Skills: Sculling, and Extreme Scull

Skills

Photo: Rochelle Relyea — A sea kayaker practices the extreme scull technique for sea kayaking.

Sculling is a good way to maintain your balance in a kayak. A scull generates ongoing support over a far longer period of time than a brace will and therefore allows a greater sense of security when edging a kayak or navigating confused waters.

Sculling is usually practiced with the boat on a modest tilt. An “extreme” scull is a stroke where the paddler literally lies out on the water. While this is seldom used for any practical purpose other than showing off, extreme sculling is fun and a great drill. And, it looks cool!

Sculling Basics (photos 1 & 2)

Photo progression images of how to stay upright in a kayak. Start off practicing the scull with the kayak on a slight lean. Reaching out over the water in a high brace position, practice the sculling motion. Think of spreading butter on toast. Spreading the butter back and forth keeping the leading edge of the knife raised above the toast prevents it from diving and cutting into your breakfast. Similarly, setting this “climbing” angle on your blade ensures that the leading edge of the blade is always raised and on the surface of the water. The sweep is a long comfortable arc. Strive for minimal splash and a smooth rhythm.

The Extreme Scull

Mastering the extreme scull will greatly improve your ability to feather a blade in the water and lead to smoother transitions from one stroke to another. You will also gain a good feeling for leading edge lift and blade angle. An extreme scull is a natural springboard to kayak rolling or bomb-proofing your existing roll; it reinforces the correct posture and body mechanics used to finish a roll.

There are several tricks that will make the extreme scull a snap to master.

Photo 3

Lying way back onto the stern deck and committing fully to the extreme scull allows the buoyancy of your torso and PFD to help keep you floating at the surface. This is far easier than trying to scull with your body just above the water. When floating, only a light scull will be necessary to maintain the position.

Point your chest at the sky and stretch and rotate your torso in order to keep the kayak as upright as possible. Think about keeping your inside knee pointing upward to prevent the kayak from overturning.

Photo 4

Keep your outer hand low, while the inner “control hand” does the sweeping motion and sets the all important blade angle. The power face is open, leading edge up, as you sweep the blade forward toward the bow.

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Photo 5

As the blade reaches the end of its arc at the bow, stopping the motion will mean a momentary loss of support. No problem, quickly switch the leading edge and begin sweeping toward the stern. A smooth fluid scull is seamless support.

Photo 6

As the blade is swept back again toward the stern, the power face is closed and the leading edge angled up. This sculling action of opening and closing the power face, sweeping the blade back and forth can be maintained indefinitely.

When finishing the extreme scull and righting the kayak; it’s your body that will do most of the work. As you sweep from the bow toward the stern, drive your inside knee up— completely righting the boat—and draw your ribcage in laterally over the kayak. Leaning well back over your stern deck seems to be the easiest. Be sure it is your head that comes up and over the boat last.

Images showing the steps to staying upright in a sea kayak.

Alex Matthews is an active and committed surf kayaker, whitewater paddler and sea kayaker based on Vancouver Island. He is a regular contributor to Adventure Kayak.

Photos on this page taken by Rochelle Relyea.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

Just Add Water: One Step Meals

Stories

Photo: Tarmo Poldmaa — Just Add Water: One Step Meals

Even though I love cooking, there are those rare occasions when I’m looking for a quick fix with enough energy to get me through the day. At home this typically means picking up the phone and calling for some take-out, stopping for fast food or throwing a frozen entree into the microwave. Well, my wilderness-exploring friend, the fast food option is available to you in the great outdoors as well. You can boil water, pour it into a bag, wait 5-10 minutes and PRESTO— dinner is served. No muss, no fuss and you don’t even have to do the dishes. Just lick your spoon and belch!

Before the advent of refrigeration technology, dehydration was the most commonly used method for food preservation and it is still used with many food items today. Aside from preservation, dehydration allows a significant reduction in volume and weight— offering huge benefits with respect to the long distance transportation and storage of food.

Making food last longer and reducing bulk are the main concerns outdoor enthusiasts have to consider, especially when planning an expedition where re-supplying is not possible.

A seventeen-foot sea kayak has plenty of storage room for the average paddler packing a 10-day supply of food. However, once trips get into the range of a couple of weeks, you must start asking yourself what is absolutely necessary and what can be left behind to make more room for food? Let’s face it: we need energy to paddle.

Some fellow paddling guides and I prepared a variety of meals offered by the fol- lowing outdoor food companies: Alpine Aire Food, Backpacker’s Pantry, Natural High, Mary Janes Farm, Harvest Foodworks and Soft Path Cuisine. All brands are available at quality outdoor stores.

I have to say that we were blown away by the sheer variety of meals these companies are now producing—I’m sure a testament to their popularity. The variety included more traditional meals such as Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Pasta Salad and your standard soups like Cream of Broccoli. For those who like a little foreign variety, more exotic meals are available, including: Southwestern Smoked Salmon Pasta; Kung Pao Chicken; Santa Fe Pasta; and, winner of the meal-with-the-best- name contest, Barbie’s Dhal. There were also a plethora of appetizers and desserts like Chocolate Brownies, Peach Crumble and Banana’s Foster.

The variety was so huge I let the guides each choose one meal that appealed to them. They prepared it according to the instructions on the package; which in all cases was, “just add water”.

