All things paddling

[eamo]

There seems to be quite a few paddlers on the forum - kayakers, canoeists etc, so maybe a spot to discuss all things paddling ?

[Syncop8r]

Maybe a subforum...   

[Don Pablo]

I’ve gone canoeing in a canal once.

Would try again.

[kottskrapa]

I'm in! Kayaking is my form of paddling



[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[magentus]

Tell you who WON'T be joining in with this thread. Dolly 

[Kev D]

Wouldn't this be better in the outdoor & survival subforum?

[eamo]

I'm in! Kayaking is my form of paddling

(Image removed from quote.)

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

nice boat, what are the specs ? what gear do you generally take/use when you're paddling ?

I have a dagger stratos touring boat, pics of boat and gear to follow soon(ish) 

Wouldn't this be better in the outdoor & survival subforum?

I had a quick look before posting Kev, and most paddling threads seem to be in the break room, but whatever you think.

[eamo]

Tell you who WON'T be joining in with this thread. Dolly 

No, i'd imagine not, she'd be posting in the "all things powerboat" thread or the "terrorise eamo's family" thread 

[eamo]

I’ve gone canoeing in a canal once.

Would try again.

there are canoe and kayak clubs near(ish) to you, it is a great sport/pasttime - checkout canoe.ie

[kottskrapa]

I'm in! Kayaking is my form of paddling

(Image removed from quote.)

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

nice boat, what are the specs ? what gear do you generally take/use when you're paddling ?

I have a dagger stratos touring boat, pics of boat and gear to follow soon(ish) 

Wouldn't this be better in the outdoor & survival subforum?

I had a quick look before posting Kev, and most paddling threads seem to be in the break room, but whatever you think.

It is a havspaddeln eskimå

Specs

Leigh 5,02 m
Width 0,57 m
Weight 26 kg
Maxload 150 kg
Material3-lagers Polyetenplast

My load depends on the trip but some extra clothes, headlamp, water and my gearpods always goes with me.

You?

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[redmond]

I’ve gone canoeing in a canal once.

Would try again.

I fell into a canal once. Would not try it again.

[Kev D]

I had a quick look before posting Kev, and most paddling threads seem to be in the break room, but whatever you think.

I'm easy either way. May as well leave it here, more people head this way anyway I think

[Grant Lamontagne]

I know this comes as a shock to many of you, but I am also into paddling, preferably in a kayak, but I've also been known to paddle a canoe here and there.  Also inflatables.  And sometimes makeshift boats, like this one time when I was younger and I paddled around my neighborhood on a door.  Really, that actually happened.

My current "fleet" consists of:

Northwest Kayaks Synergy, 17 foot fiberglass touring kayak
Point 65 XO13, 13 foot rotomold plastic recreational kayak
Pelican Summit 100, 10 foot RamX kayak

The Pelican is a fun little boat to play around in at the beach or cottage, but isn't much good for travelling anywhere or taking any cargo.  It is very stable, light and extremely cheap, available at virtually any/all big box stores.  It is a handy little boat for places that you have to hike into because it weighs all of about 35lbs.

I bought the XO13 with the intention of fixing up my big fiberglass boat, and because I wanted a boat that could hit the odd rock here and there without making me clench every orifice.  I was looking for a boat with a rudder and ended up getting one with both a rudder and an adjustable, retractable skeg, making for a very tough, versatile boat.  I enjoyed it a lot until Megan laid claim to it.

The Synergy was my first boat, and the one I have put more miles on than both the others combined.  It is designed for longer trips, which I haven't been able to do with it because someone has to be home each evening to walk my extremely large dogs.  It was originally a very expensive boat, but it had been beat to Hades and back when I got it from a pawn shop for $275 Canadian.  Ten (ish) years later and I am finally working on doing proper repairs and getting rid of those terrible "temporary" patches that have been on it since before I bought it.   

To me paddling is a great getaway, and the ultimate adventure, as being out on the lake, river, ocean etc means that you have to be entirely self reliant.

Def

[Nix]

If it floats, I'm in! 

[Syncop8r]

I’ve gone canoeing in a canal once.

Would try again.

I fell into a canal once. Would not try it again.

I fell out of a canal once.

Show content

A birth canal. 

[Syncop8r]

I'm in! Kayaking is my form of paddling

(Image removed from quote.)

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

Nice boat KK!  I haven't seen a green kayak before.

[kottskrapa]

I'm in! Kayaking is my form of paddling

(Image removed from quote.)

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

Nice boat KK!  I haven't seen a green kayak before.

Thanks! Me neither, mostly red, yellow and white around here.. And I saw a pic of a black once

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[Greg Jones]

  I'll have to get my canoe out now 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Here I am looking remarkably fat in my Synergy:



I swear, while I am fat, I am not that bad!  It's the pfd!   

Here is Megan fooling around in the XO13:



And here is how I transport them:



I don't have any pics of the Summit 100 handy, but you can see it here:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/pelican-summit-100-sit-in-kayak-10-ft-0798279p.html

I bought this one as a spare, and I have put a few miles on it, but I really don't recommend that anyone buy a boat like this.  They are good enough, as I said above, for fooling around at the cottage, but as a real, useful boat they are sorely lacking.

