Teaser
Published March 22, 2010 | 
Happy Monday. It was everything I could do this morning to get to this point. My son was sick last Friday.. and it was my turn to come down with it (or wake up to it) in the middle of the night. Call it renewed dedication of just abject silliness, but I’m vertical just long enough to give you this first X-Boat teaser image. In the next day or so, when I can keep food down.. I’ll tell you, and show you more. Until then, aren’t X boats supposed to be white with little reflective dots all over them? Ok, back to bed.
Coming To A Blog Near You…
Published March 21, 2010 | 
Got to listen to the vision
Play in the ashes of what you once were
- bat for lashes
So much to work on for next week! Yikes, when I said “Back at it” I forgot how quickly things can build up on you. Let’s see.. there’s this new paddle from Novorca which is light years ahead of the one I’d been using since Ron got started.. Wow! Then there’s the new X-Boat pics I have of the new P&H Kayak still going through the design process, and there’s a totally bias review of THIS IS CANOEING to do, and one of my favorite people in the whole wide room coming to the mid-west this summer… oh, and then… well.. Next week, starts tomorrow.. Today I’m going rolling at the pool..
Pentax Optio – (insert curse here)
Published March 19, 2010 | 
Is something wrong, she said – Well of course there is
You’re still alive, she said – Oh, and do I deserve to be
Is that the question?
pearl jam
Is not the Optio by Pentax the biggest shaft ever put to a paddlers hide? I’m on my 3rd. The W60 is the first one that actually stayed working for more than one season. Working, just long enough for the lens to do it’s impersonation of the record from Monty Python’s Hungarian phrasebook sketch. “I will not buy this camera, It is scratched.” Of course it is. There’s no freaking lens cap! Great plan for a camera that’s supposed to put up with what outdoor folks can throw at it.. Seems obvious doesn’t it? (insert curse here) Continue reading
Dog & Butterfly
Published March 19, 2010 | 
See the dog and butterfly. Up in the
Air he like to fly.” Dog and butterfly
Below she had to try. She roll back down
To the warm soft ground laughing
She don’t know why
-Heart
Canoecopia saw about a 15% increase in visitors since last year. The estimate I saw was around 24,000 folks came to shop. Nice. Sunday afternoon after the place started to quiet down, Steve Scherrer and I had a relaxing rolling demo over in the Clarion Hotel’s pool. It was a good time. Steve has a special skill in explaining and demonstrating the physics of how a boat moves in the water. I on the other hand find my path to kayak rolling in the Metaphysical. Together we do a good job covering all the bases.
I finally got around to posting a gallery of 2010 Canoecopia pics on Flickr.. There’s also a “Best of” from 2005-2009 gallery as well.
More Trash Talk
Published March 18, 2010 | 
And the truck comes by on Friday, and carts it all away.
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the bay. Oh…..
Garbage, garbage, garbage….
We’re filling up our seas with garbage (garbage, garbage…)
What will we do when there’s no place left to put all the garbage (garbage, garbage……)
– sesame street
And speaking of disposable, I received an email from Tacoma, WA when reader from a paddleshop there read my post about Starbuck’s wasteful packaging at the Sheraton Hotel in Madison. Ken Campbell told me this pile (see the picture) came from a delivery of 30 mostly plastic kayaks. You can read his thoughts on waste here. You may notice the Necky logos, but we don’t mean to pick on Necky specifically. There’s plenty of trash to go around. The problem is getting more companies in our “green” industry to be green behind the shop as well as on the show floor. Continue reading
Pinks & Pods
Published March 18, 2010 | 
You could be my flamingo
‘Coz pink is the new kinda lingo
Pink like a deco umbrella
It’s kink – but you don’t ever tell her
- aerosmith
Check out this pink Pyranah Fusion kayak. I think the fusion, which is a bit of an old school boat brought up to date, is one of the few more distinctly “new” boats to come around in some time. I need a respectable, non-playboat-river runner and the fusion might be the perfect beast. Luckily for most they come in other others. As for me, I’ve been pining for a pink “Hello Kitty” Special. Notice the little black deck thingy. That’s the $60 optional pod. Looks a little like a black plastic counter cookie jar. 
Continue reading
Like ripples on a blank shore
In rainbows
Because we separate
The ripples on a black shore
– Radiohead
I said on Facebook yesterday that I was feeling like paddle blogging again. Something that for me had lost its charm in the last year or so. It happens to all of us at one time or another. A change is as good as a rest as they say, and I needed a change, a rest… and a shower. So now that I’ve jumped back in, let’s see where we go, shall we?
One of the reasons I cooled to paddle blogging was business. You see, I’m not in the business. I’m a coach. Nothing more. I’m a web guy, photographer and graphic artist actually. I don’t produce paddling products, I don’t own a paddling magazine or offer guided tours. If anything I’m just some dude who writes about my experiences, with paddle in hand as it were. That’s it. Continue reading →