After a grand feast I asked my fellow chefs to speak about what they discovered. It is important to remember that all the meals were prepared following the manufacturers’ instructions to a tee. Here are some of our findings, in no particular order:

It was of the general opinion that the meals that required a little more preparation and cooking time (i.e. simmered for 10-15 minutes) had more general appeal. This was largely a result of texture—many of the meals that were pro- duced and eaten straight from the bag tended to be a bit crunchy and undercooked. In these cases, most of us agreed, they would have been much better cooked in a pot for a longer period of time rather than just adding water to the bag. Undercooked food can be a serious problem especially dehydrated foods that tend to cause bowel problems: not a particularly enjoyable medical condition on trip.
In almost all cases the meals tended to, as one guide put it, “smell much better than they actu- ally tasted”. Personally, I think many companies have reduced the amount of salt in their foods expecting you to add your own if necessary.
The more exotically named meals tended to be more flavourful.
The proportions indicated were not always satisfactory. Many meals seemed to be pretty slim once they were divided into the 2 or 4 portions recommended on the package.
We agreed that the major advantages these meals provide are reduced preparation time, reduced bulk, reduced cooking fuel needs and reduced gear needs—one pot. All important advantages when you are going long and hard.
Food additives and preservatives were also a concern for some paddling gourmets. Some of the ingredient lists included more chemical names than recognizable foods. However, I must say that a number of companies have embraced the organic foods market and their packages are preservative free.
Finally, the major concern for most of us was the actual expense of these meals. Most of the two-portion entrees run in the $6-10 range and the four-portion entrees in the $8-15 range. It wouldn’t take long to run up a tab on a 14-day trip.

Personally, I don’t think I would eat packaged meals three times a day, for a couple of weeks. However, as a paddler and guide, I would not hesitate to put half a dozen meals into a small dry bag for convenience and emergency purposes.

Tarmo lives in Wawa and guides sea kayak trips on Lake Superior.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

Paddling, Over the Hill

Stories

Illustration: Lorenzo Del Blanco — Paddling, Over the Hill

I turned forty this year

Yes, I’m happier than I’ve ever been. I am more cen- tered and I know myself better than ever before. I am at peace with my goals and lifestyle. I have a life-partner. I am becoming a silver fox.

But forty years… Dude, I’m OLD!

Leonard Cohen once wrote in a song, “I ache in the places where I used to play”. Oh vey, was he right.

If you’re under forty, stop reading now. You don’t know. If you’re over fifty, don’t bother writing to com- plain that I don’t know what being old is: what, did you invent pain? I got pain I tell you. My back is so bent from sitting in a boat that I’m slowly taking the shape of a question mark and my large and powerful hump is becoming a distinguishing feature.

If you’re old and you’re still paddling, you’re going to hurt. However, there are a couple of strategies to help ease your aching back pain and allow you to continue as a prominent and respected member of your paddling community, long past your physical prime.

Self medicate

In the morning before heading out for a paddle, take ibuprofen. I like to fill a cereal bowl with capsules, add milk (or Lactaid if milk gives you gas) and maybe top with dried prunes. This go-getter pre-trip breakfast meal will have you play-wrestling with the young bucks in the parking lot before you even get in your kayak.

After a day of paddling I like to take the little red pills. I can’t tell you what they’re called. I’ve either got to get new glasses or longer arms to be able to read that ridicu- lously tiny print on the bottle. I can tell you the little red pills seem to complement a fine peaty single malt scotch.

Wear a nice cardigan sweater

After paddling, you’ll need to change into something dry and warm. A wool cardigan is unbeatable here. You want something in a conservative colour—you’re not put- ting on a show! In your later years, there’s nothing wrong with wearing your slippers to the coffee shop after a paddle. It’s good to be comfortable. Wrap a tartan blanket around your legs for the drive home.

Use heat on sore muscles

I find a hot après-kayak shower to be very soothing. But be careful not to fall in the tub, those things are a deathtrap. If you break a hip at forty, the bones just never knit the way they used to.

I also love Therapain spray-on liniment. This is a topical spray designed to produce heat; like a healing balm. However, extreme caution should be exercised on application. It’s best to have help when applying it to the lower back region in particular; it is all too easy to have an excessive amount of spray pool, and then run down the valley of the crack of your ass, resulting in liniment on your pee- pee, or worse… anus. The resulting heat generation is intense. This experience has come to be known in our house as “riding out the red dragon”. It’s actually proven to be somewhat addictive, with this same accidental appli- cation occurring with suspicious regularity. Think of a eucalyptus scented opium den and you get the picture.

Gripe incessantly about your back.

I like to go down to my local paddle store and complain. They know me there: you should see the youngsters scatter when they see me come through the door. I figure, they’re getting paid so it’s part of their job to listen to me whine on and on about how my back is sore. I like to try and corner one of them and hold forth on how we used to do it back in my day.

Do other things and paddle less

Simply cutting back on your level of activity is a sure way to reduce pain. Find other things to do with the time that you used to spend on the water. Whinging on about past exploits is always good. Gassing off in the library kills a few hours. And my personal favorite— start writing about paddling instead of doing it! This last one is a time-tested classic that has been well exploited by, oh, so many.

In the next issue, look for tips on adapting equipment for aging paddlers, such as how to convert carbon paddles into a super-stiff, high-performance, lightweight walker.

