I tried a sea sock for the first time in a rental boat, and didn't like the feel of it at all. It made my knees slippery and kept getting rumpled when I entered. I tested it with a roll near the beach and came up with no problem. Later, I thought I would try a roll in some tidal rapids but failed. I tried twice more before wet exiting. I haven't missed an on side roll in quite a while and blame the miss mainly on the sea sock. Maybe the new rental boat played a part. The assisted re-entry went fine. But once in the boat water was in different parts of the bunched up sea sock and everything seemed out of order. I paddled a short distance to a beach and tried to remove the water by lifting the sea sock. No go. There was, for some reason, suction holding the sea sock in the boat. I turned the boat over to empty it but the sea sock seemed to prevent a total emptying I would have achieved without it. The sea sock seemed a big awkward pain and not worth the bother. Maybe I need more practice with it. Or is it just another gimmicky complication? Jerry *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Gerald Foodman wrote: > > I tried a sea sock for the first time in a rental boat, and didn't like the > feel of it at all. It made my knees slippery and kept getting rumpled when > I entered. I tested it with a roll near the beach and came up with no > problem. Later, I thought I would try a roll in some tidal rapids but > failed. I tried twice more before wet exiting. I haven't missed an on side > roll in quite a while and blame the miss mainly on the sea sock. Maybe the > new rental boat played a part. > > The assisted re-entry went fine. But once in the boat water was in > different parts of the bunched up sea sock and everything seemed out of > order. I paddled a short distance to a beach and tried to remove the water > by lifting the sea sock. No go. There was, for some reason, suction > holding the sea sock in the boat. I turned the boat over to empty it but > the sea sock seemed to prevent a total emptying I would have achieved > without it. > > The sea sock seemed a big awkward pain and not worth the bother. Maybe I > need more practice with it. Or is it just another gimmicky complication? > > Jerry Sea socks can be slippery. So depending on what you were wearing there could be quite a difference in experience. I don't like sea socks, while conceding their tremendous safety benefit. My reason is that in a folding kayak I can carry a whole lot of stuff to get at within the cockpit (tied to ribs, inside framework etc.); the sea sock hinders such access. ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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