A funny story about them- my father started paddling in a cheap Pelican like that and liked it so much that he bought a "real" kayak, a 15 foot Riot Tourlite, which is a very impressive boat.  He bought it from friends of his that had bought a pair of them to see if they liked kayaking, and they were happy to sell it on as they also wanted an excuse to buy better boats.

So, when visiting my father, he would paddle the nice 15 foot Riot, and I would get stuck with the Pelican, which I started referring to as "the b*tch boat" because you kind of felt like a b*tch paddling next to a "real" boat!  It was ok for a while, because we would rent a boat when my brother and I were visiting at the same time and all three of us wanted to paddle, because the rental was almost identical to the Pelican that my father already had.  B*tches love company, right?

Then my brother got a Current Designs Whistler 14, which lives at my parent's place as that is where my brother does most, if not all of his paddling.  And dear ol' Uncle Def got the Pelican, aka the B*tch Boat.   

That's when I finally decided to start bringing my own boats to visit my parents.  My father was impressed with how well the Synergy cuts through the water.  His Riot is an elegant boat, but has nothing on my Synergy when it comes to efficient paddling!  Of course he makes fun of it because it's pink, and I make fun of him for having a (relatively) tiny kid's boat, and so on and so on! 

Of course I am not allowed to refer too the Pelicans as b*tch boats anymore as my nephews now both paddle Pelicans- one got the original b*tch boat and the other one got a brand new Summit 100, just like mine.

Def

[Alan K.]

If you enjoy kayaking up there where it's cold I bet you would really enjoy an excursion down here to Florida where the water is warm and clear.

[Gerhard Gerber]

  Nice one Alan!

[Gerhard Gerber]

Plan of action:
Make some knives
Sell some knives
Have a canopy built for my Suzuki so.....

......hopefully I can load my little Feel Free Nomad and get out on the water again. 

It's been a long time.... 

Hopefully before the end of 2018 

[Grant Lamontagne]

If you enjoy kayaking up there where it's cold I bet you would really enjoy an excursion down here to Florida where the water is warm and clear.

When I was in Orlando in '09 for SHOT I was amazed at all of the great places you could go kayaking there.  There were streams almost everywhere and they all looked like great places to go paddling.

Then I remembered what lives in all of those waterways, and decided that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

Then I got a backstage tour of Gatorland, and got up close and personal with some of those things and decided that paddling in Florida was really something I could probably do without after all....   

Here I am with a 13.5 foot, 1,000lb + gator named Chester:



Here I am with a (well secured) 5 foot, 200lb gator, who's name I never learned:



And here I am being killed and eaten because my Charge wasn't able to repel jaws of that magnitude:



If you are interested in seeing the whole experience, this is the thread:

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,8705.0.html

And for those of you paying attention, it's the same Johnny that I recently posted about, going back to Gatorland after ten years:

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,77762.0.html

Def

[Don Pablo]

If you enjoy kayaking up there where it's cold I bet you would really enjoy an excursion down here to Florida where the water is warm and clear.

When I was in Orlando in '09 for SHOT I was amazed at all of the great places you could go kayaking there.  There were streams almost everywhere and they all looked like great places to go paddling.

Then I remembered what lives in all of those waterways, and decided that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

Then I got a backstage tour of Gatorland, and got up close and personal with some of those things and decided that paddling in Florida was really something I could probably do without after all....   

Here I am with a 13.5 foot, 1,000lb + gator named Chester:

(Image removed from quote.)

Here I am with a (well secured) 5 foot, 200lb gator, who's name I never learned:

(Image removed from quote.)

And here I am being killed and eaten because my Charge wasn't able to repel jaws of that magnitude:

(Image removed from quote.)

If you are interested in seeing the whole experience, this is the thread:

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,8705.0.html

And for those of you paying attention, it's the same Johnny that I recently posted about, going back to Gatorland after ten years:

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,77762.0.html

Def

That... must have been an interesting experience, to say the least...

[Grant Lamontagne]

You've never been eaten by an alligator?  Oh, it's an experience everyone should have at least once in life! 

Def

[Alan K.]

Those pictures are actually from the Orlando area. They were taken by a news crew in a helicopter that happened to see the gator swimming with the deer in a lake about 10 or 15 years ago.  I save them to post on special occasions.  Listen, Grant, I'd be squatting behind a bush too if I'd been that close to a 1000 pound alligator.  Nothing to be embarrassed about.  We're all human.

[eamo]

Grant, Alan, great pics and stories !

Pics below, boat in dry dock for some tweaking, new dragonfly salt cos we all like our toys, common jellyfish and a rare pic from on the water 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Beautiful!

I'm visiting my parents this week, so I'll have lots of new paddling photos soon!

Def

[Syncop8r]

Did your kids graffiti it? 

[BCNZ]

I got into paddleboarding a few years ago.  Bought a used 14' rigid board and a used 12' 6" inflatable board off a friend.   There's lots of places to go around where I live; the ocean is a 5 minute drive, and there are numerous alpine lakes to hike up to and explore.  We also have 3 major rivers close by so there's a lot to do.