Dear kayaking friends: Jacqueline and I had a great trip to the states in July-August. We kayaked with Dave Flory in Elkhorn Slough, and by ourselves in Monterey Bay. In both places, we rented from Monterey Bay Kayaks, which seems like a great outfit. We had to convince them that we knew what we were doing. At Elkhorn, one of the guides saw us attaching and detaching our sprayskirts (I guess this meant we were not idiots), and said "You really wanted lighter paddles, didn't you?" He then kindly exchanged our heavy rental paddles for some lighter Werner ones! I enjoyed demoing several kayaks with MBK: CD Caribou and Extreme (liked the Caribou the best). The highlight of our trip was going under the Golden Gate Bridge with Jim Wescott of Riptides and Rapids in Mountain View. Jim uses NDK and VCP kayaks. I paddled the familiar Romany 18 and Jacqueline the Greenlander Pro. Our guide was an accomplished kayaker, Julio, who paddled his new VCP Anas Acuta with a greenland paddle. This was the first time I had seen greenland paddling live. Very impressive. Julio briefed us on possible dangers. This trip was awsome. It was windier than I had ever experience. We left Sausalito and road the tide out. Then we paddled out to the open sea, past Pt. Bonita. The water was very rough, with confused seas and breaking waves in the 4-5 foot range. I never felt that I was close to capsizing, though, and all in all it was great fun. We then road the tide back in, but the winds were still tough. It was good to have survived such a challenge, and I thank my Israeli instructors, Omer and Saggi of Terra Santa Kayaks in Israel, for teaching me good skills. I guess kayaking every week since December has also helped me hone my skills. Matt Broze of Mariner Kayaks in Seattle was also kind enough to let us demo some of his boats, which I really enjoyed. And he also let us demo one of my most coveted boats, the Feathercraft Khatsalano! Thanks Matt! Matt has compiled an index of over 500 boats that he has tried. We picked up some of his paddle floats and have been practicing ever since (our BCU trained coaches here do not teach this, but they have fun watching us!). Also in Seattle, we met Oregon kayaker Russ Greenberg, who will be coming to Israel soon... Anyway, the old country was great. Picked up lots of gear not available here (clothing, PFD, etc.). (For instance, does anyone use a CamelBak [or similar] hydration device on their deck? I saw Fitz do this under the Gate, and now do it myself. It is great for our climate, and I find that I drink more, which is a good thing.) Best wishes to all sea kayakers! Josh in Ra`anana, Israel (who on Thursday-Friday paddled from the HaBonim Beach south of Haifa to the ancient Roman city of Caesarea...) ============================================================================== Dr. Joshua Teitelbaum, Research Fellow Tel: [972] 3-640-6448 Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and Fax: [972] 3-641-5802 African Studies Tel Aviv University Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978 Israel E-mail:teitelba_at_ccsg.tau.ac.il www.dayan.org ============================================================================== *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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