All things paddling

[ThundahBeagle]

Side view after lift

[ThundahBeagle]

That neighbor's balcony gives me an idea what it would look like with a basket on top. Right now it has my Thule kayak stackers up there. And the CB antenna

[kottskrapa]

Side view after lift

That looks really nice! My is also from - 99 and looks just as low as your first pic.. I do know for a fact that I have the factory setup still on.. Might just get new ones and get up to the "normal" hight again..

Congrats on a good job

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

[ThundahBeagle]

Side view after lift

That looks really nice! My is also from - 99 and looks just as low as your first pic.. I do know for a fact that I have the factory setup still on.. Might just get new ones and get up to the "normal" hight again..

Congrats on a good job

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

Kotts,

Thanks! The normal height for these was fine. It won several awards when the model came out in 99, and while it was no rock-crawler, it was no slouch on trails. And with the factory tow package it could be rated and geared for as much as 5 thousand pounds tow capacity. Like yours, mine was probably an inch below stock the last few years, so the 2" lift raised it about 3" from where I had been. What an eye opener.

And to make this all paddle-related, later today I will post a pic with a kayak on top

[kottskrapa]

Side view after lift

That looks really nice! My is also from - 99 and looks just as low as your first pic.. I do know for a fact that I have the factory setup still on.. Might just get new ones and get up to the "normal" hight again..

Congrats on a good job

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

Kotts,

Thanks! The normal height for these was fine. It won several awards when the model came out in 99, and while it was no rock-crawler, it was no slouch on trails. And with the factory tow package it could be rated and geared for as much as 5 thousand pounds tow capacity. Like yours, mine was probably an inch below stock the last few years, so the 2" lift raised it about 3" from where I had been. What an eye opener.

And to make this all paddle-related, later today I will post a pic with a kayak on top

I'm looking forward to it! And thanks for the info

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

[Grant Lamontagne]

I took the new boat out on the river a couple of days ago and had a blast. Normally do need to get the Go pro out and shoot some video on it to share with you guys.  The bow site remarkably low in the water, and even in the mild chop I was in (about 30cm swell) the boat was constantly swamping!  I was soaked and laughing the whole time!  I think the boat may be part submarine because it seemed like it spent half the time underwater!  You definitely need a skirt on this boat, but unfortunately it takes a different size than my other two.  Both the others take a 1.6 and this one needs a 1.2.  I have a few all purpose type skirts, which i will try but they generally suck and don't fit anything well or hold against much.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Any of you paddlers interested in recreating the absolute coolest kayak trip ever?

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/01/from-nazi-germany-to-australia-the-incredible-true-story-of-historys-longest-kayak-journey

A must read for anyone interested in history, paddling or adventure in general- why the hell aren't there movies made about this guy's life?  I'd love to see that!

Def

[ThundahBeagle]

Meant to post the kayaks on the Jeep four days ago. Here they are, Sunday night after being power washed at the local self-serve car wash

[ThundahBeagle]

No action pics, unfortunately,  as that would mean I would have had to have had time actually IN one of the kayaks. So far this summer, that has been elusive. But at least now I'm ready for late summer, early autumn paddling.

[Grant Lamontagne]

It's about time that I posted pics of the new boat in the water!  As I mentioned, the bow of the boat is very low, with maybe an inch or two of freeboard, and frequently disappears under the water in a little bit of chop!

Here are some pics I took the two times I have had it out so far:



One of the cool things about it sitting so low in the water is that it looks like I am going really fast, when in fact I am paddling at my usual speed of about 3mph (5-6km/hr).







This was in the chop, when it was calm enough for me to take my paddles out of the water and not die. 



You will notice the boat and my flip flops are MUCH wetter in these photos!





These are the Deschenes Rapids I had gone to previously in my big boat.  The water level is a bit lower, but they are still every bit as dangerous!   







Obligatory "I'm not dead yet" selfie. 



And the boat survived as well.



It won't replace my big boat for long distances, but it is an easy and fun boat to paddle in it's own right.  While my big boat tends to smooth out the waves (it's so long you are usually over top of at least three different swells!) this one likes to go up one swell and under the next!  If the weather isn't too bad tomorrow (been threatening thunderstorms) I will take it out with a GoPro and record some very cool footage of this thing diving and doing cool stuff.