Alex Matthews is forty. He resides on Vancouver Island where he complains that everything keeps changing.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

Editorial: Motivational Speakers Foster Adventure Travel

Stories

Photo: flickr.com/ben_grey — Editorial: Motivational Speakers Foster Adventure Travel

Six months before I first sat in a sea kayak I was on the phone with harbourmasters organizing food drops along the shores of the Great Lakes. All our gear and charts had been ordered, and our new boats were scheduled to arrive in Thunder Bay the week the ice usually breaks up on Lake Superior. It didn’t seem that strange to me, but friends and family wondered what motivated me to plan a three-and-a-half month expedition without ever having paddled a sea kayak.

The inspiration for paddling home from university was surely a result of being enrolled in Lakehead’s Outdoor Recreation program and being surrounded by highly motivated, adventurous peers. Even the city of Thunder Bay is a mecca for enthusiasts: with its own chapter of the Alpine Club, a healthy ski community, and is a stop for travelling adventure road shows. The Banff Festival of Mountain Films is a sellout in the city’s largest auditorium; Waterwalker packs the first-year psychology lecture hall and Warren Miller is an annual social at the Exhibition hall. Outside after the shows, climbers are freeing 5.10a stonewalls and skiers are doing backscratchers off the roofs of cars. The motivational powers of motion pictures (and in the latter case, a dozen cans of Blue) is as strong as the commitment to outdoor adventure sports.

Also on campus are less glossy presentations, presentations announced by photocopied signs reading, “SLIDE SHOW TONIGHT… Room SN 210… Olav and Ali’s Trip”. Word spreads like water on GoreTex. It was these intimate presentations that best captured my imagination. Holding the projector clicker was a fellow adventurer, someone like me who decided that canoeing across Canada, sea kayaking around Lake Baikal, or skiing to the North Pole was something cool to try.

These humble presentations were relevant, and honest. Their high seas, minus 40-degree temperatures and 27 days of rain were real—not made for TV. More admirable than their attempted trips was that they took the time after- ward to share their experiences—to motivate hundreds of others. Adventure travel will never die so long as stories are told while photographs are projected on small screens. Many of these people write books; some just return to their daily routines of school or work.

When you open the first page of Adventure Kayak’s first ever photo annual, imagine that you are sitting down to watch a slide show. But, this slideshow is different: it has one photo from two-dozen trips, in almost as many countries. I suggest keeping a pen and paper handy, you’ll want to be jotting down notes, planning your next expedition.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

The Quick Fix: 5 DIY Kayak Projects To Get Trip Ready

The Quick Fix: 5 Easy Projects to get Trip Ready — Feature photo: Adventure Kayak staff

This is the year my kayak turns ten. I bought her when she was three years old at a demo sale and I’ve since put on thousands of kilometres. If she were a car, it would be time to trade her in, but she’s not a car—her only moving part is a rudder—and I’m aging faster than she is. A few repairs, upgrades and routine maintenance were all it took to make her better than new.

Below are five safety-oriented upgrades and DIY projects that I chose to celebrate my kayak’s diamond anniversary and prepare for my next West Coast expedition. Read on to find out how to build a new bulkhead, install an electric pump, add storage bags to your cockpit, make your kayak shine in the dark, and keep the sun from eating away at your dream machine.

man pushes a paddleboard loaded down with backcountry paddling gear

6 Reasons Why It Pays To Buy Better Paddling Gear

The quick fix: 5 DIY kayak projects to get trip ready

1 Reduce cockpit volume with a new bulkhead

My stock front bulkhead was seven inches ahead of where I needed it, resulting in less dry storage space in my front hatch and more wasted space in my cockpit. Moving the front bulkhead as close as possible to my feet reduces the amount of water I have to pump out after a rescue. It also gives me a place to rest my feet, mount a foot-operated bilge pump or a foot switch for an electric pump. Most supplies are available at any marine supply store.

Here’s what you need:

About 10 feet of four-inch fiberglass tape
Fiberglass resin
High-density adhesive filler
Cleaning solvent (acetone)
Sheet of one-eighth-inch marine plywood
80-grit sandpaper
Disposable brushes, gloves, mixing containers, Popsicle sticks, paper towels, cardboard, scissors, markers, hacksaw blade, knife and scraper

Photo 1: Begin by getting your boat up on a set of cradles at waist level and arranging your tools. Trace a line on the hull to mark the location of the old bulkhead. Then get to work removing your old bulkhead. My plastic bulkheads are sealed in with silicone, so I made a hole to insert a hacksaw blade and cut out the centre of the bulkhead. There’s nothing like the demolition phase to commit you to seeing the job through. I used a scraper and pliers to hack the bulkhead rim off of the hull.

Photo 2: I used the location of the old bulkhead as a reference point to mark out the location of the new one. I moved my bulkhead back almost seven inches. Think about your foot peg rail placement and foot room. I will move the foot pegs to the end of the rail and re-drill and remount my rails 67 mm back from their present location. This allows me to move the bulkhead back as far as possible, but it means nobody taller than me (6’2”) will ever be able to paddle my boat!

Photo 3: Making a template for the new bulkhead is time-consuming but very important. Getting it right will give your bulkhead a strong, snug fit, and save you time when you cut and shape the plywood. Draw +/– symbols on the cardboard to show where to trim and where to cut less on the next template.

