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KayaLeg: Help or Hassle? Making Entry Into a Kayak Easy?
Recently, Ralph Wirsig, the owner of KayaArm, contacted me to introduce me to his new product. The new product is called KayaLeg. Both the KayaArm and KayaLeg offer kayakers a new and potentially easier way — at least for some kayakers — to get into a kayak. The KayaArm is a product that you permanently install on a dock. It stabilizes the kayak while you get in. I actually think that the KayaArm is a pretty cool product and if you’re lucky enough (or rich enough) to live on a lake with a dock, then the KayaArm is something to consider adding to your dock. Especially if you have any flexibility…
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Sandals! You’ll hurt your feet!
Sandals are awesome to wear for paddling trip. When wearing sandals and you step into the water, your foot gets wet. You take it out of the water and it dries. The sweat dries off your feet quickly, and, well, they’re pretty darn awesome. Sure there are some downsides, such as they don’t offer the support of a hiking boot and sandals that have open toes don’t protect your toes and they suck in mud (although you can wash your feet when you get to a lake). These disadvantages are common sense no brainers, and the awesomeness of wearing sandals outweighs the disadvantages. Still, there are some who can’t imagine…
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Northstar Phoenix Mini-Review
I’ll admit it right up front: I’m a Ted Bell and David Yost fan. I used to own a Bell Magic and Bell Wildfire. Those canoes really paddled like Magic and were the best combo to own. The Magic was perfect for fast and light tripping in the BWCA and the Wildfire was a fun boat to take down rivers or just mess about in on flat water. I was bummed when I heard that Bell Canoe went out of business. And then Ted Bell got back in business under the name of Northstar Canoe. And then I ran into a perfect deal. The deal was a trade from my old…
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Under Armour UA Storm Tactical Patrol Pants Review: Best Canoe Pants?
Late this summer, I was in a store looking for a first aid kit (I left mine at home) and I stumbled across Under Armour’s UA Storm Tactical Patrol Pants. I wasn’t aware that Under Armour made pants or anything other than underwear, so I was surprised to find the pants. Over the years, Under Armour has formed strong relationships with the hook and bullet stores, and these pants are geared towards the hook and bullet crowd, such as hunters, sport shooters or people who fancy themselves some kind of tactical-militia person. They have all the features a pistol-carrying enthusiast would desire, such as an offset belt loop to allow for proper…
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Halloween Kayak(ing)
My friend Travis Novitsky made this time lapse video of me paddling a kayak during the night. Happy Halloween! It’s spooky.
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And you have to believe in wilderness.
While we usually don’t post just quotes here, this one has to be one of the best. Kirk was the founder of the Canadian Canoe Museum, located in Peterborough, Ontario. I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation of his once and meeting him afterward. This quote really sums up for me what life is about. You have to do what you can, do your best with what you are. And you have to believe in wilderness. If you do that you can’t go wrong. -Kirk Wipper
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Kayak Changing Rooms — Now!
