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The Audacity of Winning Bold Kayaking Arguments on the Internet
If you have been a long time reader of the website, you know that Iโm officially out of the kayaking business. After years in the canoe and kayak retail business, years of guiding and then years of owning a kayak guiding business, I got out of it โ it is now a hobby of mine. As a hobby and as a business one of my main goals and beliefs is that we are in this sport together and if we work together as partners we can make the sport better. Like everything on the Internet and maybe in the world, discussion is devolving to the point that partnership is noโฆ
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Chestnut Chum Revisioned as the Lynx
The Chestnut Chum canoe is one of the classic canoes when you ask about old canvas and wood canoes. Paddlers respected it for itโs ability to carry lots of gear and still remain stable. The Chum struck a chord with canoeists looking for day tripping boat as well as an extended trips. Several years ago, I worked with a paddler who wanted to build the Omer Stringer version of the canoe. According to Wooden Canoe Issue 25, the differences were this: Omerโs canoe is also unique. He began with a 15-foot Chestnut Chum, built in New Brunswick. When it was under construction, he asked that the cedar plank-and-rib shell be leftโฆ
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Ranting about Painters โ WITH a Paddle in IT!
Here we go again. Itโs that time of the year when paddlers make silly points on the Internet. I never understand the silly need of people to comment about how a photo of a canoe or kayak that they saw on social media doesnโt meet their idea of what a canoe or kayak should be or some other silliness like that. To be completely honest (cliched phrase on purpose, because itโs like a cliche that you going to get someone who thinks they are the know-it-all paddler to comment on a photo that they have no knowledge of), I just donโt even have the energy to continue describing this typeโฆ
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Review Jon Turkโs Crocodiles and Ice
Jon Turkโs latest book Crocodiles and Ice [Buy from Amazon] takes the reader through a half dozen of his adventures starting from when he was a child cutting across an immaculate lawn on a shortcut to his grade school to a hike in the mountains in his late 60s. In short, itโs an autobiographical story of his life โ of sorts. In it he describes why he chose the life he chose. He describes his motivations and tells us about some of his trips โ while maybe not the defining trips of his life, they seem to have helped shape his life or help shape the narrative that he wants to tell.โฆ
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A Simple Menu for a 12,000-mile Backcountry Journey
On backcountry kayak camping trips, a varied and robust menu seems a given. There are dozens of camping cookbooks devoted to the topic, and 100s and 100s of recipes and even magazine columns devoted to cooking tasty treats while on the trail. All that food planning and preparation takes time and effort, so you might be tempted to ignore all that advice and just pack mac and cheese. National Geographic Adventurers of the Year Amy and Dave Freeman did just that on their 3-year, 12,000-mile kayak, canoe and dogsled journey from Seattle, Washington to Key West, Florida. They ditched the fancy menus and simplified each of their daily meals toโฆ
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The Canoeist and Kayaker Holiday Gift Guide
Paddlers being the picky, hard-to-please group that they are, are extremely hard to shop for during the holidays. Most paddlers already own everything they want, except for that new boat. While that new NDK Romany or Northstar Magic would look great under the tree spending a couple grand probably isnโt within everyoneโs idea of a perfect gift. Here are a few unique gifts for canoeists and kayakers. Itโs something to surprise them with and maybe something unexpected as well. Jon Turkโs Crocodiles and Ice A more detail review is coming on this book, but in essence this book details several adventures including Turkโs kayak and ski circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island. Theโฆ
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Xshot Dome Port Review
Like many paddlers, I bought a GoPro camera. I used it for a season to shoot lots of video, but didnโt do anything with the video โ because most of it was pretty boring. Eventually, bored of shooting action video, the GoPro sat in the corner of my office gathering dust. That is until I got my hands on an XShot Dome Port to review. The XShot Dome Port is a 6-inch dome port designed to allow you to use your GoPro Hero 3 or Hero 4 to get โhalf-and-halfโ waterline shots. This gives you a picture that is half above the waterline and half below the waterline. It alsoโฆ
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Hazardous Attitudes in Paddling
Recently, Iโve been studying for a pilotโs license and came across an interesting way to think about attitudes that might get you into trouble. These attitudes appear in the FAAโs (Federal Aviation Administration) Pilotโs Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and are described as a predisposition that motivates a person to respond to people, situations or events is a manner aligned with the attitude. They identify five hazardous attitudes that interfere with decision making: anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, macho and resignation (see page 2-5). You can look for these attitudes in yourself and your paddling partners. Once you identify that you know they exist, you can overcome a hazardous attitude by redirecting the attitudeโฆ
