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#228421 - 25/07/2004 03:42 Whitewater?
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
No, not some political scandal. I'm talking about kayaking. I just started learning how to ride the rough stuff. So far, I ride the rough stuff upsidedown, chatting with the fishes. I learned to roll last weekend, but it's not quite bombproof, to say the least. Any other kayakers on the board?

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#228422 - 25/07/2004 06:21 Re: Whitewater? [Re: canuckInOR]
mtempsch
pooh-bah

Registered: 02/06/2000
Posts: 1996
Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden
Used to compete in slalom in my teens (13-18 or so). Then school took to much time...
Been thinking of getting a new kayak as I have whitewater available not even a kilometer away...
_________________________
/Michael

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#228423 - 25/07/2004 13:14 Re: Whitewater? [Re: canuckInOR]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
I kayak, but only recreationally. No whitewater. I do enjoy it, so as I get more storage space (for additional kayaks) and more disposable funds (for additional kayaks and possible hospital bills), I may take up whitewater. The availability of faster moving rivers just means more driving - but easier to stack the smaller boats. I'd also really love to get a longer (and much faster) composite boat at some point (I definitely don't have the space nor money for that right now).

I'll be vacationing for just over a week in Northern Ontario at the beginning of August, so I plan to head out on as many lakes as possible and cover a decent amount of distance/area on the water. We're staying in a cottage on lake Temiskaming near Haileybury (home of the original author of the Hardy Boys). The lake is huge and there are dozens of other lakes and rivers within close driving distance.

Bruno
_________________________
Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#228424 - 25/07/2004 16:54 Re: Whitewater? [Re: hybrid8]
Whitey
member

Registered: 09/03/2002
Posts: 178
Loc: Louisiana, USA
I try to go as much as I can, but being at least 200 miles from the nearest decent water limits my time for practice. I have a friend that took a job as a white water guide this summer. I will be spending 3 days with him on the Arkansas River, just before I leave for Africa. I hear there is some killer water over there
_________________________
_______________________________________ former owner...now I'm just another schmuck

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#228425 - 25/07/2004 19:50 Re: Whitewater? [Re: mtempsch]
schofiel
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/06/1999
Posts: 2993
Loc: Wareham, Dorset, UK
Never knew that Mike ... pretty much the same as me: I was building boats and doing C and B class water in the yUK in K1's until about 1980 when I stopped mainly due to a) Lack of time b) Lack of transport c) Lack of cash d) Lack of girlfriend who had dumped me in favour of a faster model who could do A class rivers with no effort

Still, I ran Berlin after the wall came down, and she pulled a muscle after a kilometer HA HA HA Revenge is Mine, Sayethe The Lord. (No, Mark, not you).

Just hit my 6th cache today, by the way.
_________________________
One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

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#228426 - 25/07/2004 19:57 Re: Whitewater? [Re: schofiel]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Quote:
Just hit my 6th cache today, by the way.
Only another 620 or so to go, if you want to catch up..

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#228427 - 25/07/2004 20:02 Re: Whitewater? [Re: mlord]
schofiel
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/06/1999
Posts: 2993
Loc: Wareham, Dorset, UK
Well, one a day or so for the last week: now hang on - I need a calculator for this......
_________________________
One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

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#228428 - 27/07/2004 03:39 Re: Whitewater? [Re: mtempsch]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Quote:
Been thinking of getting a new kayak

Do it, do it, do it, do it. That way I can take a paddling vacation in Sweden in the future.

I'm hoping to pick up a Wavesport Diesel this weekend.

Quote:
as I have whitewater available not even a kilometer away...

And you aren't paddling? Wow. If I had whitewater that close, I'd have taken up the sport a long time ago. I have a three hour drive to the nearest river. I'm envious.

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#228429 - 27/07/2004 03:45 Re: Whitewater? [Re: hybrid8]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
I hear you on the storage space thing. That's one of the benefits of having a whitewater kayak, as opposed to a touring/flatwater kayak -- they're a lot shorter. I'm already a bit stuck for space in my little one bedroom apartment, what with three bikes and three surfboards leaning up against the various walls. I'd hate to try and carry a 14+ foot long touring kayak up the stairs, let alone trying to get it in the door. It should be manageable with an 8' boat, though.

Have a great vacation -- I haven't spent much time in Northern Ontario. Sudbury is about as far as I got, and that was just a drive through. Sure was gorgeous, though (the rest of the scenery, that is, not Sudbury). Share pictures when you get back...

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#228430 - 27/07/2004 03:57 Re: Whitewater? [Re: schofiel]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Quote:
I was building boats and doing C and B class water in the yUK in K1's

Uh... what's all that mean? Are A, B, and C equivalent of class III through V over here?

Quote:
until about 1980 when I stopped mainly due to a) Lack of time b) Lack of transport c) Lack of cash d) Lack of girlfriend who had dumped me in favour of a faster model who could do A class rivers with no effort

Sounds like a familiar story for stopping a lot of outdoor activities. Except the (d) part. Usually it's the gaining of girlfriends that hinder things like this. But glad to hear you got your revenge.

Hmm... any chance of adding a whitewater kayaking jaunt to the next Empeg meet?

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#228431 - 27/07/2004 15:58 Re: Whitewater? [Re: canuckInOR]
mtempsch
pooh-bah

Registered: 02/06/2000
Posts: 1996
Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden
Quote:
any chance of adding a whitewater kayaking jaunt to the next Empeg meet?