Photo 4: Trace your cardboard template onto a piece of plywood and cut out your new bulkhead with a fine-toothed jigsaw or handsaw blade. Trust your template and resist the temptation to cut outside your line. Eighth-inch-thick marine grade plywood works well; consider using quarter-inch if you’re using the bulkhead as a foot brace or a mount for a foot-controlled pump. Marine plywood is waterproof, has a nice “teaky” finish and can sometimes be purchased in smaller pieces.

Photo 5: Wash the inside of your boat with dish detergent or boat soap to remove any contaminants. Do this before sanding to avoid sanding dirt into the surface. Then use 80-grit sandpaper to rough up a strip a few inches on either side of your new bulkhead location. Then wipe the area with Acetone to remove the sanding dust and prep the surface for bonding.

Photo 6: Fit your new plywood bulkhead snugly—don’t force it in place or it may bulge out your hull and deck. Glue your bulkhead in place with a few drops of epoxy. This is a good time to practice mixing your resin and observe how quickly it cures.

You’ll want to apply two or three coats of epoxy consecutively, waiting just until the preceding coat is tacky—have a few hours to kill. Fiberglass saturates and sticks better if you place it on a pre-epoxied surface, so begin by spreading epoxy on either side of the rim of your bulkhead. Then apply the tape, working your way around the rim, working in additional epoxy to saturate the tape as you go. Use scissors to snip the overlapping pleats on the bulkhead side of the tape, and overlap the ends. With my boat up on cradles, I was able to rotate the boat so the loose tape is always at the bottom. Finally, paint your entire bulkhead with a thin layer of epoxy to seal the wood. Do the other side of the bulkhead.

Photo 7: When the first layer of epoxy is still tacky, recoat your bulkhead and seam with a second thin layer of epoxy and add a fillet to your seam on both sides of the bulkhead for extra strength. A fillet is a bead of epoxy thickened with high-density adhesive filler, applied along the seam like a strip of caulking. For a lightweight installation, it’s possible to skip the fiberglassing stage entirely and just use an epoxy fillet to glue your bulkhead in place. I opted for both for maximum strength. I used West System 404 High-Density Adhesive Filler to make my filleting compound. Mix the epoxy first; add plenty of filler powder until the epoxy is the consistency of peanut butter. Use the end of a Popsicle stick cut flat or V-shaped to spread the fillet. Optional: when tacky apply a third coat of epoxy both sides of the bulkhead.

Photo 8: Tada! Eight inches less wasted space in my cockpit and seven inches of extra dry storage space in my front hatch thanks to a shinier, newer, stronger bulkhead.

2 Get the water out with an electric bilge pump

A hands-free, built-in pump system is a must-have add-on for the serious paddler. It allows you to have your sprayskirt on and be bracing and paddling while you pump out a flooded cockpit. The state-of-the-art electric pump system from Rapid Runner Bilge Systems is one of the easiest hands-free pumping systems to install and to use. The main components are a 1,000 gallon-per-hour Johnson-Mayfair Proline bilge pump and a polymer lithium ion (LiPo) battery in a pre-wired waterproof case. The LiPo battery weighs less than 300 grams (10 ounces) and can power the pump for about 50 minutes.

Photo 1: The pump system is super-easy to install because the pump and battery both strap to a Hypalon pad that glues to the hull. Attach the battery pack and pump to the vinyl pad behind your seat so that the pump will be against the hull at the lowest point. Rough up the hull with 80-grit sandpaper and clean with solvent. Glue in place using Shore adhesive or Vinyl Bond. Alternatively, the bilge pump can be bolted separately to the seat or bulkhead.

Photo 2: Drill the hole for the through-hull fitting (where the water will come out). The long hose allows you to put it anywhere in the cockpit but somewhere behind the paddler is recommended. Make sure you won’t knock your elbow on the fitting and that it won’t interfere with a paddle-float rescue.

battery-operated kayak bilge pump in operation

Build Your Own Battery-Operated Kayak Bilge Pump

Photos 3A & 3B: Leave enough clearance under the deck around bulkheads, cockpit and deck hardware to screw on the nut that holds the through-hull fitting in place. Secure the hose to the fitting with a zip tie. Aim the outlet and seal the fitting to the deck using a marine adhesive (such as 3M’s 5200 Marine Adhesive Sealant).

Photo 4: Rapid Runner provides a foot switch that either bolts to a foot pedal mounted on the rail behind your existing foot pegs, or attaches to the front bulkhead. I glued a foam pad behind the foot switch and fixed it toe height on my bulkhead to bring it within easy reach.

Photo 5: We couldn’t wait to try it. The 1000 GPH pump puts out an impressive stream of water. Tilting your boat just so, you’ll be able to hose down your buddies. No more excuses—get out there and practice your rescues.

3 Apply UV protection for decks and gaskets

Gel coat, plastic or rubber hatch covers and rubber hatch seals all take a UV beating. You wouldn’t forget it for your skin, so don’t forget sunscreen for your boat! Apply before every paddling season or long trip.

Note: It’s way easier to wash and wax your boat when you’re replacing your deck lines and bungees. Pick up some 3/16” bungee for your front deck and a 1/4” for your rear deck paddle float attachment. Use 5 mm cord for deck lines.

Photo 1: Wax on! Pre-wash the boat and then find a specialty marine wax such as 3M’s Marine Fiberglass Cleaner and Wax, which helps to remove scratches and restores and protects your boat’s finish.