One of the hassles of kayaking involves changing into paddling clothing at the boat ramp. If you’re like me, you try to do a quick surf change on the beach using something like Orange Mud’s Transition and Seat Wrap (See: Orange Mud Transition Towel and Seat Wrap Review). You may have picked up something like a Sqivvy, a popup changing room. Neither offer a perfect solution. The Orange Mud towel doesn’t allow you to dry off easily, so when you pull you pants and underwear on, it feels wet and sticky. The Sqivvy tends to blow down in the wind even when fully staked and guyed out. The ideal solution is to…
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Tubism Review: Lightweight containers for liquids
I’m always on the lookout for lightweight products that can carry liquids easily without leaking. The gold standard is Nalgene bottles, because they don’t leak. But, they weigh more than I’d like at 0.5 ounces, and they don’t work with food or products you need to squeeze. I was excited when I saw the Tubism resealing zip tubes. At 0.4 ounces for 1.7 fluid ounces, they looked like a good deal. They could carry small amounts of liquids on trips while keeping down the weight. The Tubism tubes are unique because they’re flat instead of round. One end has a zip closure and the other end a squeeze lid. They are…
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Greenland Paddles Can’t Get No Respect
In the Fall 2015 issue of Adventure Kayak, James Roberts writes an article called Stickin’ It To ‘Em: Greenland paddles are superior in every way to their wide-bladed brethren. In the article he states, “It’s time Greenland paddles got some respect.” He then goes on to point out the myths and benefits that he finds when using a Greenland-style paddle (GP). I’ll list these below. While reading the article, it felt like being transported back to the late-90s or early 2000s when the online paddling world at paddling.net argued about which was better. I thought this issue was settled back then with the conclusion that you paddle what you like.…
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A Year in the Wilderness: a BWCA Adventure
Imagine living in wilderness for an entire year. Imagine living with only a canoe for transportation in the summer and only dogs to haul gear in the winter. Imagine living in a tent in northern Minnesota when the winter temps drop to -40. Imagine watching the northern lights over lakes so clean that you can dip your cup into them and drink the water. Imagine being away from it all for a full year. That’s what Amy and Dave Freeman, 2014 National Geographic Adventurers of the Year, are going to do next. They’re going to live inside the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA), a million acre wilderness and America’s…
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Why I Got Out of the Sea Kayak Guiding Business
According to a study published in APS journal Psychological Science, after receiving an unappealing prize for hard work, a six-year-old kid will hold on to it. Whereas a four-year-old kid who works hard for an unappealing reward will detach themselves from that reward by giving it away. The six-year-old, says the study, “tend to employ a cognitive strategy to accommodate the knowledge that they worked hard to earn an unattractive reward.” They revalue the reward based on how difficult it was to earn it. The four-year-old doesn’t perform that mental jump and sees the prize as it is: not worth it. In this way, six-year-old kids function more like adults,…
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Red Paddle Company 11′ Sport SUP Review
For that last few months I’ve had the opportunity to test a Red Paddle Company 11′ Sport SUP and review it. I got it on loan and had planned on taking it to Florida in March and April, but as you’ll read below that didn’t happen. I managed to test it in the lakes of northern Minnesota after the lakes thaw. NOTE: For those of you who follow the site, you might be surprised that PaddlingLight started covering SUPs as this has been primarily a canoe and kayak website mixed with philosophy about and advocacy for wilderness and wild places. Ultralight trips are being accomplished on SUPs, and SUPs are…
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How We Lose Access to Wild Places
Recently, Scott Jurek, a long distance runner, completed a record-breaking run from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail (AT). He finished the trail in 46 days, 8 hours, and 7 minutes. That’s quite an accomplishment and I’m sure from a runner’s perspective and the perspective of a FKT (Fastest Known Time) enthusiast it’s an amazing way to travel the AT. It took me almost six months to do the same. I met a trail runner on my 1996 thru-hike, and ended up spending a night with him in a trail shelter when he missed the canoe shuttle across the Kennebeck River. If I remember correctly, he thought that would cost…
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What I’d Bring on a Summer Canoe Trip
Over the years, I’ve written a lot about what I bring on canoeing and kayaking trips, and now that I’ve sold my kayak guiding business (blog post coming on why soon) I’m really looking forward to canoeing more often. In fact, I’ve been in a canoe more often than I’ve been in a kayak this year. I haven’t been able to say that since 2006. Not only have I been canoeing more often than in past years, I’m starting to think about a few new and interesting trips that I could take in the next five years by canoe. I’m really excited about canoeing, so when Lisa, Community Manager at Salt…
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Watson’s Merino Wool Long Underwear Review
Starting in late winter and early spring, I’ve been testing Watson’s Merino 150 Wool Long Underwear. Watson’s, a company I wasn’t familiar with, is part of Chateau Lingerie, a company based out of Quebec, Canada. While I used the long underwear mainly for walking around and on photography outings instead of paddling trips, I feel like I’ve used it enough to provide an honest review. For canoeing, it will function basically the same as it does for wearing around. For kayaking for me, it’s all about whether or not it’s comfortable under a drysuit (see below). The two pieces I was provided with for review were the Merino 150 Long Sleeve Top and the…