As I told my nephew, this is a great boat for doing stupid things in!

Def

[zoidberg]

As I told my nephew, this is a great boat for doing stupid things in!

That's my kind of boat!   

[Grant Lamontagne]

As I told my nephew, this is a great boat for doing stupid things in!

That's my kind of boat!   

Mine too. 

I do stupid things in all of my boats, but this one seems like it was built for doing dumb things, rather than just being the wrong boat to do dumb things in.  Like shooting rapids in a fiberglass ocean boat or deliberately sinking a tandem kayak so we know how much water we can take on before we were screwed.  I miss my old buddy Frank- we did lots of stupid things together, and had a blast doing it. 

Def

[Gareth]

That really is low!  It looks like you're only a centimetre from sinking.  I hope you have a good skirt and some added buoyancy. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I put the skirt in for the second trip and the water wasn't as rough so it wasn't really needed.  On flat water it looks like but you don't get very wet.

For those keeping score, I wore a skirt when I didnt need to, and i didnt wear a skirt when i did need to.   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Imagine if that thing had surfaced a second later!   

https://paddling.com/learn/paddleboarder-crashes-into-whale/?utm_source=paddling.com+subscriber+list&utm_campaign=d90ee5c6c3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_08_29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f2ead8a079-d90ee5c6c3-212708641&mc_cid=d90ee5c6c3&mc_eid=0822281c27

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

As promised, some video showing how much fun this new boat is.  The waves were similar to the first time, but not quite as persistent, but I still think I got a decent show out of it.



You can really see why the bow has to be pitched up so sharply!

Def

[Gareth]

 

[eamo]

nice, she does sit low in the water alright, definitely need a spraydeck

[Grant Lamontagne]

As luck would have it, I just happen to have a spare that fits this boat, but none of the others. 

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

I have a little catching up to do in this thread, as I have been pretty active the last little while!

In addition to the photos and videos posted in this thread and this thread, I also went to visit my parents in Blind River and spent a few days at a friend's cottage in Quebec.  That cottage is the reason I had to get my trailer repaired in a hurry after the issues at Lac LaPeche.

While visiting my parents I went paddling twice- once by myself on a nice quiet river off the Blind River that my parents live on, called the Potomac.  It's not pronounced like the more famous one in the US, it's more like Pot-Oh-Mac. 



The Potomac is a nice, gentle, winding river with almost no power boat traffic due to the shallow water.  It is however a great place to fish or hunt ducks, so occasionally some folks will venture up that way.  Fortunately on this trip, I didn't see anyone else, which is just the way I like it.  I had to stop and turn around a few kilometers in because the beavers have built a large dam across the river and I didn't feel like portaging around it or taking my chances to go through it.  Beavers may seem cute and cuddly in pictures, but they are actually very foul tempered and extremely tough.  Even wolves and bears avoid them, so I wasn't going to mess with them!



I also try not to paddle through weeds whenever possible as I hate to disturb any more than I have to, but the water was so low that I didn't have much choice this time.  It is kind of fun to go through them, even if you do occasionally get covered with spiders.   

The next day my father and I went paddling up the Blind to a lake called Duborne.  My mother, on shore managed to snap a few neat pics.  First off, this one struck me as pretty cool since I had no idea how little freeboard there was on the aft end of this boat!



I knew the front end was low, I hadn't realized that everything behind the seat was so close to being a submarine!  I feel like I should mount a GoPro behind me to see how often the stern is under water!

Mom also took this photo that I call The Riot Squad, since we are both paddling Riot kayaks, even if mine is a sub-brand called Sun. 



Dad's boat is a Riot Tourlite 15, roughly two feel longer than mine, and as you can see, it is designed for a very different purpose than mine is!



After Mom took a few pictures we headed off, and I have to say there are few things in this world that can make me as happy as paddling with my father does.



This is us out on the lake.  We had a great time, as usual!  I'd post more pics, but Dad is paranoid about having his picture on the internet, so no one tell him these are here, ok? 

Def

[eamo]

now that is a quality days paddling ! 

any plans to put bulkheads in the new boat ?

[Grant Lamontagne]

Once we arrived in Quebec and settled in to the cottage we headed down to the water to see if it was just as beautiful as we remembered it from the last time we were here, two years ago.



You tell me....

