Re: [Paddlewise] How was 2004?

Paddlewise,

With designing my own kayak, it was a great year
for me. I always admired kayak designers, such as
Nick Shade, Chris Cunningham, Jay Babina, John
Lockwood and others, so I thought designing a
kayak should be the next step in my amateur
kayaking career. I designed it, it works great,
and now I can't figure out why so many people say
designing is so hard and why there are so many
bad designs out there.

Not a bad year paddling either. I did another
Catalina crosssing and circumnavigation trip,
another Catalina for lunch crossings, and another
San Miguel Island circumnavigation with the bonus
of Richardson Rock. I didn't do anything I'd
really call hardcore this year (no hundred
milers), because my focus was designing,
building, and testing my kayak. I am building a
second one of the same design right now.

During the last 1 1/2 years, I spent some time
and and a lot of money on the BCU thing, ending
with the 5 star sea training this fall. I did it
all backwards, learning to kayak on my own first,
and then taking the lessons. I think I'm done
with the BCU thing, since I can do everything I
want in a kayak and do a lot of training with my
friends, which is usually more productive (and
cheaper) anyway. The best thing about the BCU
thing was paddling and hanging out with fellow
paddlewiser Rob Gibbert.

Next year, maybe I'll get that last Channel
Island.

Duane Strosaker
Southern California
www.rollordrown.com
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