pikabike

Funny, I was thinking of cork in the sense of a very lightweight object bobbing wildly. Your meaning involves the plugging function instead! Thank you.

Sounds like it was a lot of fun! I don't know what the "cork" method refers to. Would one of you please explain? Thanks in advance.

If you do decide to carry charts, you can print and laminate the 8.5" x 11" sheets from NOAA's Booklet Chart version of a standard-coverage chart. No folding required. However, if you want to do this of an entire chart, the cost to durably laminate ALL the booklet's pages is higher than simply buying a waterproof standard chart in the first place. That doesn't include printing costs, either. I used the Fed Ex/Kinko's laminator and heavy-duty sheets for this purpose one time. In addition to costing as much as one waterproof regular chart, this experiment had me trimming the pages for more than an hour before laminating. My goal was to trim them in such a way that I could assemble the laminated pages with only clear margins overlapping the adjoining pages (to get the "big picture" when planning). While this worked out well, it was tedious. I would not do it again for an entire set of booklet pages. However, it would be a good option if you only need one or a few pages from the booklet. Also, the shop I went to had mixed in some cheap, thin laminate sheets with the heavy-duty stuff. They told me somebody had ordered it to save money. Unfortunately, that meant I had to double-laminate those pages, which didn't look as clear as the good stuff. Check before you start laminating: the good sheets are noticeably stiffer and thicker. When you are done the page should feel like a restaurant placemat.

As already stated, there is no standard for roof rails, but our experience with a '97 Chevy Tahoe's factory rails plus Yakima feet and crossbars has been good. Caveat is that we usually trailer the kayaks. Counter-caveat (if there is such a thing) is that we have done at least three long road trips on 75-mph Interstate highways through CO, WY, MT, ID, WA, BC, and UT with two sea kayaks on the roof. No problems with this set-up, other than it's a PITA to install the feet-crossbar assembly on the rails.

I love turtlenecks and (so far) haven't had problems with them being too high, interfering with the gasket fit. I just make sure that the fabric is wholly inside the gasket, not layered at the gasket top. But if the extra height of a turtleneck does cause trouble, mock turtlenecks will work fine. The Mysterioso dense fleece-inner shirt has a mock T neck, and I like this dense-plush fleece better than the standard kinds. (That's Mysterioso, NOT NRS Mystery shirt which is a rubberized fleece.) SmartWool midweight wool longjohn top and bottom also are comfortable and warm. In addition to being less stinky than synthetics, wool has a huge temperature range (comfort) for a given weight. Plus even though it takes longer to dry than synthetics, it still holds warmth even if damp. Those resilient wool fibers seem to have a lot of spring in them and they don't get as smashed down when wet (which lowers insulation value). The garment I found to have the fastest wicking ability of all is Craft's ribbed underwear. They now make all kinds of knits; the one I'm talking about is the original lightweight ribknit that came in form-fitting, stretchy shirts and long undies. Might be polypropylene. It is hydrophobic; you can tell this when hand-washing it. I've used a poncho thrown over all at breaks to cut wind chill. Just bought a storm cag to gain better protection with sleeves, plus huge multiple pockets. Plus it can actually be worn while paddling, attached to the coaming. Bike shorts or similar underneath the longjohns add a surprising amount of warmth. Would be nice to have a bike-short-design made of polypro but with a horizontal fly opening so that using the lowered front relief zip would be easy with it. As it stands now, I have to pull down the waistbands of shorts and longjohns. Another woman who likes the lowered men's relief zip told me she uses men's longjohns for this reason. (I do love the lowered front relief zip!)

What do you think of McNett's ZipTech? I have used that in the past, with good results. Never had a balky zipper on that drysuit (a Stohlquist, which has been retired for other reasons). Instructions say to OPEN the zipper but only apply to the outer teeth. Thanks for the reminder about 303ing the gaskets. Looks and feels like it's going to snow today. First drysuit day of the post-summer season will probably be this week.

