Archive for the ‘Repairs & Modifications’ Category

Strap yourself to a tree with roots
You aint going nowhere.
– dylan

This lovely bit of artwork is what you get when you take a picture of the flooded fifth hatch in your Scorpio. It’s not as if I left the cover off or anything.  It simply fills (and I mean fills) with water if I roll the kayak.  I don’t believe it’s the kayak.  I think it’s the hatch cover.  Let me tell you why…

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“There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth”
- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Ok, so here’s something different.  I noticed this P&H Kayak while checking out boats at the Door County Sea Kayaking Symposium.  The keel strip is all bumpy.  Just like that paint job you so often see over drywall.  I get this.  It makes gripping and carrying a wet slippery kayak much easier AND protects the boat just like a strip is supposed to do.  I’m sure too that it’s going to give some Uber kayaker hydrodynamic fits… (and you thought plastic vs glass was bad).  Oh, and did I mention that KB posted on Twitter today that P & H has a new kayak coming down the line.  He also said I would be especially jazzed by it…Really? It has a cup holder?

“Captain’s Log, Stardate, 1514.0 Ship’s damage minor, but my next decision major. Probe on ahead or turn back?”

Today we’ll continue my on-going P&H Kayak Roundup with the Scorpio.  Based on elements within the Zodiac, Scorpio is considered compatible with Pisces and Cancer.  Being born on June 29th, we should get along just fine.  Should you buy a kayak based on cosmological compatibility?  Only your local astrologer knows the truth. What you need to know right off is that we simply bought the Scorpio after a 2 minute test paddle. Don’t try this at home kids!!

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Theres always something happening
And its usually quite loud
– madness

Alright. It’s 5am and we’re about 7 hours away from launch. The plan is to be pulling out of the driveway at noon today for the 3 hour trip up to Point Beach State Park near Two Rivers, Wisconsin. All that big stuff that you always remember to pack, is packed. Today we have to remember all the things you always forget. You know.. the stuff you find out later you really, really needed and should have never forgotten in the first place. Oh and by the way, our title today is the chord progression from the song “Our House” by the 80’s band, “Madness” which just happens to be appropriate this morning…

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I felt a warm warm breeze / That melted metal and steel
I got a bad migraine / That lasted three long years
And the pills that I took / Made my fingers disappear
Time will craw
– bowie

So anyway this plane is skyjacked and as if that’s not enough it crashes somewhere in the Himalayas. In the middle of a crazy snowstorm these mysterious guys show up and take the survivors to a mystical land where everyone lives forever. Well, as long as they never leave… Nothing lasts forever. And that really bums me out.

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“once upon a time there was a big oak tree…” oh, but that’s another story…

At Canoecopia I took a bit of time to talk to Ben Lawry and lust over a new Anas Acuta. Of course I come from the chop shop view. You cut out the seat and replace it with foam. Well those days are past. The folks at Valley Sea Kayaks have a newly redesigned ergonomic seat that is removable with the turn of a few screws. Ben told me it was so comfortable that I’d never want to remove it… Maybe.  At least the new design makes it easier to accomplish if I did fancy taking the seat out.

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I had a Valley Anas Acuta.  I loved it.  I should have kept it.  I did’nt.  So now of course Valley had the new and improved Anas Acuta with the big cushiony seat,  keyhole cockpit and giant front hatch on display at Canoecopia.  Of course not of that stuff seems to fit the vision I’ve always had of the Anas Acuta as a classic.  As it was Ben Lawry did his best to convince me I’d love the new seat so much I’d never want to take it out.  The truth was that even though the new seat is lower and more posterior friendly, I fear it would still cut the circulation off in my legs.  In the end I’d still remove the seat.  Ummm, and get an ocean cockpit… and a tiny front hatch…