Photo 2: Wax off! Remember Karate Kid? Use a soft cloth to buff your boat to a shine and you’ll have your black belt before you know it.

Photo 3: Treat rubber, plastic and vinyl with 303 Protectant. Just spray on, wipe off, and repeat every several weeks. Prolongs the life of rubber hatches and hatch seals. Also restores the colour of faded plastic hatch covers.

4 Be visible with reflective tape and deck line covers

For night paddling in areas of boating traffic, or just to be more visible in the event of rescue, adding reflective strips to your boat is an easy upgrade that you can do in minutes.

Photo 1: 3M reflective tape is like one long license plate registration sticker—super-sticky and easy to put on. Getting it off is another story, so put it where you really want it. Look for a spot that’s not likely to be covered or get scratched. If you’re feeling pessimistic, put tape on the underside of the hull.

Photo 2: Needle nose pliers are helpful for removing tight deck line knots, if you don’t want to cut and replace the lines.

Photo 3: Once you get your deck lines off, install North Water Reflective Deck Line Covers. These can go on deck bungees too. You don’t have to cut them—they scrunch to fit.

Photo 4: Behold, it works! The North Water covers are more reflective than the 3M tape, possibly because the scrunched fabric reflects lights from all angles. They are also easily removed if you want to switch boats or morph into stealth mode.

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all North Water products ]

5 Add North Water cockpit storage bags

Making use of a sea kayak’s ample cockpit space for storage keeps the deck free of paraphernalia that can wash off in the surf or get snagged during rescues. The Under-Deck Bag from North Water Paddle Sports Equipment hangs from the roof of the cockpit in the place of a traditional knee tube—it’s a kayak glove compartment.

And North Water’s Interior Mount Cockpit Bags provide convenient storage along the sides of the cockpit. They double as thigh padding for a better fit and also help displace water from the cockpit.

Photo 1: Sit in your cockpit and line up your Interior Mount Cockpit Bags in a place where you’ll be able to access them and they’ll be out of the way, or provide some desired padding beside your thighs. Don’t forget to stuff them when you’re positioning them.

An overhead shot of a pile of foam pieces and other tools to outfit the cockpit of a sea kayak.

DIY Kayak Cockpit Makeover

Photo 2: The cockpit bags attach in one of two ways—clipping to glued-in vinyl patches or hanging from your rudder cable on a Velcro sleeve. My cable doesn’t extend far enough. I marked the location of the vinyl patches beyond the edges of the cockpit bags, so they’ll hang taught to the side of the hull.

Photo 3: Prepare the surface of the boat by roughing it with 80-grit sandpaper and cleaning with a mineral spirit such as Toluene. Use a vinyl adhesive such as Vinyl-Tec 2000 or Vinyl Bond to secure the patches.

Photo 4: With the Interior Mount Cockpit Bags and the Under Deck Bag installed, there’s so much storage space, you’ll never have to leave the cockpit! North Water’s Expedition Deck Bag provides even more. The bags can all be quickly unclipped for packing, cleaning, or carrying around the campsite.

Cover of the Late Summer 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine This article was first published in the Late Summer 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

Feature Photo: Adventure Kayak staff

Rock the Boat: The Scourge of Certification

Stories

I recently did consulting work for a dive and kayak store. I asked the staff what they were really selling in the kayak section. The answer eventually came back that they were selling freedom. So what were they selling in the dive section? Everyone agreed they were selling belonging (to the club of divers).

What makes diving so different from kayaking is its emphasis on certification. Look around at what’s happening in the sea kayaking industry in Canada and you’ll see that formal certification is like a virus that has started to infect our sport too. The process gained momentum when Parks Canada recently demanded certification for kayak- ing guides, while in the field of kayak instruction, some companies are obliging their employees, who often earn little more than minimum wage, to pay up to $800 for in-house certification courses before they can work with clients on the water. And new schemes are cropping up everywhere to dole out certifications like boy scout badges to recreational paddlers.

Certification’s principal function, so far as I can tell, is to generate cash for rapacious bureaucracies. And the consequence for paddlers is that our favourite pastime shifts from a freedom activity to one of membership in an exclusive club administered by a hierarchy of bureaucrats with an inflated sense of their own importance and competence.

So what, you ask, is wrong with exclusive clubs? Well, a club divides us into two classes of people: those who are in and those who are not. Membership in these clubs depends upon passing a test. A layer of bureaucracy set- tles over the activity like a net, compromising freedom, which was the reason most of us took up sea kayaking.

“I’m free not to join a club if I just want to paddle,” you may say. Sure, but don’t count on it lasting.

Look at the dive industry. PADI, the Professional Association of Dive Instructors (a.k.a. Put Another Dollar In), controls every aspect of the sport by controlling retail outlets. You can’t buy or rent scuba equipment, or fill tanks, unless you have done one of their insidious modu- lar courses. Then every time you wish to advance, you have to pay for yet another module. Most dive shops won’t even sell you a drysuit unless you have done a drysuit course. By controlling and essentially taxing each step of the sport, they have virtually institutionalized personal responsibility!

Safety is usually the excuse for bringing in certification while fear, often combined with a sense of personal inade- quacy, are the base motivating emotions for going along with it. As a client to a kayak tour company, it may be reassuring to hear your guide is certified. If it could be demonstrated that the certification process produced bet- ter guides than non-coercive education through experienced-based training programs—something that NOLS and Outward Bound have proven can be done successfully—I might be more inclined to go along with it, but it doesn’t. There is no healthy reason for it.

