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Inverseyourself

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    Shakespeare for Kayakers

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    Full fathom five thy father lies;
    Of his bones are coral made;
    Those are pearls that were his eyes:
    Nothing of him that doth fade,
    But doth suffer a sea-change
    Into something rich and strange.
    Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
    Ding-dong.
    Hark! now I hear them—Ding-dong, bell.

     

    Don't do this!

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    I am so sorry!

    It's unfortunately a classic. Tom Berg always tells the story of exactly the same occurrence at a paddling symposium (Autumn Gales?). It's one of those  famous "it's only a short distance" last words incidents. I hope that you can save the Nordkapp !!!!!!!!!

    NSPN Bold Coast Trip, August 28-30 2020

    in Trip Reports

    Posted

    Jonathan, Kelsey and I paddled this stretch with really good energy in the water a few years ago to the tide race below the light house. I remember it as one of the most enjoyable stretches of coast in conditions I have paddled yet. If you time the flow and catch max, the rock gardens below the lighthouse offer superior park-and-play.

    Matt

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    I had a slippery-issue as well. Unfortunately, surf wax disappears after a while, at least in my experience. I used self-amalgamating tape, which regularly completely shredded my hands, especially during time trials where I just didn’t pay attention to that. Major calluses. I switched to using it on one side only and am getting more used to it on the side I’m not using it on.  I created stops that Matt referred to with yellow electrical tape, fairly thick so that I can easily feel it. The yellow also gives me a peripheral visual aide to see where my hands are.

    Primary Stability: Hull Shape or Beam Width?

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    21 hours ago, BigBird said:

    In other words, I'm not a couch potato so not sure why I have such horrible balance sitting on a balance beam (how the NDK felt)?  Perhaps it's just the irrational fear of going overboard and not being able to get back in the boat?  I do agree that if I could learn how to roll, I would probably be more open to getting back into an Explorer :)

    Much good advice above.

    I won’t repeat but will just add my OTC: In a safe environment, being absolutely sure that you know how to wet-exit or even better have an experienced kayaker on stand by, feel out the “point of no return”.

    Because of your “irrational fear”, you probably stop your edging and leaning long before you reach the limits of secondary stability. The tipping point thus remains an unknown that will arrive suddenly and unexpectedly, undermining your confidence. 
     

    Aggressively find that point - if you go over you wet exit and try again. You should try without spray skirt first, with spray skirt only with a competent paddler next to you.

    Youtube “How to edge an lean a kayak” by Gordon Brown (paddling.com within Youtube). There is a whole series of edge and lean drills if you follow that lead.

    The Inside low brace turn is extremely helpful in finding out how much you can lean a kayak into a turn. The outside low brace turn gives you support when finding how far you can edge. Both are fun and dynamic maneuvers that’ll go WAY beyond primary and also secondary stability and will boost your confidence. You can theoretically flood your cockpit with each maneuver if you don’t use a sprayskirt, they can be executed that aggressively. Both maneuvers should be properly demonstrated to you in-person, though. You can make a lot of significant mistakes.

    A summer lake session with seasoned paddlers would be ideal.

     

    Good luck and don’t buy a freighter!
     

    Andy

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