This weekend, my local canoe/kayak shop held a demo days at Flathead Lake (NW Montana/USA). In exchange for loading and unloading boats, they bought food and gas, and I got to try all kinds of boats at my favorite local spot. The forecast called for rain and wind on Saturday afternoon. Not good for selling boats, but I was secretly wishing for some good gusts down at the south end of the lake to start some good waves rolling northward. I got my wish. The winds picked up in earnest about 4:00pm, (the demo lasted till 5' so it worked well for everyone) and by 5:00 when the last of the customers left, we were ready to play in the big wind waves. The average wave was about 3' high and 40' long--just perfect for surfing! The winds had actually died down a bit before we got out, so it was VERY pleasant. I loaned my new Guillemot to my buddy who is considering building one and paddled a Kevlar Greenland-style boat. It was about 21"x17.5' with a super v-ed bottom--very fast and fun! I had no problem catching the waves, but it did provide a very wet ride--the bow really buried in the trough on the way out. Two rodeo boaters went out before us, but we had no problem catching up to them in sea kayaks! Their boats were way too short to surf the waves, but they were sure throwing ends! I looked over, and Tom's bow was sticking straight up in the air. I'm no WW genius, but I know the sterns of those boats aren't so low-volume that they "squirt" all the time! We paddled over to them and asked them if they wanted a hand. We rafted up and had him pull his skirt and lay across my back deck/Ryan's foredeck. I tried pulling his boat out of the water, but those WW boats have no bulkheads, and the water would run to the lowest end. Nate, the other WW guy said, "Just forget about it--you get him to shore, and I'll tow the boat,". We were about 300 yards offshore--I said,"Forget that! Give me 30 seconds." We determined that he forgot to put in his drain plug (that's how the water got in). By lifting the bow until just the stern was under water, enough water ran out the drain that we were able to fully lift the boat onto our decks so that we could alternately lift each end and fully drain the boat. We screwed the drain plug back in and got him safely back into his boat. I think he was so tired from playing with a boatful of water that they headed right back to shore. He said "Thanks for the rescue," to which I replied,"Thanks for the chance for me to practice doing it!" Ryan and I turned back and swapped boats since he was uncomfortable being in my narrow boat, so I jumped back in it, and he grabbed a wider plastic boat. I really had a lot of fun slicing out through the waves, and then riding them back in--I think I'm going to have to start watching for small craft advisories!! When Ryan got back out with his other boat, a couple other people joined us, and we started to cross the small bay at Bigfork. The larger waves had died down by this time. A big 25' cabin cruiser was speeding in, but turned and slowed down when he saw us. He pulled alongside and told us that he slowed down for us, to which we replied, "Thanks, but we were hoping to play in your wake." He asked if we wanted a wake, and we said, "Sure!". He gave us some really good confused wake to play in for about 10 minutes, and then told us he had to take off so he could get to work. At this time, we realized that "work" meant either bartending or holding down a barstool, and that he was probably far too drunk to drive, so he took his boat to work. Chilling for us to reach this realization, to say the least. After a much calmer exploration of the inner harbor, damp, happy, and much more leery of drunken powerboaters, we returned to shore. Shawn A curious side note: I have seen a lot of powerboats slow down for kayakers, but only on Flathead Lake. Most other places seem to give us a wide berth, but keep the throttle open. I believe that the Flathead boaters think they're doing kayakers a favor by slowing down, but most planing hull boats kick up a lot more wake at sub-planing speeds. This actually makes the water more difficult for a novice paddler. I usually just give 'em all a friendly wave. I don't really care either way, as long as they don't run me down. Comments? -- Shawn W. Baker 0 46°53'N © 2000 ____©/______ 114°06'W ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\ ,/ /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ baker_at_montana.com 0 http://www.geocities.com/shawnkayak/ *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