Certification tends to emphasize what can be readily tested while neglecting less tangible yet more important issues like attitude and judgment that result from thought- ful responses to experience. Too often certification simply obscures a deficiency of real experience. Indeed because of the false sense of confidence the certificate generates and the deferral of institutional responsibility that results, it may actually make sea kayaking more dangerous.

Professional certification of guides and instructors acts as a mechanism for companies and land management bodies to avoid shouldering responsibilities that are right- ly part of their job description. For example, Parks Canada loves certification because it offloads responsibili- ty for assessing the competence of those who use the parks commercially. Insurance companies love certifica- tion because it covers their corporate asses and blurs legal responsibility. And some companies and colleges love certification because (they think) it lets them avoid taking responsibility for scrutinizing the competence of their staff—as in, “if he has a level four certificate he must be a competent guide/instructor.”

Professional certification is a golden opportunity for shrewd business operators and controlling personality types to hobble their competitors, artificially elevate their own personal status, and set up a toll bridge for guides and instructors. Good people reluctantly get dragged aboard out of their fear of being left behind or losing their jobs. Once certified, they are less likely to fight against it.

I foresee the day when, if we’re not careful, you won’t be able to rent or buy a recreational kayak unless you have your level one certificate, and if you want to buy a real sea kayak, you will need a level four certificate. No? Hey! Wake up! It happened to diving. It can happen to sea kayaking.

Resist certification while you still can.

John Dowd is one of the founders of the sea kayaking industry. The fifth edition of his book Sea Kayaking has just been published. He is currently working on a new book about freedom and responsibility in the outdoors.

This article first appeared in the Late Summer 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

Editorial: Still Paddling Away From The Rat Race

By the time you read this, I’ll have eaten my 33rd birthday cake. It doesn’t seem that long ago my winters were spent prostrate to a higher mind and my summers free on the water. From final exams to frosh week my only concerns were enough sunscreen and fresh water for the day. But at 33 I find myself living the rat race I swore I’d leave for other people.

a paddler's deeply suntanned feet in black and white

Still Happy To Be Here

Editorial: Still paddling away from the rat race

One evening, age 25, Tanya and I were camping at the Whitby Yacht Club on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Camping might be a bit of a stretch; we’d been invited to stay aboard a sailboat in exchange for tales of our journey. After our talk we mingled and answered questions. A fellow got to telling me with unwavering certainty and pompous righteousness that the rat race—from which I’ve been running—is just life. I should get on with it, he said. He also mentioned there was a barbershop downtown, in case I was wondering. The salted rim on the drink he bought me stung my UV-burnt lips.

I hope that I thanked him politely for the drink and his worldly insight, insight that tore at my free spirit still awash floating in the swells. I don’t remember what I said, but I do remember thinking of places he could park his Mercedes.

Responsibility comes calling?

Eight years later I’m living what he may have meant as just life. I’ve started a sometimes very hectic business with looming deadlines. I got married. I’m building a house and therefore signing a mortgage. I’ll admit this is a fine list of grownup things to do, by anyone’s measure.

How, you ask, am I coping with all this?

Quit Your Day Job And Paddle

I’ve followed a well-travelled path behind the forefathers of sea kayaking in Canada. There is a long tradition of making paddling part of life. The men and women who began the companies that build the boats we escape in just wanted to paddle, and when life came knocking they, like me and every other paddler over 30, built a life for themselves around the water.

Don’t let the shorter hair fool you

If that stodgy fellow is reading this, he’ll be pleased to know my hair is shorter now and my idealism very much alive but slightly more refined. I’m still paddling away from the rat race except my summer expeditions are now divided into daily lunchtime paddles and weekend trips. Which, looking at it at 33, is probably better—salted rims don’t sting my lips anymore.

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Cover of the Late Summer 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine This article was first published in the Late Summer 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

Feature photo: Adventure Kayak staff

Boat Review: The Fjord by Boreal Design

Top gun performance without the yikes!

Narrow hulls, hard chines, generous rocker profiles and tight outfitting are the norm these days for high-end performance touring boats. Oh sure, the real top guns of paddling have the skill and confidence gained from logging hundreds of hours in the cockpit, they can make these designs dance. However, the true testing of a new hull design is done in the hands of weekend pilots who’ve just earned their wings. The all-new sixteen-foot, four- inch Boréal Design Fjord is specifically designed for intermediate fighter pilots.

After surely years in a wind tunnel somewhere in St-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Quebec and hundreds of test missions in the remote Saguenay Region, Boréal Design released their third model with semi- arched hull, long waterline and unique reverse hard chine.

The Fjord’s semi-arched hull offers a stable plat- form that smoothly rolls from one side to the other and banks from edge to edge for quick adjustments in direction and confident carving on surf waves. One of the overall smoothest handling boats we’ve reviewed.

The long waterline keeps you tracking straight and, teamed with the reverse hard chine, the Fjord is a quick turner. Boréal Design, explains their reverse hard chine: “On conventional hard chine kayaks the chine runs parallel with the seam. On the Fjord the chine tapers downward towards the bow and the stern. This design feature makes the kayak more manoeuvrable when compared to convention- al chine kayaks because the reverse chine forms a curved keel line at the bow (or stern) thus the kayak only needs a lean [approximately] 15 degrees to immerse the chine and begin to turn.”

