Matt Broze said: I got on a private trip running the Grand Canyon starting near the end of January. Has anyone on Paddlewise run the Grand Canyon in a hard-shell kayak or a sea kayak. If so I'd like to talk to them (at least if my shoulder recovers enough to paddle). Matt, I have kayaked the Grand Canyon (of the Colorado) four times. Always in a whitewater boat. First time was 1983 during the record flood, next was 1986 at very high water but not the huge stuff of '83, next was 1990, still quite high, and last was 2004 at scary low levels. I know people who had run it in sea kayaks and others who ran it in wildwater racing boats. Neither of those groups had the fun we whitewater boaters had because they could not catch waves or avoid holes the way we could. Of course, the faster boats pound through most holes, but it would scare me to not be able to turn on a dime. I'm old and my boats are too. My first run, in 1983, was in a Dancer, the next two were in a Sabre, the last was in a Pirouette, all by Perception. The first three trips had some kayaks that were hard shell and none of them had the slightest trouble because the water was so high that rocks were not an issue. In 2004 the water so low that rocks were defintely an issue, but no one our trip hit any hard enough to put a hole in a hardshell boat. Running Sockdolager without scouting made for a lot of bumps and scrapes and it was only luck that no one hit anything hard there. Contact me off list if I can be of any more specific assistance. Jim Tibensky *************************************************************************** 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 Nov 27 2006 - 05:18:53 PST
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