Thank you All very much for so many thoughtful and informative responses! We are trying to absorb and test a lot of this new information. First, paddling/water/boats is a totally NEW thing for us; having many duh?! ahso! moments at the very beginning stage of all this. Also, although we have our own small homecare biz, now we're working for _at_ minimum wage at a nursing home (temporary relief from insane pt family members) so we have extremely limited finances. Spent every spare cent getting started paddling :-) Having exhilarating FUN out there with 2 Zydecos. Went to Vancouver Lake yesterday and paddled, first time with all our own gear. Now only desire is to paddle 24/7. OOoooooooooo! http://www.dagger.com/product.asp?BoatType=Rec&BoatID=189 Dagger Zydeco Recreational kayaks: 9' 3", _at_ 37 lbs (sans gear in drybags), with NO bulkheads or hatches. Empty space in stern & bow, but small factory conehead styrofoam screwed into both stern & bow. Called Dagger and a customer service rep said there's just enough styrofoam to comply with Coast Guard recommendations and the kayak will not sink lower than water line. After reading so much about safety and realizing need for floatation, looked at floatation bags. _at_ $45 each = $180 for bow & stern for 2 kayaks, then no room for anything else! Had read that drybags = floatation so bought 8 drybags in sizes that, when filled with air, snugly crammed Zydecos. One mistake was puffing drybags as round as possible with a little fleece clothing and lots of air and not realizing that compression would leak. Too much wishful thinking about tight seal. After leaving kayaks in van overnight _at_ temp 34F drybags deflated a little less than half. Sounds like that is normal from y'all's experience. Our clear bags tend to deflate a little more than the solid color (different material) ones. Reading all your wonderful responses: will reply specifically: thank you!!! Ashton & Leska in Cascadia *************************************************************************** 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 Mon Feb 24 2003 - 06:06:21 PST
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