I use a long-billed visor, sunglasses, plus one of the following sun-goos: * Neutrogena Pure & Free Baby sunblock, SPF 60+. Active ingredients are titanium dioxide and zinc ozide. White opaque paste. or * Coppertone Sport sunscreen, various SPFs available. Active ingredients are avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate, and octocrylene. White cream goes on clear when rubbed into skin. Both the above are waterproof and hard to wash off. They do lose effectiveness after lots and lots of rolling, though. Neither goes on my eyelids or forehead (yup, runoff stings)--the sunglasses and visor take care of those areas. Normally I goop up at home and wash several times with bar soap to remove the residue from my hands. If I have to put it on elsewhere, I use the backs of my hands to apply it, or I put it on a doubled layer of facial tissue (hate to use the genericized brand name for these) and smear with that.

How well did any other paddler know this person? The reason I ask is that such knowledge might allow you to tell very early on if something is amiss. The only time I had to deal with a hypothermic paddler was in a relatively safe situation: re-entry practice but on a cold November day. The guy in question is normally alert, listens well, and practices diligently. On this day he chose to wear not his drysuit but a Farmer John over a Hydroskin shirt "to see how badly the cold would affect me without the drysuit." Turns out, very badly very quickly. It only took less than 30 seconds in the water before he began holding himself tightly as if to fight off shivering. He failed to re-enter the boat and reverted to bad techniques such as trying to pull himself straight up onto the deck, resulting in flipping over the boat again. He repeatedly seemed to be functioning at the "in one ear and out the other" level and was staring off into the distance. Next, the shivering became obvious. At that point, we did an assisted re-entry instead just to get him out of the water ASAP. He warmed up quickly but there was no more practice that day... The problem is, when practicing re-entries with someone else of almost opposite, errr, diligence, on a beautiful summer day in warm calm water, that person made the same mistakes and also functioned at the "in one ear and out the other" level--because that's how he ALWAYS is. But in his case, I don't know if I'd be able to tell if he got hypothermic until things turned really bad. I doubt he'd admit needing help of any kind until it's pretty dire. Funny how egos still work a long time when cold.

If you can stomach studying printed materials, Nigel Calder's HOW TO READ A NAUTICAL CHART (large-format paperback) is a good resource. This winter I kept a chart of an area I was staying at (and paddling) on a table and began reading/digesting this book. I went back and forth between reading, highlighting, making notes on the margins, examining the chart, and some field exercises. For example, after perusing the chapters on lights, beacons, and buoys, I looked at every such symbol shown on the chart and made myself say out loud what they meant, checking with the book's tables only if I got stuck/forgot something. I walked along the beach with compass in hand and tried to find every designated navigation-related feature shown on the chart in a given stretch. You get the idea. I didn't memorize the book whole but worked about a chapter at a time. In this way, I ended up reading the entire book, which at first glance had looked VERY dry and uninteresting. Correlating what was in the book with real life (both paddling and beach-walking) made it come alive. And now I have all those notes and highlights in it for when I need a refresher. We don't have workshops here of the kind you described, but I obtained some water-trail maps (not MITA) for an area I will be visiting again and (hopefully soon) moving to. Also got the Captain Jack's Almanac of Tides and Currents for that area, have bookmarked various webpages from NOAA for both weather and tidal info, and will order a chart or two as well. Then I'll come up with some sample day-trip routes in the area, for which an instructor has graciously offered to "check my work" when I get out there. I know at least one other "interior U.S. paddler" has done this, with good results. There is still, of course, the actual butt-in-boat-in-currents nav practice that doesn't exist here, but at least this way we can get some of the mental practice down before actually going. Also seems like a decent way to start getting to know what to expect in a particular area. The above methods are not online, but they have helped me learn. I totally agree with you that "the more I learn about paddling, the more I discover that I want to learn!"

Thanks for the above description. Don't think I've ever read a definition of a boil, though I got a hint of it from the generic term, as in "boiling water." Whatever it is, just don't be sitting there and staring in fascination at one like I did, despite knowing that was likely to end up with me up-ended. The surprising part was how *quickly* it flipped me over. That was my first combat roll on the so-called off side in a river. And yeah, it was good training.

