Night talk
Published August 2, 2011 | 
Stay in bed why waste my time
Open your eyes but only if you can
Office in a sidestreet is no place for you
Night talk and romance like beat the clock.
- gary numan
Just as the last of the day’s light was fading into the north-west, and just as the last two rec boats were coming off the water, I was backing my Jeep up to the shoreline. In the mix of black and blue shadows I managed to find a thin strip of grass where I could put my 3 piece Rockpool Alaw Bach together. It’s not that the broken stones and gravel that surrounded the little island of grass could have punished my boat anymore, but I do try, sometimes, to lessen the scars. Continue reading
Tiny Boats, Big Sea
Published July 14, 2011 | 
Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore on Lake Superior is an amazing place to paddle. In fact, you can see a couple of paddlers in the picture I took today from above Miner’s Castle near Munising, MI. It’s great to see people out enjoying the view and taking part in the sport of sea kayaking… but let’s take a closer look … Continue reading
Sorry Bear,
Published July 13, 2011 | 
I’m sorry Bear. I was hard up for a knife and I was nowhere near a paddleshop. In a moment of weakness I bought one of your Gerber Bear Grylls signature knives. I had to. I didn’t have time to order a real man.. Um, I mean, “real SEA KAYKER’S” knife. I should have known I was in for trouble when your knife cut my finger the first time I opened it. Luckily when I got to the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium they had a real HE-Man Seakayaker’s knife. Continue reading
Posted in Camping & Camping Gear, More Gear Reviews, Outdoor Recreation, Paddle Gear, Paddling, Reviews, Safety | 
NRS | 
7 CommentsNo Wake!
Published May 16, 2011 | 
Welcome to Monday! The great adventure around here over the weekend has been suffering more unseasonably cold weather and testing out my fancy new dry duds.. Well, not exactly… The Big, BIG adventure was heading down to Madison, Wisconsin to watch my daughter graduate from the UW. Seeing her get the diploma was the good bit, surviving 2 hours of pomp and circumstance was a challenge of to the very depth of my soul! Another challenge to the very depth of the soul is swimming in fifty degree water without the proper gear. Worse, thinking you have the proper gear only to find out it leaks when you need it most. That’ll “WAKE” you up! (Boo! Hiss!) This is why you never simply toss on new gear and go paddling. You need to get out and play with it awhile…
How’d it go? Well, right now I have to step away from the computer and run a child off to school. More to follow. 
Dry Comfort
Published May 13, 2011 | 
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part – petty
I had a student in a class recently who told me a story of the new Gore-Tex dry top his parents bought him last Christmas. From there it didn’t go well. Whenever he put on the dry top, his head and his hands turned red and swelled up like balloons. He’d lose feeling in his fingers. He complained of not being able to breathe very well. His parents wanted to return it right away. He didn’t. He’d read on the internet that dry gear could be uncomfortable and he simply needed to “get used to it”. Finally though, his parents won out. They sent it back. Continue reading
Hypothermia? Sure, If You Survive That Long…
Published May 6, 2011 | 
I am slowing down / As the years go by
I am sinking
So I trick myself / Like everybody else
- the cure
Safety officials and paddling coaches spend a lot of time going on and on about hypothermia this time of year. You know that bit right? It’s where cold water sucks the heat from your body until you start making bad decisions, then become incapacitated and finally you drown. According to a fancy little chart we have available right here, in water between 40-50f, without the proper clothing, you have about 5 minutes before you start losing dexterity and just 1-3 hours to survive. Scary. Still though, that’s plenty of time to swim to the beach, right? Continue reading
As a sea kayaking coach I see lots of kayaks & gear on the water each year. I have the opportunity to see how students actually use their gear, how it works for them and how sometimes it really fails. Take these Cam-Clips for instance. I’ve ranted about them in the past, but they never seem to go away either. They’re like a bad dream that just lingers in your memory and ruins your day. Why? Well, the first time I was introduced to these Current Design’s hooky-strappy things, a student was working on a layback roll. When they rolled the kayak, they put their back against the hull, slid a bit, and hooked the shoulder strap of their PFD under the cam lever! They were stuck. It was a really scary moment for them and not a very pleasant introduction to rolling a kayak either. Even after I rolled them up, they couldn’t just sit up. They had to slide back off the clip, (after we figured it out.) then sit up. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that under duress and upside down, a person may never realize they have to slide to their left to get free.. Then what? Continue reading →