[Paddlewise] Hello

Hi!

I've been lurking for about a week now and have been impressed, amused and 
entertained by the information and congeniality. I guess it's time to at 
least say hello, introduce myself and throw in my 2 cents on a few 
subjects.

In the spirit of the old "who we are" thread-- I'm Ed Bean, 45, live in an 
out-of-the-way part of eastern North Carolina known as Pamlico County, in 
the little town of Oriental. The dictionary defines hydrophilic as: of, 
relating to, or having a strong affinity for water. Based on that I guess 
I'm a "hydrophiliac". We have eleven small boats in the family including 3 
kayaks, all roto-molded. We've coined the area here as the Hidden Coast 
because most people think of the Outer Banks when you say the coast of 
North Carolina. There is a wide range of paddling available here, 
everything from large open bodies of water to slow moving rivers and 
creeks.

PWC's - On a recent weekend my son (14), some of his friends and I were 
preparing to launch some of our fleet as a couple of PWC's passed by. After 
some discussion we decided that PWC stands for Prodigious Wake Creator. I 
was proud to see that none of the kids thought much of these vessels.

Tents - We've had great luck with a Kelty Vortex 2. It's free standing, 3 
season, reasonably small and packable, good protection, fair ventilation, 
nicely priced (bought previous season model), and not too bad for two 
people if you REALLY like each other.

Water - I've grown some of the finest science experiments yet in hydration 
systems and closed containers holding "Ades", juices and concoctions. I 
have come back to multiple quart size plastic bottles. I save the "sport 
caps" off bottles and fill my collection with spring water. I keep one 
bottle on deck at the ready and the others out of the way. It is easy to 
transfer water as needed or hand one on to the many people that amaze me by 
not bringing liquids. I don't mind warm water but have a neoprene sleeve 
the bottles fit into if I did care. Best of all, when the bottles wear out 
I just toss them in the recycle bin.

Feather Vs Non-feather - I don't claim to be an expert but I have observed 
that people tend to stick with what they learned first. I personally use 
the feathered approach in all circumstances but think people should use 
whatever works best for them. There may be some great scientific support 
for one method over another but that isn't part of my reality when I look 
up at the big wave I have to punch through.

So far this looks like a great group of people with a great common 
interest. I'm looking forward to participating!

Ed Bean
Discover the Hidden Coast... pamlico-nc.com
edbean_at_pamlico-nc.com


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