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Urban Adventures: Kingston, Ontario

Photo: Scott MacGregor
Urban Adventures: Kingston, Ontario

Few places in Ontario are able to meld the world of kayaking with the continuous presence of history. Kingston is located at the southern end of Lake Ontario and is the meeting place for the St. Lawrence River and the historic Rideau Canal. This area is riddled with history, stories, scenery and great paddling. 

Kingston and Lake Ontario

The best place to enter the waters of Lake Ontario is at Ahoy Rentals located on the water- front in Kingston, Ontario. This small one room business provides kayak, sailboat and bike rentals. There is ample parking with a great boat launch and a low wooden dock ideal for paddlers.

As you enter the clear waters of Lake Ontario fronting the Limestone City you can see many reminders of Eastern Ontario’s past. Kingston is a city mixed with a sense of history and modern growth. Paddling north, the city of Kingston rises on your left. The shoreline has been reinforced with large boulders to protect it from erosion by the prevailing and sometimes strong, southerly winds sweeping in from Lake Ontario. Crossing along the lake to the east, be careful to avoid the Wolfe Island Ferry. This large car carrying ferry travels regularly between Kingston and Wolfe Island. As you approach the point opposite

Kingston, a monumental work from Upper Canada’s military past looms up from the water.

Fort Henry was completed in 1839 following the War of 1812 with the United States. This national historic site rises on a barren, desolate hill overlooking Lake Ontario, guarding the entrance to the Rideau Canal and the St. Lawrence River. This impregnable star-shaped fort is complete with working cannon, uniformed sol- diers and a fife and drum corp. Fort Henry brings to life our military past with daily re-enactments and guided tours. Paddle along the shoreline dot- ted with scruff vegetation to Navy Bay where a Martello tower rises from the cool waters. On the point is a rough beach area great for landing on a calm day to stretch your legs and view the fort more closely. After paddling around this area per- haps a visit within the walls will enhance your day of paddling.

To the east of the fort lies Deadman’s Bay. Within the shallow waters of this bay is a similar shoreline to Navy Bay complete with a second

looming tower. In the depths of the bay you can float above wooden warships that were scuttled following the War of 1812. On a calm day you can see these ships of the past peering towards the blue sky from the lake’s rocky bottom. Similarly, a few miles across the lake at Garden Island, other wrecks can be viewed. The paddle to Garden Island is about two miles and requires a strong and experienced paddler in the event the winds pick up.

Across the bay lies Cedar Island. This small island is part of St. Lawrence Islands National Park, Canada’s oldest and smallest national park stretching from Cedar Island to Brockville through a series of islands protecting a unique natural environment on the Frontenac Axis. This narrow geological area connects the Canadian Shield to the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. This strip of land acts as a corridor for animals and plants to move north and south. These islands are home to plants and animals not usually found in this area but in areas further to the south or north. Cedar Island makes an excellent place for a picnic lunch, complete with a hiking trail, a Martello tower and ghosts. Perhaps, you will see Elizabeth who mysteriously disappeared on the island and is still waiting for her beloved Robert James to return. She never believed he drowned on September 12, 1846 and has waited endlessly for his return.

The Rideau Canal

Lake Ontario’s weather may not always be conducive to a relaxing paddle. With high winds, this Great Lake is for a strong and experienced paddler. If you’re leary about the winds on the lake and are looking for a quiet paddle while maintaining a sense of history combined with Canadian Shield scenery, the Rideau Canal is a great option.

The Rideau Canal is really not a canal. It is a 202 kilometre waterway extending from Kingston to Ottawa comprised of 24 lockstations, 47 locks and numerous lakes and rivers. This waterway only consists of 19 kilometres of man-made canal and structures. The native peoples of this area used these waters for hundreds of years prior to its construction.

Following the War of 1812, the British government wanted a safer and more efficient method of moving men and supplies from Montreal to Kingston and beyond. It was feared that if the St. Lawrence River fell under the control of the Americans, Upper Canada would be cut off from the rest of the British Empire. The British fears were nearly realized when it was discovered following the completion of the war in 1815 that the U.S. Secretary of War, James Madison, had developed such a plan. Just think, if the war had not ended at this time, Kingston could very well be part of the United States today!

