Archive for April, 2009

• Quix Time Machine – First Lesson Fashion Tips – thoughts about what to wear for your first paddling lesson.. http://twurl.nl/haw8a8 07:44:52
• Credit where it’s due – Fuji EnviroMax Batteries – http://twurl.nl/buel4t 08:55:55

Sea kayaking for me is a sensual and romantic experience. If it weren’t I’d do something else. What turned me on to sea kayaking in the first place was how sea kayaking brings human and nature together in a way like no other. Alone on the water under a cloudy sky with the spit of rain running down your face, you are as close to being one with the universe as you will ever chance to get. A perfect kayak is the one that goes unnoticed when you are engulfed in other things and becomes part of the beauty of the experience when you ask it too. Finding one kayak that can be your loyal companion is not easy.

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Can you name this plant?

You would’nt think it but even our little mountains are high enough to have snow stick on the very tops and yet everywhere else it’s rain.

Out hiking the last week or so I’ve noticed the early spring plants are starting to push up through the thick leaves covering the forest floor. Even a couple trees are starting to put out their leaves as we march toward May.  So today lets see if you ever get off the water. Can you name these early spring risers? Call the image above No. 1. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so this is a video from Immersion Research showing you how easily you can put on one of their Double “D” Drysuits.   The truly valuable  bit is when he demonstrates how to zip it up.. or over as the case may be. I wish I could get that proficient and flexible!  Oh well. In case your wondering, the Double “D” from IR is listed on their website at  $830. What’s more, in addtion to Gunmetal Gray it also comes in the official color of kayak gear, “Mango”.

I stood there looking at a group of people all dressed in blue jeans and wanting to have their first kayaking experience on the freshly thawed Wisconsin river. Meanwhile in the back of my mind I was still concerned about a first timer in shorts and a T-shirt who had paddled up river about a half hour before.

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The trick to paddling the in the Wisconsin Dells is to choose the spring or fall when the water is not filled with tour boats, jet boats, and blind drunk tourists. If you can avoid the seasonal madness you’re in for something special.  Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about the Riverfest event we attended on Saturday, for now though let me share a gallery of paddling photos from the upper Dells section of the Wisconsin River. I’ve also added a Google Map of this section of the Wisconsin River.

Today I’m off to Riverfest in Wisconsin Dells. I don’t know what to expect exactly other than I’m told there will be hundreds of people and I have a clinic to run with no assistance and likely not enough gear or clothing for “drop-in” paddlers. While it will be a nice warm day, the water will be cold. As I started up loading all my extra stuff I thought about how when I first started paddling the first bits of gear I tried influenced what I bought later. Yeah, I got a lot of junk early on too. Events like these remind us that we only have one chance to make a first impression.

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