I just try to stay dry. If the water is so cold that I can't tolerate any water intrusion at all, I use the drysuit. Otherwise, a little bit of water getting in from the neck only chills for a few moments and then gets warmed up while trapped inside. But I don't bother with pouring hot water in to preheat the suit; it's not necessary for the temps that I use a wetsuit. Also, in diving you're in the water the whole time, unlike with paddling. Now, I have done the opposite: deliberately opened up the zipper to let cool water in on an extremely hot day. Even on hot days I usually wear a shorty wetsuit, so I can do a lot of rolls. When it's really, really hot the cooling effect of rolling wears off pretty quickly, so I resort to other tactics to avoid overheating. Back to the original question...I wouldn't advise using a drytop and drypant combo, based on my experience. You should've seen the ballooned-out pant legs! I could barely walk in those giant bags of water. When I pulled open the ankle gaskets, the water gushed out in a torrent. It was NOT only a few spoonfuls!

I initially made that choice, and the reason was price, which seems to be the reason why others make the same choice. In my case, I chose a Gore-tex drytop and a coated nylon drypant. This combo had two serious problems: 1. As suz mentions, the two let in water around the waist. When I first tested it out by immersing myself, there was very little leakage. But as soon as I began swimming or otherwise moving around a lot, the water flooded in. And I do mean *flooded.* Baggy garments will let water in wherever the openings do not have latex gaskets--and as far as I know there is no product made with a latex waist gasket. 2. The drytop stayed comfortably dry because it breathed--until the flooding began. The coated nylon drypants, however, left my lower half soaked whether in or out of the water. This surprised me, as I didn't think I sweated much there. I quickly ditched the two-piece combo and went to a one-piece Gore-tex drysuit, thereby ridding myself of both the above problems. The drysuit is reserved for very cold water, or for extended in-water practice in cool water. I later supplemented the drysuit by wearing wetsuits of various types for the rest of the season. So for the last 4 years, I've happily used a shorty 2mm suit (short sleeves and shorts in a one-piece suit) for warm weather and a 3mm fullsuit for cool weather. All of them have been surfer garments rather than paddler-specific because the surfer neoprenes include some much stretchier grades than the usual stuff you see in NRS neoprene clothes. I like them because they are NOT baggy, but the downside is that I have to be sure that I've chosen the right suit for the right temperature. With a drysuit, it is easy to add air inside the suit when on land, to increase its warmth (or I could add another shirt inside). Because previously I had found that Farmer Janes let tremendous amounts of water in through the neck and armholes, I stayed away from them. However, I got to thinking that if I could find a very stretchy sleeved top to wear under a very stretchy Farmer Jane, the combination might solve the flooding problem while being easier to peel off (to pee) than the one-piece suits. Also, having the shirt on underneath would mean less chilling than the usual near-strip routine on pee stops. A few days ago I found what looks like the right pairing: a long-leg Farmer Jane that uses a super-stretchy 1.5mm neoprene (O'Neill's Bahia Jane), plus a long-sleeve shirt (Ripcurl G-Bomb 1mm neoprene "jacket") that is THE stretchiest neoprene I've yet checked out. This shirt will be worn under the Bahia Jane, and due to the combo's super stretchiness it probably will let very little water in. I'll wait another 6 to 8 weeks before testing it in the water because right now 2.5mm of neoprene is inadequate.

I've been looking for a stowable cart to replace my folding PaddleBoy stern cart that has hard wheels and does not fit inside my kayak. The most promising candidates I've found were the following: 1. C-Tug cart, now sold under the NRS (Northwest River Supplies) name. I've looked at one of these in person; the owner was happy with its ease of disassembly and said it stows in many hatch compartments, but that it might not fit in my boat (Pilgrim Expedition). It appears to be both rustproof and very robust. Adjustable for different hull shapes. Presently my top pick IF it fits inside my hatch compartments. 2. Wheel-Eez cart (forget the model name) with the smaller, gray balloon tires. Can be disassembled and stowed. Again, I don't know the volume limits of its stowability. I understand that deflating the tires will allow stowage in pretty much any boat, but who wants to deal with carrying a pump to reinflate them? 3. Newer version of the above profiled in a blurb in a recent Sea Kayaker Magazine, also made by Wheel-Eez. This version has fairly stout, black tires that are puncture-proof. I read somewhere that Kari-Tek is coming out with a stowable paddle dolly, available from P&H dealers. If anybody here has actually seen this thing, I would love to hear your opinion of it. A UK sea kayaking mag contained an article about several stowable kayak carts whose names I did not recognize as they are UK-only. If you can find a back issue of that, check it out, too. Another item you might want to buy: George Gronseth's Kayak Academy sells a huge mesh rucksack designed to haul the typical miscellaneous assortment of various-sized, slippery drybags. I bought 2 (one for husband, one for me). These things are big enough that it appears I can carry all gear from boat to campsite in 2 trips. It has shoulder straps and an interior pocket designed to accept a CrazyCreek chair, sleeping pad, etc. to protect your back from hard lumpy items.