With the Fjord you get more turn for less tilt. You get hard chine performance without hanging it out there.

The Fjord bridges the gap between the smaller light touring (women’s kayak) Pakesso [reviewed Adventure Kayak online V2I2] and their expedition boat, the Ellesmere. You also have the option of fibreglass, Kevlar or carbon lay ups. You can upgrade to include a day hatch. And, Boréal specs out the Fjord with either a Brit skeg and rubber hatch trimming or the less traditional North American rudder and recessed hatches and covers.

With every exciting performance sea kayak sent to Adventure Kayak mission control we wait with incredible anticipation as our intermediate and novice test paddlers splash down. With clipboards in hand, like NASA engineers, we typically log feedback like “tippy” or “it doesn’t go straight” and “I can’t turn it”. But not the 2004 Boréal Design Fjord; this crew of testers were all smiles. Houston, we are a go.

1 View from the cockpit

In case you were wondering, the view from the cockpit of the Fjord looks like this. Ahead of the cockpit rim is a moulded-in paddle rest. Handy! The innovative skeg dial is recessed flush to the deck and easily reached by all sizes of paddler. However, anything but the first deck bungee is beyond the grasps of the all but lanky Neanderthals. Seldom did water crash over the bow; if it did it whooshed away smoothly; no splash, no mess. The skeg version of the Fjord comes equipped bow and stern with watertight Kajak Sport hatches over ABS rims.

2 Onboard altimeter… for the skeg

The Fjord’s skeg is connected to the deck-mounted dial with a spectra cord. The numeric scale surrounding the dial corresponds to the depth of the skeg. Three or so drops the skeg to about a “normal” running height: cranking the dial to maximum power (“but the ship, she’s breaking up Captain”) lowers the skeg further into the water; according to Boréal, deeper than most of their competition’s kayaks. We found two-and-half or three about the best position; any lower and the Fjord was so stable it lost its smooth sporty handling.

3 Cargo hatches

Our skeg version test model came equipped with the 8-inch round day hatch option ($255) and 9.5-inch round bow and 15 X 10.75 oval stern Kayak Sport hatches—not a drop of water got through them. The Boréal Design moulded seat fit everyone and offers a great base to glue custom foam out- fitting. With such a deep boat, the thigh braces were miles higher than the tops of our legs requiring raising the seat or, more likely, foaming down and shaping them to fit the tops of your thighs [see “The Perfect Fit”, Adventure Kayak online V3I2]. The Fjord is such a nice handling boat you’ll want to be outfitted to carve turns. We’re also a big fan of real back bands in sea kayaks. The Beluga back band is simple, fits in your lumbar region, and sup- ports your body without riding up or falling down.

Specs

length: 16 ft 4 in 
width: 22.5 in 
depth: 13.875 in 
cockpit: 30 x 16 in
weight: 53 lbs fibreglass /47 lbs Kevlar /43 lbs carbon 
rear hatch: 16.5 x 11.75 in, 128 litres
front hatch: 19.5 in, 75 litres 
day hatch: 8 in, 34 litres 
MSRP: $3315 Cdn, $2650 US (as shown: fibreglass, skeg model, w/ day hatch)

This article first appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Adventure Kayak magazine. For more boat reviews, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

What Every Hobbit Should Know About Paddles

Stories

Photo: flickr.com/usfwsnortheast — What Every Hobbit Should Know About Paddles

Canoe paddles propel us across the lakes and down the rivers of Middle Earth but they also hang in university dorm rooms and are proudly displayed above mantles, reminding us of adventures past. Canoe paddles are woodsmen’s tools and scholars’ art, they are swords of freedom and portals into memories of the past.

Where do you buy such a mythical thing? Our paddle buyer’s directory introduces you to the makers—from large companies with magical worldwide distribution to the garage-based wizards in your shire. Before you delve into our directory or speak with your local peddler, your first step in buying a paddle is to determine the size you require and type of magic you wish it to perform.

Sizing Your Sword

Choosing the correct paddle size can be as simple as walking up to a rack and finding the one that stands to between your chin and your nose. This old camp standby is a good rule of thumb for sizing your first paddle.

Other paddlers spend their lifetimes working out complex equations, calculating such variables as torso and arm length, shaft diameter and shape, curve of the blade, activity type, seat style and height above the water. Granted these are all valid considerations, but the ultimate deciding factor is usually personal preference developed after a few adventures.

Types of Paddle Magic

Recreational

Recreational canoe paddles are general-purpose tools made of inexpensive materials such as aluminum, plastic and cheaper woods. Wood recreational paddles often come in the same blade shapes as lakewater tripping paddles. Aluminum and plastic paddles come in a variety of shapes and are inexpensive and very durable. In either case, what you save in cost you give up in performance and aesthetic appeal. When was the last time you saw a plastic paddle hanging over a fireplace?

Lakewater Tripping

Traditional designs such as ottertail, beavertail and voyageur have long, narrow blades for smooth, repetitive strokes on deep, flat water. They are most often made of wood, for tradition and aesthetics more than any other reason. One-piece or laminated paddles made of woods such as ash, cherry, mahogany, maple, walnut and poplar offer lightness and beauty finely crafted into wonderful shapes. Wood paddles require a bit of care. Dents and scrapes at the end of the blade should be sanded and varnished or oiled to prevent splitting.

