This is the bold breed of boaters still rocking the 90s style featured in Keeper, Rapid’s column about gear of years gone by. Click to read “Geek Beak: Why an iconic whitewater fad won’t die.”
Ode To The Club Boater was featured in the 2011 Reel Paddling Film Festival, hosted by paddling clubs across North America.
These days there are hundreds of life jackets to choose from. They’re extensively tested to earn Coast Guard approval and designed to be perfectly comfortable, whatever your water sport.
It wasn’t always this way.
I started boating in the mid-70s when a coworker invited me on a day float on Idaho’s North Fork of the Clearwater River. I was hooked from that first trip and had my own raft by the following year. Even the best life jackets of that era were crappy—ill fitting, flimsy or bulky. And not much of a swimmer.
After seeing a horse collar vest rip off a friend getting maytagged in a hydraulic and a big “Mae West” jacket come untied, I went looking for alternatives. My criteria: a secure fit, durability and lots of flotation. I looked in local stores but didn’t find it.
Boating magazines of the day carried ads for Wildwater Designs, a company owned by Charlie Walbridge. Charlie is a whitewater safety expert, coauthor of the pioneering Whitewater Rescue Manual and one of the original inductees in the Whitewater Hall of Fame.
One of the products he carried was the Hi-Float Life Vest Kit. That’s right, I said kit—a sew-it-yourself life jacket package.
I ordered my kit by mail in early 1980 for $24.50. I still have the receipt. It contained precut panels of burly nylon fabric, strips of soft buoyant foam, a heavy-duty zipper, nylon thread and complete instructions containing this troubling note:
Some people have complained that these life vests trap water. If yours does you can allow for drainage in this way. Get a nail, a candle, and a pair of pliers. Light the candle, grasp the nail with the pliers, and heat it until it is quite hot. Use the nail to punch holes in the bottom of each foam compartment. The heat will seal the edges of the hole.
I didn’t know how to run a sewing machine, but wanted to put it together myself. My wife, an excellent seamstress, coached me through the process. The result was a tough, snug-fitting, high-flotation jacket. The pounds of buoyancy it advertised were well up in the twenties. You could fold up the portion below the waist tie to make it more compact, or wear it down full length. At some point, I added a between-the-legs strap to make it even more secure.
That jacket saved my bacon many times, down hundreds of river miles, including all of Idaho’s crown jewel rivers and on far-away floats like the Grand Canyon. I had some classic swims but it always bobbed me to the surface.
I wore my Hi-Float for almost 20 years, until the zipper finally failed.
When I saw Charlie at a swiftwater rescue clinic in 2004, I brought out the old jacket to show him and he thought I was trying to get it warranted!
Charlie eventually sold the design to Extrasport, whose current Swiftwater Ranger Rescue Jacket is a child of the Hi-Float.
It could get hot, it wasn’t adjustable and it didn’t carry any certification, but I made it myself, it was custom-sized, I trusted it with my life.
Clyde Nicely’s chief passion is multi-day rafting. He strings words together for a living as the e-News editor at NRS.
Feature photo: Courtesy Ashley Grittner/NRS
Stay cool and safe in the summer heat with Nutcase water helmets. “Whether paddling on a clear open lake or down a rocky river, trust Nutcase to protect your nugget while making a statement with fun designs, patterns and colors.”
All water helmets comply with the CE EN-1385 Water Sport Safety Standard for water sports. All helmets come with removable neoprene ear pads, 360 degree reflectivity and the revolutionary magnetic buckle, allowing you one-handed operation and NO PINCHING!
For more information about Nutcase, or their line of helmets, check out nutcase.com.
The following is a press release from Kokatat, July 23, 2014.
ARCATA, CALIFORNIA, (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) – For 2015 Kokatat, the global leader in paddlesport apparel, introduces the GORE-TEX® Idol dry suit with SwitchZip technology that separates completely at the waist giving paddlers the versatility of a dry suit and dry top in one garment.
“This gives everyday and expedition paddlers the ultimate in gear flexibility,” said Jeff Turner, Kokatat Sales and Design Manager. “No longer must they choose between a dry suit and dry top for the day, the Idol provides the best of both.”
The SwitchZip technology connects the top to the bottom of the suit with a fully separating waterproof zipper system. With the separation at the waist, the Idol is much easier to put on and take off when compared to traditional dry suits that open along the chest or across the back. The ability to fully separate the top and bottom also eliminates the need for an additional front or rear relief zipper.
The Idol can be used as a dry suit or separated and worn as a dry top. Paddlers will find the system especially helpful for portages or stops along waterways where they can easily take off the top and wear just the pants. Additionally, paddlers on multiday expeditions can select the combination in which they wish to wear the Idol depending on the weather and water conditions of the day.
