I ever paddled with a Carbon-Fiber-Greenland paddle "in conditions." My previous Carbon-Fiber-Greenland paddle experience was limited to flat water. The first thing I noticed after we launched was that the shoulders acted like magnets for my hands. For a beginner that might be a good thing, but I hated it. My hands no longer automatically slid along the paddle and I felt that impaired my paddling. The next thing I noticed really surprised me. The Superior Kayaks paddle uses a recessed fastener system, so there is a simple indent on the loom. It bothered me whenever my hand slid across the indent. I'm suspect I would get used to it, but I didn't last night. Then we hit conditions and I was miserable. The paddle Doug lent me is about four inches shorter than the paddle I broke, and has narrower blades. That translates into noticeably less leverage than my old paddle, and that is part of what really threw me off. I really wanted to get used to that paddle, and forced myself to use it for almost an hour, but never felt confident enough to surf with it. Finally I stowed the Carbon-Fiber and pulled out my remaining wooden Greenland paddle. Instantly I felt comfortable again. I was frankly shocked by the difference in how I felt on the water. Using my wooden Greenland paddle I proceeded to have a fun time surfing until I headed home, despite the shoulders on my remaining wooden Greenland paddle. I'm not 100% certain, but I think a key difference was grip. After holding the Carbon-Fiber for almost an hour, the moment I picked up my wooden paddle it felt like I was holding sandpaper. I realized that I never felt totally confident that I would keep my grip on the Carbon-Fiber paddle, but I was very confident my wooden paddle would not be slipping out of my hands. I wonder a bit if the Carbon-Fiber paddle would have felt more secure if I had taken my gloves off. However, it is somewhat a mute point, since I am a glove person, and I do prefer to wear gloves year round. Today I visited a local lumberyard and picked through their entire modest selection of 2x4x8 Western Red Cedar. I came home with two boards at $32 each, which will require some hours of my labor, but which compares quite favorably with $770 including shipping. For now I think I'll live with heavy home-made wooden Greenland paddles. Hopefully I'll finish at least one paddle before the beginning of September! Eventually I may get the itch to explore Carbon-Fiber again, but probably not this month.

So the paddle gods were having fun with me today. After posting this thread I went to Walden pond. I was a bit slow getting ready so the others paddled across the lake, as I wanted them to do. When I eventually headed across, I did so alone. It was rather warm, so I decided to take a quick cool down roll. My wonderful, if somewhat warped, Alaskan Yellow Cedar Greenland paddle which began life in a Turner Wilson paddle making workshop broke in two as I began to roll up. To add minor insult to that injury, I had decided that I would not be using my euro or my first Greenland paddle for this session, and had left them in the car. So with no paddle available, I ended up swimming back to the boat ramp towing my kayak to fetch my other paddles. beckt - you can only have the closet paddles that have shoulders. Its not nice starting a bidding war with me for the shoulder-less paddles! :-) Deb M - I actually paddled and quite liked the original wooden Razor paddle which I believe formed the basis of the Novorca Razor. Sherri had just finished carving it when I took my first, and so far only, "rolling for the hardy" class with KayakWays. That wooden paddle was also the model I was mostly trying to duplicate when I carved the paddle that I broke today. Unfortunately, one of the things I saw earlier today at the Novorca website is that the Razor paddle has been discontinued. As of today, the website implies you can buy a basic black 1 piece or 2 piece X2 in size 88 or 86 with sizes 84 & 90 coming soon. I don't think he is offering any other paddles at the moment. Unfortunately the X2 has "comfortable wider shoulders" so I am not considering the X2. Given his new $13,000 of equipment per paddle design approach, I think the days of custom Novorca paddles are probably gone.