In charge of building the canal was Lt. Colonel John By, a Royal Engineer. From the wilderness, using natural lakes, rivers and beaver meadows, By cre- ated a series of stone locks to move men and supplies quickly from Bytown (present day Ottawa) to Kingston and beyond. Although plagued by malar- ia, a lack of infrastructure and harsh working conditions, the Rideau Canal was completed in only six years! Today the locks are maintained as By built them between 1826 and 1832.

Instead of locking through military boats and barges, the canal is now used for pleasure boats of varying sizes. For a $60.00 transit pass you can paddle the entire 202 kilometre distance without ever having to portage. Within the lock chamber, casually hold one of the plastic cables running along the lock wall to float gracefully from one level to the next. If you prefer to portage or need to get out for a stretch, many lockstations have signs indicating a portage route and log rafts to allow paddlers to easily exit or enter their kayak.

Lake Ontario to Kingston Mills

The Rideau Canal from Lake Ontario to Kingston Mills makes an excellent 6.9 kilometre morning paddle. Enter the canal from Lake Ontario by passing north under the Lasalle Causeway. The landscape is transformed from a cityscape to a narrowing river that becomes reed-lined forming the Cataraqui Marsh. The Kingston Mills lockstation is carved from granite rock on the edge of the Cataraqui River and features three locks in flight; a turning basin, a detached lock and one of four defensible blockhouses built on the Rideau Canal. This stone and wood blockhouse is open to the public and is furnished to the period. A great place for lunch.

For a different canal flavour, drive 24 kilometres from Kingston to the Upper Brewers Lockstation. This lockstation is unique as it melds two distinct geological areas. Downstream from the lock the limestone plains of Kingston dominate. Upstream, the Frontenac Axis rises to the foreground.

The put-in is easy at the top of the lockstation on a grass embankment. Paddling north through a winding narrows you can picture the once plummeting Cataraqui River. As the first bend approaches, lilac bushes and mixed bush push their way out over the calm blue waters. On the hill to the right is the now vacant defensible lockmasters house that was built after the Oregon Crisis and the Upper Canada Rebellions.

Paddling toward Cranberry Lake, the right shoreline rises forming what is known as the Court of the Duke. A short distance ahead on an outcrop is the Profile of the Duke. It resembles a facial profile. It is said to be named after the Duke of Wellington who was instrumental in the building of the Rideau as the Minister of Defence in England at the time.

Once on the lake, Beaupre Island offers its natural beauty with mixed trees and birds singing in chorus. This nationally owned island is now uninhabit- ed. At the turn of the century a clubhouse was built on the southern end of the island and a farm was homesteaded in the middle. These buildings are now shadows of a bygone era on the Rideau Canal as the natural growth of the area reclaims the land. Today, this island is being examined as part of a Black Rat Snake study in conjunction with St. Lawrence Islands National Park.

Whether paddling Lake Ontario or the more protected waters of the Rideau Canal, kayaking in this region is steep in a vibrant history accented by fantastic scenery bracketed by the evening and morning sun.

Don MacKay is an avid kayaker and canoeist who works as a heritage blacksmith and historical interpreter for Parks Canada on the Rideau Canal National Historic Site of Canada. He also represents the Rideau Canal on paddling issues. 

Screen_Shot_2015-12-23_at_3.40.47_PM.pngThis article first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here. 

Trip Photography: Going Wide

Photo: flickr.com/sfagogo
Trip Photography: Going Wide

Have you been using the telephoto zoom lens that came packaged with your camera for all of your photography? Although this lens allows you to shoot around camp and draw in elusive wildlife, it tends to produce a certain sameness or lack of variety. A wide angle lens can be a great addition to your camera bag to expand your horizons (pun intended) and open up a whole new world of creativity. Wide angle lenses offer an increased field of view and an increased depth of field, however, as with anything in life, you need to know how to use these features in order to maximize performance and obtain the best possible results.

Before discussing techniques, let’s talk tools. A 50mm lens, often called a normal lens, takes in about the same field of view and magnification as normal eyesight. Technically speaking any lens with a focal length less than 50mm is a wide angle lens. Technically this is true, but most photographers consider wide angle to be anywhere from 35mm all the way down to the super-wide angle 15 or 16 mm lenses. These lenses are available as fixed focal lengths, which are usually less expensive, but not as versatile as zoom lens combina- tions such as 18-35 mm. Generally speaking, the 24 to 28 mm range is commonly used for landscapes, providing a wide range of view with little distortion at the edges of the frame (more on that later). Moving down to lenses in the 17 to 21 mm range offers a huge jump in the amount of land- scape included in the frame, but the likelihood of distortion of the image increases.

