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jmcotton

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Posts posted by jmcotton

    Low-probability/High-consequence Wet Exits

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    Happy, happy birthday Katherine! I am SO glad you are here to enjoy it! I've seen you successfully practice your wet exit in your new boat ...Yea! Thanks for sharing your experience.

    This thread has been great. It does raise all of our worst fears, getting stuck in our boat...out there in current. I ordered a neoprene spray skirt earlier this summer, my first neoprene skirt and after soaking it and leaving it on the cockpit to stretch it I went out with friends and a coach and tried a wet exit with our coach standing besides me. I could not get the skirt off after a number of attempts and she also could not get it off me and had to roll me up. The spray skirt was a snapdragon expedition model which is thick and not stretchy (and wasn't actually what I'd ordered!). I broke my left wrist this past January and I was used to holding my paddle in my right hand and pulling the easy to release nylon sprayskirt with my left - and had the bad habit of not really needing to lean forward and pull hard forward to get the skirt off. After reading all of this thread and talking with people and checking out what other people have for skirts, I bought a snapdragon glacier flirt model with a safety strap last Friday. I soaked it and put it on my cockpit for 24 hours and went out Sunday and successfully did a wet exit. Whew! Here's to many more practice wet exits. I can get it off pulling the loop, pulling the edge, and pulling the safety strap It's now my turn to go to Cohasset with our coach this Saturday to practice current work. Wish me luck!

    Janice

    Cohasset this Saturday for current work with our coach.

    Babes in Boats 06.08.14

    in Trip Reports

    Posted

    What a great day it was! Thanks Katherine for organizing another fantastic Ladies Paddle. We had sunny skies, calm seas and chatted and sang our way along the coast. Sherry did indeed execute a perfect point the entire trip. We ended the paddle with a caravan of eight to a wonderful homemade ice cream place. Great company, great paddle...we need another one on the calendar!

    Janice

    NSPN CAM On-Water Session, Sunday May 18, 2014

    in Trip Reports

    Posted

    It was a really wonderful day with lots of learning with a fun supportive group of people. We did lots of tows and rescues with both of our pod leaders (Paul and Bob) being the wet or ill paddling companion and then the rest of the group followed. I lamented briefly that's it's always hard to dump myself in the water initially and Bob wisely stated "it's only water" to which I thought, "oh that's right and I love water!" so I happily got wet. It was a great way to start the season with lots of take-aways. Thanks to all who were involved - there and not there. Thanks for your great pics Pru, along with the narration!

    Janice

    kayak camping sleeping pad

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    Thanks everyone. I was at REI tonight with my 20% off coupon and dividend and tried out the mats. I ended up getting the ultra light synpad for it's size and comfort. I'm not ready for winter camping yet so the ultralight made sense. The sales person demonstrated the schnozzle pump and it was amazing in pumping the mat up easily. It also packs down to almost nothing so I got that as well and now I won't be breathing warm moist air with critters into my sleeping pad. I usually carry a cheap yoga mat that is cut in half in my kayak which is perfect for sitting on wet or bumpy surfaces. I'm going to see if that will cut down the noise, if not I'll look for the nonskid mats for rugs as Rob suggested. It actually didn't seem too noisey. Thanks Suz for your generous offer to loan me mats to try out.

    kayak camping sleeping pad

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    Thanks for the experienced opinions. I have a small pad that I just can't sleep on so I'm glad to hear that the Expad works! I'll look to see if there is one with the option to take the pump along or inflate it manually (and hope whatever critters grow in mine are friendly too!). Humm, I didn't think of the noise...that could be annoying. Choices, choices.

    kayak camping sleeping pad

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    I need a new sleeping pad in order to get some sleep while kayak camping. I'm going to buy a Exped Synmat as they seem to be highly rated and sleep is highly rated for me also. My question is: do I need one with a pump or not? The one without the pump is nicely small so it would fit into my Avocet LV better. How much of a pain is it to blow up? There are so many choices - lined, not lined, etc. Any opinions? Thanks,

    Janice

    CAM Session, April 7, 2014

    in Trip Reports

    Posted

    Thank you Scott, Peter, Suz and Rick for such valuable information presented in a way that made the day fly by. Thanks also for all who presented planned trips and made me want to jump in the kayak and join them (while eating yummy banana bread and chocolate!). My take away is to have great respect for our amazing ocean, that everyone needs to be really prepared and to pay attention! Great event report, as always Pru.

    Trivia contest- holiday party

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    We are having a trivia contest as part of our entertainment at our holiday party. We are looking for trivia questions (and answers!) for the contest. Please PM me with any you think would be good for our contest. We'll use the honor system for not answering any question you've submitted. In the unlikely event you can't attend the party, please submit questions anyway as it'll be a way for you to participate. We'll post the questions and answers after the party.

    Thanks!

    Janice

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