I'm again exploring the possibly of getting a carbon-fiber Greenland paddle. My one absolute requirement is that it be a shoulder-less design. I've briefly borrowed a number of carbon-fiber paddles over the years, some I liked, some I didn't really like all that much. So I'm looking for people in NSPN who own one or more of the paddles I'm considering with the idea that I would join a paddle or pond session they were attending anyway to briefly try out their paddle before I order one of my own. A few years ago I was going to get a fully custom Novorca including personalized art work. However, I never finalized the art work. Now Novorca sems to be in transition from being a pure made-to-order artisan operation to more of a mass production house. Eventually, that may result in great less expensive paddles. However, for the moment it means a very limited selection which does not include the paddle I dreamed of owning. Nobody seems to be filling the old Novorca niche right now, but there are some mass production alternatives which look promising and are less expensive as well. Does anyone have a Gearlab composite Greenland Paddle? I'm especially interested in the Oyashio, but even trying a Kuroshio would help. Does anyone have a Northern Light Paddle? I'm especially interested in their Shoulderless Greenland design, but even trying their regular Greenland design would be useful. By the way, if you own a carbon-fiber shoulder-less Greenland paddle you want to sell, we might be able to make a deal. I love buying used because I'm very cheap! Have you seen the kayak I paddle? thanks, Bill Voss Reply here or PM me.

Hmm, last time I did a stupid kayak trick my kayak ended up with three broken ribs. Wonder what would happen if I tried balancing a paddle on my helmet! By the way, are you planning to balance the paddle the easy way, with the paddle horizontal and your head near the loom, or the hard way, with the paddle vertical and your head at one tip? I don't know how stupid I'll be tonight, but I do look forward to seeing everyone there.

Three of us had a nice paddle out of Odiorne on July 9th. For those planning ahead, the consensus was that July 15th (next week) we go to Robinson Pond in Hudson, NH. I just added it to the calendar. Now we need suggestions for July 22nd. Does anyone who wants to show up have a suggestion?

I'll attempt to get there around 4:30pm.

What time do you want to get there? I can probably head out anytime Tuesday afternoon that I want to leave. So I figured I would try to match arrival times with the earliest person. Of course traffic may not cooperate with my plans to arrive at a certain time!

Summer Hours for the Science Center are March-October Open daily, 10am-5pm You will need to pay a $4 per adult Odiorne Point State Park Admission fee (Memorial Day-Labor Day), and an additional $7 per adult Seacoast Science Center admission fee to use the facilities there.

How about July 8th (tomorrow) we launch from the Odiorne boat ramp? Warning, no porta-potties. For those who have never been there, if you arrive late head right following the coast to find us. Looks like high tide should be around 8pm, so we won't have to walk through much muck when we take out. The following week low tide is around 8pm which is not as nice. Then July 15th (next week) we go to Robinson Pond in Hudson? Does that link look correct David? I have never been there, so I just used Google and guessed. -Bill P.S. Besides the tides, I prefer that order because I should have time to drive to Odiorne and back this week (2.5 hours in the car total). Next week I'll be much more time constrained, and Robinson is only one hour total driving time from my home.

David and I had a good practice session in Hookset last night. Fewer plants, fewer bugs, and deeper water than we enjoyed at Pawtuckaway, though you must like dogs to enjoy a put-in next to a dog park. Sorry you could not make it Liz. Time to start thinking about next week, and ideally to pick yet another location. David's original post also suggested: I have not even driven by either location. Can anyone confirm they are kayak friendly? We could also go somewhere else if someone wants to suggest another venue. Though I would prefer to keep rotating through new possibilities at least for now. Who's still interested in joining us, and where do you want to meet?

I've never been there, but I think this Google Maps link shows the court house and the boat launch. I should be able to join you there on Tuesday, July 1st, 2014. After last week's traffic, I'll just say I expect to arrive sometime after 5pm. I see the dam is a short way down river. Should late arrivals just turn right, and paddle upstream till they find the other participants, or do you normally just stay in sight of the put-in?

Shall we try your home base on July 1st? Care to post directions, Google link, etc? -Bill P.S. I'm leaving in the morning for the Hudson River Greenland Festival, so I probably won't read this forum again until sometime Monday.