The most common reason people buy wide angle lenses is to simply jam a whole lot more scenery into the frame. While it’s true you can get most of the Grand Canyon in one image, there is a more effective way of getting the most from these lenses. Wide angle lenses emphasize large sweeping panoramas and therefore you desper- ately need subject matter in the immediate fore- ground to draw the viewer into the frame. Because wide angle lenses have such a large field of view, any subject in the middle foreground tends to look pushed back towards the horizon. To overcome this and make your photos more interesting, get really close to your subject and then get even one step closer!

Let’s look at the kayaker shot. Although I am only two to three feet from the paddler, using a 20mm lens, I can include most of the boat, the sur- rounding reeds, and the lake spreading out to the horizon. This is a good example of getting much closer to your subject than would normally feel comfortable. If I had been 10 or 15 ft away, the kayak would have been pushed into the back- ground; it would have lost its effectiveness as a design element (drawing you into the scene) and the foreground would have been empty and uninteresting. It will take some getting used to, but the fun in using a wide angle lens is getting up close and personal.

Another great advantage of wide angle lenses is the amazing depth of field. Depth of field is camera speak meaning how much of the photo is in focus. For example, the large telephoto lenses used in sports photography have a very shallow depth of field. This means that only the focal point, say the athlete’s face, and a very small area in front and behind are in focus—6 to 12 inches with a 600mm lens. Conversely, using wide angle lens- es would give you 3 to 4 feet of sharp focus. Combine this inherent depth of field advantage with an ƒstop of ƒ11 or ƒ16 and you will have photos that are in focus from the near foreground all the way to the horizon.

Notice in the meadow and mountain image, the wildflowers only two feet from the camera are in focus as well as Mt. Robson several kilometres away. With everything in focus it allowed me to use the line of colour of the flowers to lead the eye across the meadow to the distant peak.

The incredible depth of field offered by wide angle lenses brings almost the entire frame into focus and produces an image that is more restful for the human eye. The natural tendency for our eyes is to quickly search for areas of sharpness to rest upon. Once the brain realizes that everything is in focus it relaxes and is free to wander through the frame.

With this enhanced sharpness notice how you are able to see detail in the red kayak as well as the sweeping expanse of the red granite of Georgian Bay in the distance. Also notice how easy it is for your eyes to move comfortably back and forth from foreground to background taking in all the details of the scene.

Try thinking of your lenses as tools to construct your photos. Your telephoto lens is great for focusing on only the subject, eliminating much of the surroundings. A wide angle excels at inclusion and gives your subject a sense of place in its natural surroundings. By adding a wide angle lens to your toolbox and using good technique you will add a new dynamic to your images.

Wide Angle Lens Tips:

  • Due to the optics of the lens, straight-line objects such as paddles, fence posts and telephone poles on the edge of the viewfinder may get warped or distorted. Try to keep these objects away from the edges of the frame when composing the shot. Although, sometimes a lit- tle warpage can make some scenes more interesting.
  •  Ensure your flash will cover a wide angle field of view. Many built-in pop up flash units will only cover a field of view for a 28mm lens.
  •  The front lens element or glass of a wide angle is quite large so it is crucial that you use the proper lens hood to avoid lens flare in your photos. On 20 mm and lower lenses, the front element protrudes slightly so attaching a UV fil- ter will provide some protection against scratches.
  •  Go to a good camera shop and play with different lenses on your camera before you buy. This gives you a sense of how close to your subject you have to be and shows you how great an area these lenses take in. Even better, borrow or rent a few different wide angle lenses for your next paddling trip to see which provides the most pleasing results.

Screen_Shot_2015-12-23_at_3.40.47_PM.pngThis article first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here. 

S@#%-Put: Ocean Bathroom Advice

Illustration: Scott Van de Sande
S@#%-Put: Ocean Bathroom Advice

I woke up after a dozen hours in the sack with a familiar sense of urgency. I know some folks who would have alerted their friends with some sort of a rude announcement about turtles’ heads or the like, but I just lumbered silently past Dave’s tent to the other side of the island. I had planned carefully, auguring this moment last night when I was stuffing myself with refried bean and ground soy burritos after a day of typical west coast rain in Desolation Sound. So when I’d spotted the fine flat dish of bark by our unloading site, I’d picked it up and stashed it in my vestibule for this moment. 