Hmmm, if there's a strong tailwind... There shall be no complaints uttered about smells, because the other paddler (my husband) and I will each tote our own poop pipes. Takes care of THAT issue!

The Poo Powder not only absorbs moisture but renders the poop acceptable for disposal as regular trash. That's why I would like to add it to the newspaper-wrap method. The hard poop pipe is only to prevent puncturing or popping the full plastic bags; it should also reduce odor since the pipe is leakproof. Since I got a new boat fairly recently, I'll need to modify my packing scheme and see where there's room to take the poop pipe. I doubt it will be a problem. The pipe might fit crossways next to the front bulkhead, in front of my feet (I'm back to using footpegs). I'd duct-tape it to the floor to keep it from rolling around. So far, nobody has stated that they use Poo Powder with the "burrito." But it shouldn't pose a problem, and if it does I'l be sure to warn others! Meanwhile, I have maybe 10 Wagg Bags that I'd better use first. The Poo Powder website says it has a shelf life of 3 to 5 years, and I bought the Waggs in 2007, thinking they would be good for much longer than that. Can always add new Poo Powder if necessary.

I've used Wagg Bags and find them OK for one use--personal squeamishness says I won't be using them for more than one "drop" per bag (experimentation at home told me this!). But at one use per bag and about $3 each, Wagg Bags are awfully expensive for trips longer than a few days. Also, because the bags are designed to be used with portable toilet seats (which I don't use), they are MUCH bigger than necessary for just containing the waste. I know that suz has posted about the so-called burrito wrap method. I would like to know if anybody has combined several elements as follows: 1. Pour some Poo Powder (the gelling agent, available in bulk) onto a sheet of newspaper on the ground. Do your business on that powder. 2. Wrap it all up tightly and place the bundle into an airtight plastic bag. 3. Then store the full bags in a waterproof, punctureproof container for transportation. I have a home-made BLM-spec PVC "poop pipe" that would serve well for this, IF the bags are not gigantic like the Wagg Bags. The poop pipe is not big enough to accommodate, say, 10 days of Wagg Bags, but it might fit 10 days of smaller bundles. Has anybody tried this combination? I'm planning some camping trips for this year where pack-it-out is either required (e.g., Lake Powell) or probably should be. There may be no disposal sites until returning to the launch place.

Not to derail the derailment of original question, but please remember the OP's statement as to WHY he paddles with his ruddered kayak. That is part of being helpful/courteous, too.

Maybe it's just Mississippi. OK, I shouldn't let one bad experience there taint my outlook on the state. Seriously, income level and diets probably have more to do with obesity than cold temperatures. Though hot and humid are almost as bad (to me) as frigid and snowy. Besides, fried green tomatoes sure taste good...I'll take them over California rolls any day. ;-)

Even if it forces the body to adapt to cold by cranking up the calorie burn, the negative aspects of cold weather outshadow any potential weight loss. If you live where it's more comfortable (warmer) for outdoor recreation, you tend to do more of it. It's no accident that people in sunny, warm (but not too hot) places like southern CA are generally leaner than those in colder places. Just look around you when you're there. The beaches and mountains are crowded because people are out recreating, all year 'round. You can say truthfully that the "bikini effect" makes them more likely to work at not getting pudgy, but the fact remains that folks there are hiking, biking, swimming, surfing, paddling, playing tennis, and all kinds of other stuff. And they look pretty darned happy while they're doing it; it's not just about avoiding fatness. Which is not to say that being in less-easy climates is an automatic sentence to obesity. There are snow sports for those who actually like cold rather than make themselves endure it.