The SwitchZip’s flexible TiZip® zipper sits below the Idol’s dual adjustable overskirt. When seated the zipper resides inside the boat’s cockpit between the backband and the seat. The below deck placement is designed so the system does not interfere with kayak rigging or PFDs.
The Idol features Kokatat’s exclusive and time proven 3-layer Evolution GORE-TEX® Pro Shell fabric, used in combination with 330 Cordura® GORE-TEX® Pro Shell in areas of high abrasion. The suit also has Latex wrist and neck gaskets, left sleeve pocket, GORE-TEX® socks, and factory sealed seams.
The Idol will be offered in men’s and women’s specific designs and will be available In January 2015 through GIZMO, Kokatat’s online custom dry suit program.
As with all Kokatat suits, the Idol is guaranteed to be completely dry. Each and every suit manufactured in Kokatat’s Arcata, California factory is individually tested to be water tight before it leaves the factory. Further, Kokatat’s lifetime warranty and Arcata service facility ensures users that they will remain completely dry for the life of the suit.
The GORE-TEX® Idol dry suit will be introduced at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City, UT, in early August 2014. It and the rest of the Kokatat 2015 collection will be available nationwide through Kokatat’s network of specialty paddling retailers in January 2015.
About Kokatat Inc.:
Kokatat has been manufacturing paddling gear in Arcata, California for more than 40 years. At a time when many technical apparel brands were moving manufacturing offshore, Kokatat continued to invest in infrastructure in the United States. Kokatat founder Steve O’Meara was committed to the development of the finest and driest paddling apparel in the world and recognized the need to control and continually evolve the development of our dry wear. In the early days, Kokatat worked closely with W.L. Gore & Associates, makers of GORE-TEX®, to refine the sewing and sealing techniques required for full immersion suits and tops. Today, our hands-on approach to manufacturing continues to set the standard in paddling apparel. Into the water with Kokatat! Please visit www.kokatat.com and follow Kokatat on Facebook and Twitter “@kokatat”.
Great Falls Race 2014 from Dylan McKinney on Vimeo.
“On July 5th, 2014, over 30 whitewater athletes gathered together just outside Washington, DC too race the Great Falls of the Potomac River. The Great Falls Race is one of the most prestigious whitewater races in the nation, where hundreds of spectators watch as the paddlers race over class five rapids in just under a minute! Congratulations to this years winner, Pat Keller in the long boat class and Mike Dawson in the short boat class!”
From Dylan McKinney.
The SolarMonkey Adventurer is lightweight, paperback-sized and dead easy to use. It charges even in low light conditions and features an internal battery that allows for charging devices even when the sun is down. Our tester model charged an editor’s iPhone from almost zero to 100 percent in about an hour and a half. Supports five-volt devices such as phones, handheld GPS units and some action cameras.
Product Specs:
Short-circuit protection
Overload protection
Low voltage protection
Thermal insulation battery protection: giving an operating temperature range of -10 to 90 degrees C
www.powertraveller.com | $150
Get the full article in the digital edition of Canoeroots and Family Camping, Early Summer 2014, on our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it on your desktop here.
A new whitewater view has been all over the Internet since the 2014 paddling season got underway.
Thanks to more and more paddler-photographers experimenting with drone technology, high-flying bird’s-eye-view images are delivering all-new ways of seeing the river.
“Anything that offers a new perspective will have an audience,” says Patrick Camblin, Whitewater Grand Prix organizer and Rapid magazine contributor, who’s convinced this is the future of whitewater photography.
Camblin himself is a bit of a pioneer in this realm. In 2010, before any of us had seen the aerial river shots we’re getting used to now, Camblin drained $12,000 from his bank account for a state-of-the-art octocoptor—an eight-rotor mini-helicopter that looks like a flying robotic octopus with a camera mount.
Then came the tragic technical difficulties.
A few uncontrolled takeoffs and crashes later, the drone needed some repairs. But, Camblin says, since then the technology has improved significantly.
It’s also gotten a lot cheaper. Rapid photographer Steve Rogers just got his hands on a drone this summer.
“The skill of flying is a huge barrier,” says Rogers, which is why he opted for a cheap model with four rotors instead of eight—you can get low-end versions for around $300—so there’s less to loose if he clips a tree or canyon wall while practicing.
“You’ve got to think about flying as a separate skill all together,” Rogers says, “then you can try to think about what you’re doing with the camera at the same time.”
Rogers says a lot of people are mounting cheap cameras to drones so far, and flying them with their fingers crossed for good images, but the inspiration behind his investment is to continue taking high-quality whitewater images without dangling from ropes over canyons.