I enjoyed it as well, despite the traffic snarl on the Everett Turnpike. Hopefully we will meet again next week, but rotate our venue west!

My next task is getting my gear organized to attend the inaugural NH skills practice session at the Fundy Cove boat launch on Pawtuckaway Lake this evening. See you there. I'll be the one with the skin-on-frame!

In the summer I use a pair of Buff Sport Series Water Gloves. They are a half-finger length cloth glove. In the winter, and year round on rougher white-water where I need to really protect my hands, I use Glacier Glove's Ice Bay model. Though they do not last as long as I would like, they are the most comfortable best fitting paddling glove I've found for winter use.

I'm Walden bound tonight. This will be the first time my F1's new skin gets wet! If you missed it in the other Walden thread, some of us are going to Margaritas in Lexington for Tacos after practicing the Taco Roll self rescue on Walden Pond. Google shows a roughly 12 minute drive to Margaritas from Walden.

Google shows a roughly 12 minute drive to Margaritas in Lexington which works for me.

I just finished putting polyurethane on my F1's new skin last night. If it cures as expected, I should be able to attend this Wednesday, even if I do not finish installing all the replacement rigging first. Where are we going to EAT those Taco Rolls? I would like to plug the address into my GPS beforehand if possible.

I hope to be at Walden this Wednesday (June 18th, 2014) unless there is a very high probability of thunder storms. However, the park rangers enforce a one hour rule. They will not let anyone play in the water if they have heard thunder in the past hour.

I live just west of Nashua, NH in Hollis, so I would love a practice session closer to home. However, at least this year, I'm still bound for Walden on Wednesdays (about a 45 minute drive). I also hope to attend some surf sessions on Thursdays (a rather long drive). So Tuesday would be ideal, and Monday would be tolerable for NH sessions. I've never been there, but Google says Robinson Pond, Hudson, NH 03051 is about 25 minutes away. I've also never been to Cobbetts Pond which Google says is about 37 minutes away. I'm not sure where you launch in Hooksett, but Hooksett is about the same as Walden for me. Pawtuckaway is too far for me to normally drive for flat water. I've heard good things about Potanipo Pond in Brookline, NH which is only 17 minutes away from my house. Unfortunately, I think it is a longer drive for the rest of you. I've also never actually been there. Besides drive time, my highest priority for a location is the presence of bathroom facilities!

I normally paddle with a fairly comprehensive first aid kit in my kayak. An annual chore is throwing out the expired drugs, and replacing them with fresh drugs. This spring at Walgreens I stumbled upon these tiny little ziplock style baggies and saved lots of money by repackaging a few drugs we had in larger bottles around the house anyway. EZY Dose Pill Pouch http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/ezy-dose-pill-pouch/ID=prod6145629-product Of course my drugs are first put inside an EZY Dose Pill Pouch, then inside a baggie of all the pill pouches, then inside another baggie of first aid baggies, then inside a dry bag, then if sea kayaking inside my combination dry/float bag. I usually put a little bit of paper towel or a cotton cloth inside each baggie (except the pill pouches) to absorb minor leaking. Only once to date has water made it into the first layer of baggie inside the dry bag, it was during a WW experience were I became separated from my kayak. Even then the actual first aid contents remained dry. When Sea or WW kayaking, I do carry two little dry boxes (one is an OtterBox, I forget the other brand) in my PFD pockets. Both usually but not always stay dry inside. If you put your pills in a baggie, and then the baggie with something to absorb water into the dry box, you would probably have dry drugs most of the time. Though you should check the contents for dampness after each paddle. I have never tried one, but a quick search for "pill fob waterproof" turned up this offering via Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Airtight-Pill-Holder-Keychain/dp/B0012NL9BI

I object to that misleading title! I wasn't even there! Wish I had been there. Looks like you had fun.