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Pics for Ron / or anyone who wants to see a wipeout!

elgecko

I've got a magic window!
A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go paddling on Saturday.
He told me what creek he wanted to to paddle. It was a creek that I paddled a few times back in the late 80's early 90's when I did whitewater. It surprised me a little since he has never done any whitewater. I mentioned most of the creek should be no problem, but there is a rapid section that requires some technical paddling. He said he wanted to paddle it, and that I could use 1 of his kayaks he has.
This really interested me since the past 2 years I've made mention to my wife about joining the paddling club again and getting a white water kayak for the trips.

Using my friends kayak had me concerned since I've never paddled the boat before, never white watered in a kayak (always used my canoe), and he did not have skirts for them.


Anyway here's some pics of the trip:

This was a run my friend decided to portal around....

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Almost done the run....

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Oh crap... No saving this boat, with no skirt, as soon as some water starts coming in...

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You're gonna take a swim.


That was the first of 2 swims I took on the trip. My buddy took 1. Funny as we both dumped on the same set of rapids.


When we got to the technical run, we scouted it. My buddy said not doing that, and I had to agree with him. Even though I was getting more comfortable with the handling of the kayak, without skirts, it was a major wipe-out in the making.

Pics of part of the rapids. (Made this run a few times, years ago in my canoe). The rapids do not look as menacing as they where in person.

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Ron you are correct, I might get into a kayak.... a whitewater one. :-D

Hope you enjoyed the wipe-out. :-))
 
No skirt? Suprised the thing wasn't already full :lol:
 
Looks like some scary type of fun...
By the way, I'm envious of your "magic window". I wish my appartment had a south facing window :( The best I have is a north-west facing window, and I have to grow most of my tropical plants under lights, which creates some space issues.
 
Just goes to show, you should always wear your skirt when you go kayaking...
 
No skirt? Suprised the thing wasn't already full :lol:
LOL Definitely had more water at the end of a run then at the beginning.



Buddy just sent me this pic.
Found this ball, and was trying to form a polo kayak team.....

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"The thrill of victory....."
 
Whitewater kayaking without sprayskirts - yikes :0o: heck when we paddled the Delaware we put our sprayskirts on our flatwater boats (good thing too since many of the rapids had waves that smashed into our chests - & would have filled the boats!)
Ron you are correct, I might get into a kayak.... a whitewater one. :-D
I've still got a whitewater boat overhead in our garage. Had a lot of fun in it - back in the day ... :-O
 
Gonna paddle a white water kayak after work tonight and most likely will be coming home with it.

Also looking at a touring kayak for the wife. She's made mention about wanting to paddle a kayak for several months now, but I know her, she'll go a time or 2 and that will be it.
I think I'll be selling my canoe.....
 
  • #11
the Delaware kills a few people every year it looks nice and carm but can fool u skinners falls is class 5 ,got swamped there many times
 
  • #12
Freaking awesome! Love kayaking, canoeing, rafting...whatever! Even TUBING, for goodness sake.
 
  • #13
Well Ron, my first kayak.
Need to join the club and learn to roll over winter so I can make some trips next year.... correction, learn a good brace so I do not need to roll. :-))

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It's very strange to not see any part of the boat out the front or rear windows as I have for years with the canoe...

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  • #14
Well Ron, my first kayak.
Congratulations!:-O An ultra-maneuverable playboat - should be a blast in whitewater!

Need to join the club and learn to roll over winter so I can make some trips next year.... correction, learn a good brace so I do not need to roll. :-))
I didn't think the two were mutually exclusive? :poke: Rolling is a very good skill - kept me out of dangerous situations (being out of the boat in heavy water is not a good place to be) :0o:
 
  • #15
Ron, Rolling the kayak is a must. I was saying a good brace so hopefully would never need to roll.... yeah right...

the Delaware kills a few people every year it looks nice and carm but can fool u skinners falls is class 5 ,got swamped there many times
Since I live close, I looked at pictures and video Skinners Falls in case it is something I want to do. Thought that does not look bad at all, certainly can't be class V water.
Did a little research, Class II+.
FYI

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Wiki/safety:class1benchmarkrapids
 
  • #16
Ron, no touring kayak yet. I've finally got the canoe all cleaned up and pictures taken to sell it.
When I was taking pictures I thought I'd take the kayak out and take pictures of them side by side......
Pictures of the slow huge 18-wheeler and the super fast hot rod.
I can not wait to run some white water with the kayak. It's so fast, as in maneuverable, out on the lake.

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  • #17
Dang looks like you had a blast! Canoes are great for a nice relaxing trip on a slow river or lake. Small one man canoes/duckies and kayaks are great fun for whitewater.


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  • #18
Dang looks like you had a blast! Canoes are great for a nice relaxing trip on a slow river or lake.
Personally, I hate canoes. They require 'odd' strokes to paddle straight (which are unnatural & a pain imho) and their tall sides act like a sail in the slightest breeze.

Mr. elgecko hears some version of this rant on all of our expeditions ... ???:-O:-D
 
  • #19
Personally, I hate canoes. They require 'odd' strokes to paddle straight (which are unnatural & a pain imho) and their tall sides act like a sail in the slightest breeze.

Mr. elgecko hears some version of this rant on all of our expeditions ... ???:-O:-D
Yes Ron does rant about disliking canoes on our outings way too much. :poke: :-O

I do agree with the odd stroke and there tall sides. I hate it when the wind picks up. Pushes the canoe all around... Then again mine does have a perfectly flat / smooth bottom which makes it better for running whitewater; maneuverability. Some canoes do have a keel to help them track better and be less influenced by the wind.

I do feel that canoes can have advantages over a kayak on long trips out on the water, like when I was in the Okefenokee and Everglades for several days away from land. You can move around in the canoe, which you can not in a kayak. May be hard to access gear...I'll find out next year when I take some weekend trips. May just require good planning when packing to access what is needed during the day on the water.

Pictures of the adventure in Okefenokee and Everglades if anyone want to have a look, Ron I noticed something and you may be able to view these now. :rookwoot:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.103293703023756.7303.100000293806357&type=1&l=36ee3c8fc1

If I do like it for trips I may look into getting a 14'-16' touring kayak for extended trips on the water.

Well here's my... I mean my wife's new 12' rec kayak. :blush:

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---------- Post added at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:58 PM ----------

Now if I can get her to come along on our Pine Barren trips....
 
  • #20
Sold the canoe a while ago.
Looked at lots of different yaks, paddled a few.
Brought this one home tonight after freezing my hands off paddling it. So much faster then the canoe.

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Venture Easky 15'

Just wanted to add, how exciting it was when he had to cut all the foam and plastic off the new boat. I was really hoping I would like the boat after that... then it would have been a used boat. ha
 
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