“I’m actually physically in a position of danger while I’m taking photos,” says Rogers, who climbed a cliff wall to snap Rapid’s Spring 2014 cover photo. “It’d be nice to put the drone in that position instead.”
While the technology’s improved a lot over the years, “it’s still not plug and play,” says Rogers. He had to do lots of research into all the pieces he needed to buy and assemble to get his drone up and running. He predicts it’ll be a long time before he’s mastered the art of flight but is hopeful the new technology will make his business safer and more efficient.
“A birds’ eye view lets you take the whole landscape in at once,” says Camblin, explaining why he thinks aerial images are compelling enough to be worth the investment and effort. “You may never have seen that view of the river, no matter how much whitewater you’ve been on.”
Camblin adds that as the technology continues to improve, photographers will be able to give viewers a better picture than ever before of the wild rivers whitewater paddlers get to explore.
“They’re a lot more user friendly now,” says Camblin, but there’s some danger involved in using them—a rotor could take off a finger for example—and it takes some serious practice to keep them oriented, especially before flying them over water.
As Rogers put it, “I’ll either be sending you amazing new images by the end of the summer, or my camera will be at the bottom of the river.”
This whitewater news article was originally published in the July issue of Paddling Magazine.
Google Street View is changing the way we look at the world and making wild places more accessible. Parks Canada has been working with Google Canada to bring photos of great paddling destinations to our computers. “We are happy to let you know that Parks Canada is continuing its work with Google Canada on the Google Street View project featuring Canada’s most treasured places for worldwide visitors to explore,” said Parks Canada.
Google on the Coastal Hiking Trail.
“Over the past few weeks, the Google Team was at Pukaskwa National Park, Sault Ste. Marie Canal and Fort St. Joseph National Historic Sites, and Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area, doing image collection at the sites.”
Google in Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area.
The haunting tremolo of a loon calling for her mate breaks the silence of the morning mist over Lower St. Regis Lake. As the sun burns through the clouds, long, narrow canoes begin to appear through the mist, gliding on the still waters. Paddles silently slice through the water, and as the images become clearer, one can make out the beautiful craftsmanship of the wooden canoes.
Thus begins the morning this past weekend at the annual gathering of wooden canoe enthusiasts attending the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association Assembly at Paul Smith’s College in the scenic New York Adirondacks.
This year, 350 people attended from all over the United States and Canada, and they brought with them almost as many beautiful boats. Displayed on the Great Lawn of the college overlooking Lower St. Regis Lake were a wide variety of classic boats, including wood-canvas canoes, birch bark, sailing canoes, stripper canoes and kayaks. Some were newly constructed, and some were careful restorations of boats originally build more than 100 years ago.
This year the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association celebrated its 35th Annual Assembly, with a focus on the builders of tomorrow’s classic boats. For four days, canoe enthusiasts learned boat-building and restoration techniques, became inspired during evening presentations and panel discussions, and shared their own special canoe building and paddling experiences.
As a family event, the assembly offered a wide variety of classes and activities for everyone, including a robust schedule of activities and crafts for kids. This year’s sessions included a guided tour of historic White Pine Camp, numerous paddling excursions on the pristine Adirondack Lakes, a bird walk, paddling skill workshops, seat caning, and a construction tent with ongoing demonstrations of canoe-building techniques. Evening programs focused on the skills, the vision and the stories of a variety of talented boat-builders, followed by songs and stories told around the lakeside campfire.
A highlight of the event occurred as 70 beautiful boats lined up in the lake and proceeded to parade past onlookers as the announcer described a bit of history of each boat during the annual Paddle-By. Paddles were raised to the applause of the audience.
As the Assembly wrapped up, last-minute photos and hugs were shared as friends, old and new, packed up their canoes and belongings before their trip home. They left with new skills that will help to carry on the tradition of wooden canoe building and paddling. They took with them memories of new outdoor experiences, learning and laughter, as the calls of the loons sent them off with a final tremolo beckoning them to return next year.
For more info and photos see:
Wooden Canoe Heritage Association: www.wcha.org
Canoe Photo Blog by Jim and Betsy Wilson: http://www.letscapturethemoment.com/events/wooden-canoe-assembly/
Wooden Canoe Heritage Association 2014 Assembly from Above the World Films on Vimeo.
Sperry’s super lightweight H20 Escapes are foot hugging and fast drying. The upper is so thin it would feel like you were sock footed if it weren’t for the slim but rugged base that uses Sperry’s trademarked anti-slip outsole. Ten drain holes on each shoe shed water quickly and the perforated foot beds pop out for even faster drying.
www.sperrytopsider.com | $90
Click here to find great new gear under $100 in the free online edition of Rapid, Early Summer 2014 or download our free app for Apple or Android.
This article was first published in Issue 16, Volume 2 of Rapid Magazine.