I was out with my new white water boat over the weekend. Conditions were not great so I spent most of the time teaching my 14 year old to roll his wave ski. I did a 12 mile paddle along the Delray-Boca coast in the Nordkapp on Saturday in perfect conditions. After goofing around a bit in the 2 foot surf, I decided I'd try a hand roll, my first attempt. I tossed the paddle on shore, forgot to put on my nose clips, blew the roll and got hit by a 2 foot "breaker". I was shallow enough to push off the bottom but couldn't get oriented, started running out of air and decided to wet exit. A wet exit in this boat is no easy proposition in shallow water. I finally got out after being dragged along for a while, and the boat filled with water. I installed a drain plug when I bought the boat, a used Pyranha Storm. At this point, it was too heavy to move or even tip up to use the drain plug. It was too heavy to drag up the beach, too heavy to tip over, too heavy to do anything! I felt like a complete jerk. Eventually, after 10 minutes or so, I was able to pry the boat's flat planing hull loose from the wet sand and tipped out enough water to be able to drag it up on the beach and drain it. I don't think it would be possible to do a rescue in this boat. I may be able to put two small float bags in the stern, but there's no room in the 8 foot boat for bow bags. BTW, I was not attacked by any sharks, nor did I see any, nor did anyone report any... cya *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On Tue, 05 Sep 2000 15:14:10 -0600, Shawn W. Baker wrote: >A curious side note: I have seen a lot of powerboats slow down for >kayakers, but only on Flathead Lake. Most other places seem to give >us a wide berth, but keep the throttle open. I believe that the >Flathead boaters think they're doing kayakers a favor by slowing >down, but most planing hull boats kick up a lot more wake at >sub-planing speeds. This actually makes the water more difficult >for a novice paddler. I usually just give 'em all a friendly wave. >I don't really care either way, as long as they don't run me down. >Comments? > When I was a novice, if there wasn't any wind, I welcomed boat wakes, as they taught me to deal with less-than-flat water in a fairly controlled situation - and to surf. A little further along, I would go to a particular narrow boat channel. For those of you in Seattle, it was the Montlake Cut. This small channel had steep cement banks, and I'd wait for many boats to go back and forth through the cut, creating nice little "moguls" (mini-clapotis) to practice in. I called them "Montlake Moguls". On summer days when there were boats going through constantly, I'd spend hours just paddling back and forth in the bouncy chaos. This taught me to relax, and to understand a kayak's stability. And now? I encourage the biggest wakes a skipper can manage! :-) There's a small passenger ferry here in Grays Harbor that runs during the summer between Ocean Shores and Westport, and the captain is a friend of mine. He knows I love to surf his wake, so whenever he sees me close to his route, he'll go at the perfect speed to give me the steepest wake possible. He's a lifesaver on those calm days with hardly any swell, when an occasional surf is nice. And when it's already choppy or with nice wind waves (much of the time), his wakes make it all the more interesting. I know the ferry schedule, so if I'm in the vicinity as he's coming by, I set myself up in the perfect position to catch his wake for the longest rides. And speaking of being "run down", I had a wonderful experience yesterday of "facing down" (or up, actually) the bow of a gigantic cargo ship. Super Rubin, out of Panama, has been stuck on the bar for a few days, waiting for a higher tide, so yesterday, I paddled out to it, and around it a few times. When I was directly in front of the bow, I was very impressed. It was big! It's a good thing it wasn't moving. Silly thing had a rudder too - humph! - hee hee ;-) It was Labor day, and sunny, so there were a number of fishing boats out and about, but the crew of the ship got the biggest kick out of seeing me in my bonny wee boaty, checking out their not so wee boaty. Melissa *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
I always, always, always wear my PFD! -----Original Message----- From: Melissa Reese [mailto:melissa_at_bonnyweeboaty.net] Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2000 8:35 PM To: bdenton_at_aquagulf.com; baker_at_domain-park.com; paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subject: RE: [Paddlewise] Surfin on the Lake On Tue, 5 Sep 2000 17:46:39 -0400, Bob Denton wrote: > >BTW, I was not attacked by any sharks, nor did I see any, nor did >anyone report any... > But were you wearing your PFD? ;-) Melissa *************************************************************************** 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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