Don’t ever try this in fresh water, but a great way to dispose of human waste on the coast is the shit-put, recommended by Peter McGee in Kayak Routes of the Pacific Northwest Coast. This is a good way to speed the breakdown of waste in the marine environment and avoid the contamination of shellfish beds and beaches in popular paddling areas. McGee advises, “Find something such as a large, flat rock to serve as a platter to launch the feces into the water. Then do your business a comfortable distance from the water, take the rock to the water’s edge and throw it as far as you can into the ocean. It may not be pretty but it works.”

It can also be surprisingly entertaining. Now I took the bark and admired it’s flat, slightly concave surface and football size. “Perfect,” I thought, smiling in the chill air of a February morning. The rocky point I’d cased out the day before, on the other side of the small island, provided a perfect launching point into the deep water of an open channel—the best possible disposal site on the heavily used Curme Islands—and the best view from a low squatting position one could possibly dream of.

Low clouds of a breezeless morning draped over the peaks of the sound, melding with the winter white amidst the trees high on the slopes of East Redonda Island and majestic Mount Denman behind. The crowds of summer sailors were slumbering back in the city or enacting their own morning rituals over warm porcelain hundreds of kilometers away as I felt the bite of cold air and settled down to enjoy one of life’s great unsung pleasures before the deserted tableau of God’s own bathroom.

Then I gingerly carried the bark to the edge of the rocky promontory with the fruit of my labours painstakingly coiled atop it. I should note that such scatological intimacy is a great opportunity to assess the efficiency of the trip diet. I resolved then and there that there are certain seeds I won’t bother adding to my next batch of trail mix.

I wound up for the launch and then paused. There’s always a limit to how much energy you can safely apply at this moment. Too much force and the enterprise can go badly awry, and this is not something you ought to mess around with in a place where there are no hot showers. Not enough force, however, and the whole point of the shit-put is defeated. Pondering this delicate calculus – EUREKA! I had a moment of semi-divine inspiration. 

I set the bark carefully afloat at the water’s edge. And there drifted my pride and joy, an impressive three-burrito-sized, dirt-hued monument capped by burnt toilet paper, still smoking like a pyre and lazily spinning on the limpid sur- face of the morning tide. I was tempted to christen it with champagne! But I had another, eco-friendly plan.

I would throw rocks just short of my barque of bark, allowing the ripples to push it farther adrift until – in a bittersweet finale – I would sink it with a direct hit. I had lofty visions of a new kayaking sport. Fun for the whole group! The rocks and trash talk would fly until a winner could gleefully declare, “I sunk your battleshit!”

But the sport was pre-demonstration phase, and my partners were still asleep. So I began lob- bing rocks until the target was a healthy distance toward international waters. Then I remembered that my environmental ethics are a good deal bet- ter than my throwing arm. Try as I might, my efforts fell short and pushed the fecal barge further out into the channel, where it was succumbing to the pull of the ebbing tide out toward the Georgia Strait. It listed slightly to port – or was that starboard? Water gently lapped at the cargo, but the bark nevertheless sailed true and showed no sign of capsizing.

I threw until my shoulder ached and my empty stomach urged me back to the campsite. With feelings of defeat mixed with an odd sense of mis- chievous pride, I saluted and turned my back on what was fast becoming but a speck on the still sea, like just another piece of driftwood riding the tides of fate to its own peculiar destiny. “What if…,” an absurd hope crossed my mind. But then I dismissed it and walked across the island to eat breakfast and share my morning tale. 

Never underestimate the entertainment value of a good shit story in the bush. I launched a debate about the trajectories and speeds of tides, driftwood and homeward-bound kayaks, and soon there was a sealed bet against the odds of a rendezvous with my morning creation. Wilderness ethics had become a business venture.

A couple of hours later we packed up the campsite and aimed our bows away from Desolation Sound, following the tide toward the put-in. I was the first to spot the Unidentified Floating Object.

“That couldn’t be it,” said Dave. “There’s no way. No way!” But the speck floating unevenly on the water a kilometer away from camp looked familiar.

“I think it is!” I proclaimed with mounting excitement. The cadence of spinning paddles increased as we raced to see who could be the first to confirm the sighting, and then back-paddled furiously as the verdict became undeniable.

