Re: [Paddlewise] Glassy water

At 07:43 AM 6/21/00 -0400, John Winters wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Jerry Hawkins <jhawkins_at_cisco.com>
>To: Whyte, David <DHW_at_Mail.amsa.gov.au>; 'Bob Klemick' <klemick_at_home.com>;
>Paddlewise <PaddleWise_at_lists.intelenet.net>
>Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2000 4:48 PM
>Subject: RE: [Paddlewise] Glassy water
>
>
>> This risks wandering far afield from paddling, but many years ago I lived
>next door to unlimited hydroplane racer Bob Gilliam (Fascination, Hilton
>Hyperlube, Tri-City Sun et al).  He felt the fastest performance for the big
>boats was when the water had scattered whitecaps.  No whitecaps--sluggish
>race.  All whitecaps--quick & dangerous.  Of course, when those
>monstrosities were on the water, calm conditions didn't last long!
>Interesting that paddlers and racing boat drivers can share a perception.
>>
>Hydroplanes do perform better when the surface has waves.
>Hydroplanes, however, plane - kayaks do not.

When I was a kid I used to go water skiing a lot in the San
Joaquin-Sacramento river delta.  The delta consists of miles and miles of
"sloughs", from just a few feet wide to several hundred feet.  Because the
waterways are narrow boat wakes disappear quickly into the shores and quite
often there is little wind.  Quite often we'd head down a slough and the
water would be like glass.  When encountering such a patch of water I'd
usually really let it hang out, sometimes turning so sharply that my elbow
would go in the water.  Inevitably, I would have some fairly spectacular
crashes.  Whenever that happened on glassy water we usually joked about
"hitting a slick spot".  I don't know if the glassy water made it slippier
or not but I definately had my share of falls on it.
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not
to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************