http://www.kayakquixotica.com Tilting At Waves Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:09:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/08/11/peter-strand-collection/ http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/08/11/peter-strand-collection/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:55:28 +0000 derrick http://www.kayakquixotica.com/?p=8705 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. ]]> http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/08/11/peter-strand-collection/feed/ 3 http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/06/19/kayak-not-for-sale/ http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/06/19/kayak-not-for-sale/#comments Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:41:59 +0000 derrick http://www.kayakquixotica.com/?p=8213 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. [...]]]> http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/06/19/kayak-not-for-sale/feed/ 4 http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/05/12/something-to-look-forward-to/ http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/05/12/something-to-look-forward-to/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 10:47:47 +0000 derrick http://www.kayakquixotica.com/?p=7864 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 [...]]]> http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2011/05/12/something-to-look-forward-to/feed/ 4 http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2010/08/13/square-thoughts-about-the-balance-brace/ http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2010/08/13/square-thoughts-about-the-balance-brace/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:17:11 +0000 derrick http://www.kayakquixotica.com/?p=6663 In Greenland rolling an essential technique, and the foundation of a variety of rolls is called the balance brace. This little maneuver is simply the act of floating your upper body without falling over. The challenge is that with your upper body in the water, the kayak wants to follow you in. That means 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. All we really want here is are elements which will help us roll much more smoothly (Even if we never touch a Greenland paddle or do a balance brace in our lives).]]> http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2010/08/13/square-thoughts-about-the-balance-brace/feed/ 4 http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2010/08/04/what-low-impact-means/ http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2010/08/04/what-low-impact-means/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:42:53 +0000 derrick http://www.kayakquixotica.com/?p=6505 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 is efficiency....I hope what you will take away from this series a way to make your roll so efficient that it is effortless on flat water and so intuitive that it's 99.9% in the messy stuff...]]> http://www.kayakquixotica.com/2010/08/04/what-low-impact-means/feed/ 4