I apologize about the wording re: 303. Secondary or primary benefit--if it helps the latex slide rather than chafe, it doesn't matter to me. I've not used it on gaskets yet. I'm not promoting Body Glide, only stating that it worked for me the two times I used it. The wetsuit insides are fine, so I'll use it again. I wash my wetsuits after literally every use, with regular soap and water. There may well be residue building up and it's not been noticeable yet. Since divers and surfers use this stuff with their wetsuits, I wonder if they have had the problem you noted. Also, runners use it to keep seams from chafing. Could be a lot of ruined clothing out there if the stuff does not wash out.

I was wondering if 303 would work for this purpose! That's the first time I'd seen anybody mention using it to prevent the "ring around the collar" look. Silicone grease works OK. Definitely get the food-grade 100% silicone stuff; dive shops sell it. It won't hurt either the latex or your skin. Feels almost like Vaseline, though--I won't use it unless I can wash my hands off with soap and water after applying it. So far, I've used Body Glide twice...to make donning and doffing a full wetsuit easier (yes, it helps). I was toying with the idea of using it on the drysuit's neck gasket, but after reading the warning above, I'll restrict it to wetsuits. Thanks for the heads-up! I've only gotten neck gasket irritation when paddling in salt water, never in fresh. Ditto for chafing in the armpit/shoulder area with wetsuits. Body Glide should prevent that from happening again.

I had a bad case of tennis elbow that began in late winter 2009. I brought it on with a home renovation project and LOTS of drywall mudding and taping. Paddling didn't hurt it but didn't help, either. It only went away this year, though the worst part was the first few months. In addition to scarfing Ibuprofen (tapering later to nothing), I backed off anything that caused the pain to flare up, and I rubbed Icy Hot on the entire forearm and elbow in the evenings. Not every night--just when pain was enough that it might keep me awake. I kept a container of Icy Hot starting decades ago. It's good for both joint pain and just plain old sore muscles.

I haven't tried their other fabrics or garments, but one thing I really like about the items I have (a union suit and a short-sleeve crewneck) is that they are cut for aerobic athletes, not ball players. Their background seems to be based on x-c skiiers, so that doesn't surprise me. The interesting thing is that if I wear the union suit for hiking with only a pair of shorts over them, they feel cool, not warm, and that's on a medium-temp kind of day like in the low 60s. They must wick any perspiration very quickly. But throw a windbreaker or light layer over them and they're wonderfully warm and dry. When I hand-wash them, they don't appear to absorb much moisture. Maybe they're made of polypropylene.

If you wear a breathable drysuit, wearing neoprene underneath defeats the purpose of staying dry. It (the neoprene) will still insulate when slick with sweat inside, just not comfortably. I use a full neoprene wetsuit for some parts of the season, and even with a *small* amount of water entering, it protects from the cold outside water. But why bother using it as an underlayer with a breathable drysuit? It's not only damp inside, it makes peeing harder. If your lower body is chilled, try more layers that breathe. The fastest-wicking material of all I have tried is Craft's ribbed synthetic. I don't know what they call it now, but it's their original underwear material. Very light, stretchy, and fast to dry. The ribs create more air space under the next layer without adding lots of bulk or weight. They cut it to fit very close to the body, like Lycra, so it draws sweat away from the skin by full contact. If wool directly on your skin gets damp (mine does but not enough to bother me), the Craft garment might work well as a capillary material between the two. One thing I've done when NOT on the water but still wearing drysuit and getting chilled is to add air to the inside of the suit. Open up a gasket (or pee zip) and let it in, like a reverse burp. To me, the main advantage of wool is that wet sheep smells better than several-days-worn synthetic underwear! The main disadvantage is that moths eat it.

That gray step tread material sounds like the same stuff I put on a wood ramp for the dog kennel, which has a roof overhead but is otherwise outdoors. The stuff eventually began peeling back at the edges. I just glued them back on using Barge Cement (letting both surfaces tack up a bit before sticking on) and they've stayed solidly put ever since. I wonder if AquaSeal (the stuff I've used for sealing neoprene holes) would be even better for this kind of use. It's flexible, tough, sticks to both porous and nonporous materials, and waterproof. Just a thought. Too bad it's grippy, or else you could just paint it on as a keel strip by itself.