Not sure how feasible that is in Holland... but with a tactical nuke applied to some dam we might get whitewater + allow Paul to bring "his" ship to the meet
_________________________
/Michael

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#228432 - 27/07/2004 16:10 Re: Whitewater? [Re: canuckInOR]
mtempsch
pooh-bah

Registered: 02/06/2000
Posts: 1996
Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden
Quote:
Do it, do it, do it, do it. That way I can take a paddling vacation in Sweden in the future.


You're always welcome

Quote:
I'm hoping to pick up a Wavesport Diesel this weekend.


I have no idea what is good/bad in/out anymore... Used to have an Ekstedt something or the other... All kevlar with carbon reinforcements here and there (mainly around the seat area). At the time all-carbon kayaks were coming out, but then they added a minimum weight rule in order to eliminate them, as they were quite expensive and also quite fragile.

Quote:
And you aren't paddling? Wow. If I had whitewater that close, I'd have taken up the sport a long time ago. I have a three hour drive to the nearest river. I'm envious.


Well, it's not very big and 75% of it's off limits during the summer due to wildlife preserve / bird protection. But some part are fairly technical and fun... hmmmm...
_________________________
/Michael

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#228433 - 28/07/2004 02:44 Re: Whitewater? [Re: mtempsch]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Quote:
Not sure how feasible that is in Holland...

Eh? Hrm... oh, yeah.

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#228434 - 28/07/2004 02:57 Re: Whitewater? [Re: mtempsch]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Quote:
I have no idea what is good/bad in/out anymore...

Me neither. The Diesel is Wavesport's latest creeker/river runner. It's a pretty nice boat. Quite easy to roll, easy to paddle. That's about all I can say about it, with my limited paddling experience. Fits very nicely, too. It's been getting very good reviews from experienced paddlers.

Quote:
Used to have an Ekstedt something or the other... All kevlar with carbon reinforcements here and there (mainly around the seat area). At the time all-carbon kayaks were coming out, but then they added a minimum weight rule in order to eliminate them, as they were quite expensive and also quite fragile.

Sounds like a slightly different purpose. I think they're still doing stuff like that for racing kayaks, but all the basic whitewater kayaks I've seen around are 40 pounds of injection moulded plastic. There's a new line of boats from Jackson that's trimmed that weight down a few pounds, but it's still all plastic. I certainly wouldn't trust myself to paddle a carbon boat in whitewater, yet. My obstacle avoidance still isn't the best.

Quote:
75% of it's off limits during the summer due to wildlife preserve / bird protection.

I can see putting a limit on the put-in/take-out points, but totally shutting it down? Is one allowed to hike in the area? I'm surprised they don't have some sort of limited float license, or something like that -- "this year we'll allow 200 people to run the river."

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#228435 - 28/07/2004 04:34 Re: Whitewater? [Re: canuckInOR]
mtempsch
pooh-bah

Registered: 02/06/2000
Posts: 1996
Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden
Quote:
Sounds like a slightly different purpose. I think they're still doing stuff like that for racing kayaks, but all the basic whitewater kayaks I've seen around are 40 pounds of injection moulded plastic.


Ah, yes - the ones you can run over with your SUV w/o doing any permanent harm... Tried one once - felt very sluggish compared to my 9kg (20lb ?) IIRC they also ride a bit higher/more curved top compared to the slalom race kayaks (where you do just about anything to get under the posts...) Then there are the "downhill" kayaks - longer, heavier, higher, relatively more narrow... Very unstable IMO, but didn't paddle one very frequently - never thought the downhill stuff was any fun...

Quote:
I certainly wouldn't trust myself to paddle a carbon boat in whitewater, yet. My obstacle avoidance still isn't the best.


Heh, broke off the frontmost 4" (all solid) of my kayak once going down a about 3' drop and hitting just about the only rock there was... Had to do the second race with a stick taped to the front in order to comply with the minimum length Easy enought to fix with a bit of heavy gauge alu wire, glassfibre and resin though.
Patching scrapes (not holes) was a fairly frequent thing (go over with sandpaper, apply resin, apply household plastic cling film to make the resin smooth out and cut down on the post patch sanding...
_________________________
/Michael

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#228436 - 30/07/2004 11:25 Re: Whitewater? [Re: canuckInOR]
genixia
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/02/2002
Posts: 3411
Quote:
but all the basic whitewater kayaks I've seen around are 40 pounds of injection moulded plastic

Actually the modern whitewater kayaks are rotomoulded. The molten plastic is poured into a mould that spins axially.

I wish there was some whitewater in eastern Massachussets.
_________________________
Mk2a 60GB Blue. Serial 030102962 sig.mp3: File Format not Valid.

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#228437 - 30/07/2004 14:12 Re: Whitewater? [Re: genixia]
Ezekiel
pooh-bah

Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
Come up to NH! Kayak through downtown Manchester. Only an hour or so drive in weekend traffic.

-Zeke
_________________________
WWFSMD?

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#228438 - 31/07/2004 03:17 Re: Whitewater? [Re: genixia]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Quote:
Actually the modern whitewater kayaks are rotomoulded.

Ah, neat. It's been nearly 10 years since I've been around anything to do with moulds (not counting my dirty dishes ), and they were predominantly for auto parts. I didn't even know rotomoulding existed.

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#228439 - 03/08/2004 02:30 Woohoo! [Re: canuckInOR]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
New toy:


Attachments
228189-p8010033.jpg (90 downloads)



Edited by canuckInLA (03/08/2004 02:31)

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#228440 - 03/06/2005 06:51 Re: Woohoo! [Re: canuckInOR]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
*bump*

And a photo of me in it:


The splash is a result of sliding down that big rock behind me. (7.4M video...)


Attachments
257043-sliderock.jpg (102 downloads)


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