Whitewater

Whitewater paddles generally have short, square blades for quick and powerful strokes in aerated, shallow water. Whitewater blades are most commonly flat or spooned to “catch” more water and built tough to withstand abuse. They can be made of wood, fibreglass, carbon or Kevlar with metal or resin-reinforced tips. While other paddle types have a variety of contoured grip shapes such as pear grips, whitewater paddles usually have T-shaped grips for leverage and a precise, secure feel.

Performance

Performance canoe paddles are built for speed and often used in racing or fitness paddling. Weight and efficiency are more important than price, allowing manufacturers to use more expensive materials, such as carbon and Kevlar, and experiment with a variety of blade shapes. Bent-shaft designs set the blade at a slight forward angle to help keep it vertical through the most powerful portion of the stroke. When the clock is ticking, every little bit helps.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2004 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Why Do We Paddle the River?

Stories

Photo: Brian Shields — Why Do We Paddle the River?

Why do we do it? Why do we paddle remote rivers every summer, year after year? Why in February, when the snowdrifts still sit hard-edged in the backyard and the light comes charging back, do we river runners feel the unspoken dread of a summer without a river? The new light mixes memory and desire, tumbling old friends and rivers of the past in winter reveries. Paddling partners reach out to each other, questioning, proposing, easing each other’s fears of being left behind to tend some scorched and mundane bit of a garden in the oppressive summer heat.

Perhaps travelling rivers is an excuse to dream. The river I am thinking of this time is the Mouchalagane, last year’s antidote to urban boredom. By spring, after months of planning, we nickname it the “Mouchie”, a name well-suited to some pet that is always there to lift your spirit in the pewter-coloured days of late winter.

The Mouchalagane is a tiny blue line on the map. Beginning on the high, sparse plateau west of Labrador City, it falls southward only 130 kilometres, tumbling, rocky and narrow through most of its length. For a two-week trip the pace is languorous. Our only deadline is making a float- plane rendezvous on Manicouagan Reservoir—the flooded meteor crater at the end of the river.

The time available transforms the trip. It means that we rarely pass a breath-catching campsite without pitching the tents. And we only look at our watches to confirm why we’re hungry. A great deal of time is spent staring at the river, and this is seen as a perfectly normal pastime. We talk to each other and reveal the little secret things that we often keep hidden even from ourselves. Books are passed around through many hands and are mostly read as close to the river as possible, often well into the night. And the inconceivable happens: the ever-early risers often sleep late.

Maybe we escape to the wilds to play hunter-gatherer. With all our extra time, the fishermen in our small group pretend to be predators, endlessly wearing out the speck- led trout in a laughable game of catch and release. They often leave at first light, and working up or down through the limitless eddies, come back late for breakfast wearing satisfied cat-grins and carrying only their fish stories. Fishing lessons take place and soon everyone is playing the game. It seems only the fish are not having a good time.

Or it may be that we simply need to feel something different, to escape a life lived on claustrophobic acres of windless office carpeting in some highrise centre of power and influence. We enjoy marking the passing of the grey days with rain-fires, sheltered under a spark-ravaged wisp of a tarp, creating a rough comfort in the dampness and wind.

It is, we think sometimes, for the water that we drive for days and push the confines of credit limits to pay for floatplane charters. We are whitewater paddlers, and we travel in the company of fellow zealots, each infatuated with making the move, sacrificing the boats on the “Mouchie’s” rocky altar and scouting every wave of every set so that it can be played like a piece of music.

The Mouchie has numerous stretches of water rated beyond the limits of most open canoes. We run all the scary stuff for the camera and bounce out at the ends pumped with adrenaline. Spontaneous war cries leap out, euphoria finding a voice over the sound of moving water. Yes, this high could be the reason we do this.

Finally, there is a stretch of river that drives the boats to shore. The land falls away and the water begins to scream and consume itself. Like giddy children, we skip along the wide granite edge of its spring floodplain, picking flat rock campsites, and then again and again finding better places, as we laugh into the deep rock rooms hid- ing under immense overhanging slabs. The river noise fills us and the water tears past so fiercely that the mind will not allow the eyes to look even for fantasy lines out among the madness. The hypnotic river draws us to its edge, sits us down gently and sucks our minds dry. At a time like this, we don’t ask why we’re here. We know we’re about to camp in Heaven.

And it is for this reason that I am tempted to say it is the campsites. For when our bruised canoes are back on their racks, stored for another winter, and our memories of the Mouchie are aged and mellowed, it is the campsites that we seem to most remember. It is the rolling Amazon forest of caribou moss that we sleep on again in our reveries and it is our dramatic camp in front of the dark and comforting rock rooms on the river’s floodplain that is always the first retreat for the mind.

But isn’t it all these things and then some? The winter dreams, the languor of river time, the adrenaline of whitewater, the campsites—all of this makes the river something we turn to each year. We paddle because we have come to know that a remote river always asks us who we are, and given a canoe, always answers by trans- porting us so far beyond the bonds and the shackles of the ordinary. Our time spent together on the Mouchie is enough to sustain us for another year, until our hemi- sphere tilts back toward the sun, igniting the fire within us for another wild river.

Brian Shields is a retired sport-fishing guide who presently fritters away his life in his solo boat, trying to perfect his cross-forward stroke.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2004 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.