Re: [Paddlewise] Another Tiderace Review

Craig wrote:

>>>>I'm just afraid that if I change anything I'll kick myself later. Stuff
on the back deck doesn't bother me (I can't twist around enough to even look
back very easily). Matt's deck rigging looks so... so.... complicated that
it just *must* be super useful. I'm just too dense to figure out how to use
it more effectively. LOL<<<<<<

Maybe I should remind you all those others who bought their Mariner kayaks
used that there are detailed direction to using the deck rigging and other
features like the sliding seat in one of the manuals on our website.

I put the pump and paddlefloat under the deck and held in the cockpit area
where I can easily get them when I need them (and our rescue float had a 1"
Fastex buckle that could attach it firmly to a cord either in the cockpit or
on the deck). If the paddlers whose paddle float unrolled and caught in the
surf were using our paddle float they must have only fastened it to the deck
using the security clip on the end of the bungie line meant to secure it so
it can't blow away in use rather than the Fastex buckle.

I've been known to carry some pretty big gear loads on the back deck and
always carry my spare paddle there. The only thing I recall ever losing were
a filet knife and its sheath I had only held down by the chart bungies (and
temporarily, the hat off my head) when on departing Raft Cove on the west
coast of Vancouver Island a big sneaker wave broke right over my head when
most of the waves were so much smaller that I didn't even think I would get
wet, much less possibly I might have the need for the helmet I had with me
but wasn't wearing. Oh, I remember one more thing, a terrycloth hat once
blew off my head in a gust of wind near Seattle's University Bridge and sank
before I could get turned around to recover it. Oh yeah, there was the time
my watch caught on some clothing when I was boat testing behind my shop. It
popped a pin on the band and sank before I could grab it. Oh yeah, there was
the time I was dodging a long oar in after a last second entry wearing
street cloths in fun kayak race at Lake Unions wooden boat festival on
fourth of July weekend and capsized one of Chris Cunningham's skin boats. I
should have thought to grab my unteathered eyeglasses rather than try to
roll with that unfamiliar boat and paddle (that looked to be made from a
broomstick). As it was, I didn't realize my glasses were gone until I was
back on shore. The memories of loss have stopped flooding back now so I
don't think there were other incidents other than when the chart case kept
falling off my spraydeck (no deck bungees on the Chinook I was using and I
needed to constantly check the chart) while paddling in the calm of
Florida's mangrove channels looking for Manatees and trying (as group
navigator and paid navigation instructor) to not to get us lost in the maze
of channels that all looked about the same from a kayak. Luckily the chart
case floated and if I had lost it, it would have only been an embarrassment
because my "students" all had charts as well.

Speaking of the sliding seat I've never heard of anyone who, once they
learned how to use, it ever had it jam up on them so it couldn't slide. I
have heard the criticism that it will jam with sand or pebbles numerous
times though, always from those who never tried it themselves. I once dumped
about an inch of sand in and around the tracks to point out to one
competitor/critic that that wouldn't jam it like he was telling everyone it
would. He thought there must be some size of sharp pointed tetrahedron
shaped gravel that might jam it. I guess it is hard to give up ones
advertising (dagger) points. I doubt even that little tetrahedrons would do
it but since I can't try every size of crushed rock (and am sure not likely
to find many sharp cornered stones rolling around in the surf) where they
might actually get into the kayak so I'll probably never know. I'm sure what
if a bag of dry Portland Cement was to bury the tracks and then get a little
wet and sat still for a few hours that would keep the seat from sliding. 

In the old days (1980's) when ours were some of the few kayaks to have
harder chines (and all river kayaks were very rounded) I used to hear a lot
of folks tell me they had heard that hard chines will trip you up in the
surf. One doesn't hear that much anymore. Thats probably because a lot more
people today have had experience with hard chines to no that isn't true. It
is amazing how a criticism with no merit can spread among people who have no
experience but to whom it either seems logical or they heard it from a
source they believe. There are a lot of red hearings thrown around out there
to divert ones attention alongside the path to "truth" without the even
slightest experience to back them up.

Around the same time the British and Ken Fink were telling everyone that a
bigger cockpit is not secure and the spraydeck will get blown off in waves
or the paddler will be "forcibly ejected" from the kayak in small surf. This
is hard to take when you just watched (and photographed) your brother who
had been heading out though the surf when two big soups overlapped just as
the hit him and buried the huge volume Escape so deep in the surf that only
about 18" of bow and one paddle blade was visible in the picture and before
I could wind on another shot the kayak was launched straight up by its
buoyancy like a Polaris missle launching from a submarine until the stern
had completely cleared the water. My brother and the Escape pirouetted
gracefully around and landed upright and facing the beach, spraydeck still
attached. How many British kayaks do you sea to day with those little ocean
cockpits? Funny thing is the only cockpit (that wasn't a slippery plastic
kayak) that had its spraydeck popped of by a wave when I was paddling it was
one of Derek's 22 by 15" Baidarka ocean cockpits. This wasn't even in surf.
A couple of waves came together while I was sitting still and peaked up and
the crest landed on the spraydeck. I didn't blame the small cockpit but
rather the taut nylon skirt with the too wimpy shock cord.

Doug,
 Actually I suffer a lot less from skiing now than I did five years ago
because then I was working too hard and didn't get to go skiing as often to
stay in shape for it. At 62 I still ski much as I did in my twenties when I
was competing nationally. The main difference is now I don't do it every day
as it takes at least one day to recover. Still I hear that sirens call to
come experience the violence and chaos of high speed in the moguls. Mountaim
biking at high peed in root infested single track or skipping off wind waves
while riding a big breaker has a similar rush. These days not only do I wear
a helmet but also hockey hip and shoulder pads in deference to the more
brittle bones reported to occur among the geriatric set.

>From my experience testing a lot of kayak I can tell you that Sea Kayaker
does the best reviews. Unfortunately they won't call a spade a spade and
tell you what is a fatal flaw and what is a mild inconvience. The reader is
left to sort that out for themselves. Till the information is far better and
more fair that any other reviews I've seen. The owners reviews on
Paddling.net are mostly a joke to me. A score of 8 or 9 is actually likely
to be a better score than a 10. All a 10 tells you is the owner is suffering
from "cognative dissonance" and after paying so much for the kayak they are
unlikely to admit it is anything but perfect even to themselves. Some of the
worst kayaks I know of get almost all 10's. I have found that nearly always
those owners who are critical of some aspect of their boat almost always get
it right. At least for now ignore the scores and read the comments closely.
The owners are who is most likely to know the pros and cons of their kayak
(at least if they have enough experience to recognize them). They have
likely paddled there kayak in far more conditions than even Sea Kayaker's
expert testers.

Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.com  
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