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First Look: Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3
Almost two years ago, we added a person to our family. As he has grown up, weโve had to figure out how he is going to fit in with our camping and paddling trips. This year with a toddler in tow, we found that our two person tents didnโt fit anymore (last year, we used my heavy old mountaineering tent which had plenty of extra length to fit a baby). We bought a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 and will review it as we continue to use it. This is the first look after using it on one canoeing trip into the BWCA. Our goal was to find a lightweightโฆ
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A Siskiwit SOF Hits the Water
Mike from Columbus, MS finished building a Siskiwit SOF kayak, the skin-on-frame version of the Siskiwit Bay. This is what he had to say: I finally got around to building the Siskiwit Bay SOF from plans purchased last year. It took about 6 weeks, 60โish hours, and perhaps $350 โ $400 in materials. Please see the attached pictures (which you may use as you like for PaddlingLight.com). The frames are high quality birch plywood, the stringers of cedar, and the stems from white pine. The entire frame is protected with tung oil/linseed/mineral spirits mix. Covering is iron oxide dyed polyester (red sections only, white is natural color) waterproofed with 2-part polyurethane. The cockpitโฆ
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To Preserve Public Lands, There is Only One Choice in This Election
One of the missions of PaddlingLight is to promote wilderness protection. Why? There are lots of reasons why wilderness and wild places and public lands are good for us, including mentally and economically, but, perhaps, more importantly because wilderness travel by canoe and kayak is the apex of this sport. Itโs what we do. We go paddling, and much of the time, we go paddling in areas that are accessed via public lands. While all the destinations that we paddle arenโt in wilderness areas or areas with large expanses of public lands, the celebrated areas โ those areas that we dream of paddling โ such as the Everglades, Boundary Waters Canoeโฆ
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Review: Paleo Meals To Go
In 2013 while on a multi-day backpacking trip in the Maroon Bells, Ty Soukup tried a standard freeze-dried meal for dinner. He got sick. Earlier in the year, he had started the paleo diet, a diet which according to Google definitions is โbased on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans, consisting chiefly of meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit, and excluding dairy or grain products and processed food.โ If youโve had a typical freeze-dried backpacking meal, you know that theyโre full of salt and potatoes or pasta. Those ingredients donโt align with a paleo diet. Literally sick from standard freeze-dried backpacking meals that didnโt alignโฆ
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First Look: Flip Reel โ a fishing handline for kayaking and canoeing
Have you ever wanted to fish from your canoe or kayak, but didnโt want to deal with rods and reels? The Flip Reel by Squiddies offers a solution. Itโs an easy-to-pack hand fishing line. The line, sinker and tackle all store inside the flip reel when not in use. The reel itself is compact and portable, and has a line cutter built in. It weighs 5.3 ounces without tackle. To use the Flip Reel, you flip open the bell to expose the reel, clip on the tackle (and bait the hook if needed), then you wet the reel completely. To cast, you spin the line around in a circle and let goโฆ
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Kayak Cockpit Placement Rule of Thumb
If youโre working from a set of sea kayaking plans, figuring out the kayak cockpit placement is easy. You just consult the diagrams. But, if itโs a historic replica or one of your own designs or if the plans didnโt include drawings of the cockpit area, finding the best placement becomes a challenge. This is a hurdle I faced when building my Siskiwit Bay and Siskiwit LV designs. After a day or two a research, I ended up coming up with several rule of thumbs for sea kayak cockpit placements. Any homebuilder could use these and come up with a good cockpit placement. Sea Kayak Cockpit Placement Rule of Thumbโฆ
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First Impressions: Vargo Titanium Ti-Lite 750 Mug
Iโve been testing the Vargo Titanium Ti-Lite 750 Mug since May. The Ti-Lite Mug is one of Vargoโs most popular mugs. Its 25 ounce (750 ml) capacity is large enough for most freeze-dried meals, and itโs big enough to cook single entree meals. It also works well as a mug to sip hot chocolate or a nightcap out of. If you carry a Nalgene bottle, it will fit inside the mug. As far as other features, it has graduated measurements in mililiters, foldaway handles, a strainer lid and a mesh storage bag. Vargo states its weight as 3.7 ounce with a diameter of 3.8 inches and height of 4.3 inches. It tookโฆ