This lake is actually part of a series of lakes that eventually connects to the Gatineau River, which flows down to the Ottawa River, through the town of Gatineau, which is directly across the Ottawa River from me.  Theoretically, we could paddle home from there, although I would imagine it would take several days, and I doubt very much the dogs would appreciate it!



Though it doesn't show very well in photos, the water is crystal clear here thanks to all the clay in the bottom.  We were places where the water had to be 20 feet deep and we could still see the bottom.  Naturally we did some snorkeling while we were there, but this is the paddling thread, not the breathing underwater thread. 



We went paddling a couple of times, and the lake was perfectly mirror smooth both times, although not once I'd paddled over it!  The new kayak makes a lot of noise, splashes a lot and leaves a huge wake behind it.  But then, it isn't meant to be a smooth boat, so you really can't blame it.



We were paddling fairly early in the morning, and this, being cottage country on a weekday, we pretty well had the lake to ourselves.  The few people that we did see were out trying to catch some of the massive fish we saw in the water.  I figured it must be easy to fish in a place where you can see the fish coming from a few hundred yards away!



I was also amused, when we got back that the colors of both boats were so complimentary that when viewed on a certain angle, they look like a larger tandem boat rather than two singles! 

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

now that is a quality days paddling ! 

any plans to put bulkheads in the new boat ?

I think about it from time to time, but I don't think I will bother.  There's really not much to gain in the end, as waterproof bulkheads don't stay waterproof for more than a couple of years.  In the end I think I will just keep using a skirt to minimize the water that gets in and use dry bags for the rest.

Def

[Gareth]

Grant that looks like an amazing place for a paddle.  Superb pictures as well. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Grant that looks like an amazing place for a paddle.  Superb pictures as well. 

Canada is a fantastic place for all things outdoors, and paddling is just one of many awesome things to do outdoors here.  I like paddling the most because you can end up in some pretty out of the way places that others just don't get to see.  Unfortunately many folks from other places in the world don't know understand the scale of things here, and too many "outfitters" either don't know or don't care enough to properly equip foreigners for adventures in Canada.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/german-paddlers-unprepared-hayes-canoe-trip-1.4269352

I could take you some places that would blow your mind, and sadly I am not a good enough photographer to do these places proper justice.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

If I get any more boats, the landlord here is going to need a bigger garage. 

Def

[MadPlumbarian]

How’s this?
JR

[Grant Lamontagne]

Do you want the honest answer? 

If so....

Show content

1- it's a relatively short boat, so probably not that efficient to paddle in the first place.
2- the coolers would get in the way of the paddles while paddling.
3- the coolers would be in the water and adding a significant amount of drag.
4- the awning would catch a lot of wind and blow the boat around a lot.
5- if used for fishing (which appears to be what it is meant for) then the awning posts are in the fishing rod holders.
6- further to above, the awning would get in the way of casting.

That having been said, it could be useful if:
A- you don't have to paddle far to get to your fishing spot.
B- you don't cast, but plan to just drop a line in.
C- you use an anchor
D- you add on another rod holder like one of these units to the front/table.

Otherwise, it seems like a cool idea. 

Def

[Myron]

Was just made aware of the paddling thread, and thought I'd make a contribution. 

I've got an ancient Old Town Camper and two Wenonah Spirit II's.  We use them for day paddling in northern Michigan and for tripping in Ontario.  Invariably, any discussion of paddling also involves a discussion of dogs for me. 

Here we see Zuzu waiting patiently at the put-in of the South Branch of the Au Sable River.  We just lost old Zuzu this fall at the ripe old age of 14. 




Here's Dash out in the middle of Higgins Lake.  I had taken the two Wenonah boats and fastened them together into a catamaran hull.  We used this rig to find an underwater geocache in the lake. 




Dash was perhaps the best paddling dog I ever had.  Sadly he's now gone too.  Here he is exploring the Cut River. 




From left to right, here's Zuzu (back turned), Nina, and me on the South Branch again.  The Camper is great because you can turn it around and paddle it solo. 




Nina used to love just hanging out in shallow water at our favorite break spot.  Another great dog now gone, but she graced us with her gentle spirit for many years. 




Here's Nina with the family fleet:




Here is Nina again on the Betsie River. 




Hope you enjoyed my pics! 

Myron

[Gareth]

Awesome, awesome post Myron.