From The Peter Strand Collection
Published August 11, 2011 | 
Saw an ad in the newspaper that caught my eye
I said to my baby this sounds like the ticket for you and I
It said volunteers wanted for a very special trip
To commune with Mother Nature on a big wooden ship
If you’re like me and you couldn’t put two boards together to save your life.. (Well, I did build a porch once. . but.. oh, nevermind!) and kit boats and classes just won’t save you from your own lack of time or talent, that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the experience of paddling your own hand-made skin-on-frame kayak. The trick of course, is finding someone to build it for you that won’t make you feel like a second class citizen for not doing it yourself. To make things even more challenging, if you try googling (a verb??) something like, “skin-on-frame kayak (or qajaq) builders”, you’ll get lots of links to information on building your own, but almost nothing about buying a pre-made or custom boat. If there are a bunch of commercial SOF builders out there other than Cape Falcon Kayaks, there’s some serious search engine optimization to be done. Well, one builder that I can recommend is Peter Strand. In fact, I had one of his kayaks come visit me yesterday. Continue reading
Posted in Kayaks, Paddling, People, Traditional Paddling | 
Peter Strand, skin-on-frame, SOF, Traditional Paddling | 
3 CommentsKayak (Not) For Sale
Published June 19, 2011 | 
As you may know, I’ve been working on this skin-on-frame kayak for some time. When I bought it, I felt like I had made a mistake. It’s not a great rolling boat.. not for me anyway.. To lay back on it you’d need a much longer torso than mine. It is a great cruiser though. Over the last year I’ve offered it up for sale and in the meantime I’ve been fiddling with it. I’ve cleaned it up, painted it, replaced the deck lines, put some fun new accents on it and so on. Over time, it’s become a pretty darned fancy boat. So much so that yesterday no less than 5 different people had to take time to tell me what a beautiful kayak I had. I talked to hikers on trails along the water, other paddlers who passed me by, and even a diver who waved me over to get a better look.. Yeah, I’ve put a bit of time into it.. and I’ve certainly got too many boats now… but if I think about it, I mean, really think about it.. I can’t think of any reason to sell it. So I wont. 
Posted in Kayaks, My Paddling, Paddling, Traditional Paddling | SOF, Traditional Paddling | 4 CommentsSomething To Look Forward To…
Published May 12, 2011 | 
You don’t have to be into traditional rolling to appreciate this… (But it helps!) The amazingly beautiful Black Pearl design by Björn Thomasson has been something of a dream boat among home builders and Greenland rollers for some time. The Black Pearl is low slung, reactive, fast and a dream to roll. Did I mention that its beautiful as well? It’s no wonder why there is a lot of excitement in the traditional sea kayaking community right now about the new SeaBird Designs versions of the Black Pearl which are just now beginning to hit US dealers. Continue reading
Square Thoughts About The Balance Brace
Published August 13, 2010 | 
Lay down, Sally, and rest you in my arms.
Don’t you think you want someone to talk to?
Lay down, Sally, no need to leave so soon.
I’ve been trying all night long just to talk to you. – clapton
In Greenland rolling an essential technique, and the foundation of a variety of rolls is called the balance brace. This little maneuver is basically the act of floating your upper body on the surface of the water, while remaining in your kayak and WITHOUT falling over. Sounds simple enough eh?
The real challenge of the balance brace is that with your upper body in the water, the kayak wants to follow you in (or roll over on top of you). So to counter this, we have to position our bodies in a particular way to “balance” the boat against the weight of our torso to remain on the surface. Yeah, it’s tricky. While we’re going to talk about the balance brace for at least a couple posts in this series.. I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to be successful at it, to have an effortless roll. Continue reading
What Low Impact Means
Published August 4, 2010 | 
WarChild dance the days, and dance the nights away.
Open your windows and I’ll walk through your doors.
Let me live in your country — let me sleep by your shores.
Tull
Low impact does not mean dainty, wimpy or weak. Low impact kayak rolling is not about modifying a powerful roll to make it easy on the old bones. If you think low impact means, low power you’re missing the point completely. What we’re really talking about is efficiency. Continue reading
Posted in Learn To Roll, Learning, Paddling | greenland paddling, Low Impact Rolling, rolling, Traditional PaddlingThe Greenland Test
Published August 2, 2010 | 
You got me where you want me
I ain’t nothing but your fool
You treated me mean oh you treated me cruel
– Aretha Franklin
If your roll sucks I’ll know. It’s easy. Just put away that big blade and have a go with my Greenland paddle. Go ahead. C2C, Sweep, Modified Sweep.. whatever. Ok, I’ll even give you a warm up.. If you don’t roll after 2.. Um well… there it is then.
There’s a point where most every kayak roll becomes the same. It’s right at that moment when the paddler is who upside down, decides to roll up. At that moment the first thing you do, regardless of paddle, rolling style or technique, is roll the boat up. That seems obvious. Well, I’m not referring to the whole process of rolling the boat up, but only that millisecond right after the mind decides to engage the body in the process of rolling. At that moment, it’s all about the boat. It’s also the point where most of our energy is expended IF we’re doing it right. Continue reading
Posted in Learn To Roll, Learning, Paddling | greenland paddling, Low Impact Rolling, roll, rolling, Traditional Paddling5mm Leather
Published April 10, 2010 | 
Scratch, scratch, she’s clawing at the door
Whoa, no, I can’t take it anymore
Crack, crack I’m feeling so sore
I never should asked for black leather
- guns-n-roses
Now this is some thick leather! As I mentioned, we actually have a large leather craft shop here locally and a couple tack shops as well. (You’d think it was Wyoming..) But no one had leather cord that looked thick enough to me to last on a skin-on-frame kayak. Thankfully Bruce Stitt referred me some on Ebay which was just what I was looking for. Now to honest I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m reading and learning as I go. Now that I have the cord, I have to figure out what sort of stops I want to use. The old wooden ones seem, well.. bland.
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