> And if anyone has any good advice about teaching >> youngsters, that too would be great. We have two kids and have been taking them on weeklong ocean kayak trips since they were zero. Once they reached 10 they got their own boats. (a custom boat - Ursa 350) For the transition, we did a number of things. We would take a double and tow a single. We found we could tow a single quite well if we predominately weighted the stern. This gave us a lot of flexibility. All of the family COULD be in the double. (rear hatch and center hatch for the kids). My wife could paddle the single and one of the kids could be the other paddler for the double. Or one kid could paddle the single. We would change up depending on the conditions. The impulse to get everyone into a single as soon as possible was primarily my own. I dislike paddling doubles because of the lack of independence. I spent too many years as the engine in the back of a double. We generally went with another group of paddlers who also had kids. Some of the key concepts: do not paddle too long. Most kids prefer the beach. When they are under 5 we found that they would frequently sleep. The confinement from which they could see no escape and the boredom and the motion would put them to sleep. They could sleep sitting up in these circumstances. If you can possibly afford it, get a superlight paddle. This extends the age (at both ends of life) that you can paddle for prolonged periods. It seems "wrong" for the lunatic 10 yo to have the super expensive paddle and you have to keep an eye on it so that it is not used to scrape mussels off of rocks or dig for clams or chop kelp but it does allow them to start paddling on their own sooner. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jan 28 2003 - 08:23:53 PST
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