I pulled gingerly alongside the floating bark and scooped it onto my paddle, while Dave stifled hysterics long enough to capture the moment without capsizing, camera and all.

“You, my friend, owe me ten bucks!” I said. “That’s enough to buy three more burritos.” I may finally have figured out how to make a career out of sea kayaking.

Before paddling away, I carefully inverted my paddle blade and finished what I’d begun. 

Rolling: Evil Exercise or Reliable Rescue?

Photo: flickr.com/StefanSchmitz
Rolling: Evil Exercise or Reliable Rescue?

Many sea kayakers will still knowledgeably expound on how the notion of rolling a fully loaded sea kayak is just plain silly. These self-proclaimed experts will even say that learning to roll is dangerous to your health screaming, “It takes only twelve pounds of pressure to dislocate a shoul- der!” Yeah, and it only takes about three pounds of hot air to push many sea kayakers over.

The origins of the you can’t roll a sea kayak attitude grew from the very pos- itive and inclusive approach taken to marketing the sport in North America. Kayak touring has been promoted as an activity that anyone can do.And that’s true.Almost everyone loves to get out on the water and skills like the roll should never be a prerequisite. The sport should never become elitist in the way that it has in some places, nor however, should the skill set available to paddlers be misrepresented in an attempt to foster growth of the industry.

In the U.K. for instance, the sport of sea kayaking is promoted quite differently. It is a far more exclusive affair governed by the British Canoe Union (BCU). Ostensibly set up as a club, aspiring paddlers work their way through a rigorous testing system and are judged by accredited coaches in order to improve their skill rating. To its credit, paddlers do typically have a very good skill set under this system but it also discourages many potential paddlers.

In America, promoters of sea kayaking say it is available to all: the old, the young, the wounded and infirm. As long as you have the cash for a Kevlar sea kayak they will encourage you to paddle it. Of course you’ll also need a veritable mountain of res- cue accessories. And no, you don’t have to learn any pesky skills or even get wet. Rolling? That’s much too difficult. Damn near impossible really. It’s not necessary and besides you’ll get cold and wet… Brrrr. But here, buy this fleece and dry top just in case. And instead of learning to roll, buy a paddle float, it will look really technical on the deck of your new boat!

Isay learn to roll dependably and it will immediately replace all other self-rescues as your primary choice for righting your capsized kayak. A dependable roll is the ultimate self-rescue technique, period. End of story.

Surely, you are thinking to yourself, this guy can’t be suggesting that rolling is a substitute for the much loved and cherished paddle float rescue, not to mention the myriad of other solo rescue procedures filling the how-to books over-flowing your kayak hatches? Yup, that’s exactly what I’m proposing; rolling is the first and best option. This does not mean that I do not carry a paddle float as a back-up. And what is this obsession with the paddle float anyway? Beginners insist that they need one with their rental boat and they tell me it is unsafe and dangerous to be without one. But when asked, their blank looks reveal a beautifully humbling moment of realization,“Umm, no. How do I use it?”

Sorry to keep kicking a sacred cow, but rolling means staying in the boat, reducing immersion time to seconds instead of minutes. It also reduces what gets immersed by about fifty percent, keeping the lower body relatively dry. Seconds after the capsize, you are upright in an active position to continue paddling, not wallowing around surrounded by gear, wrestling a beach ball float onto your paddle to perform a manoeuvre created by Spiderman and made famous by some bearded old windbag in a Tilley hat.

Afriend of mine has been known to refer to a day out in flat, calm, sunny conditions as,“the sort of paddling that gives sea kayaking a bad name.”What she’s on about is the joy of paddling in wind and waves, catching surf rides and, yes, occasionally even getting knocked over. For too many otherwise capable paddlers, it is the fear of capsizing that limits them to flat, boring conditions. Just one good surf ride will hook many paddlers and launch them on a quest to build the skills needed to play in the surf zone or enjoy following seas and big swells. If that’s not enough, knowing that you won’t have to exit your boat unexpectedly means that you can paddle nude.

Despite what a few anointed gurus might wish you to believe there is no hocus pocus, magic beans or philosopher’s stone required to learn to roll a kayak. If you are relatively fit and have the desire, chances are you are a roller waiting to happen. Give it a bash. Be good to yourself, get qualified instruction and be patient with your progress. Even if you decide that rolling isn’t for you, you’ll have learned more about your sport and become more comfortable upside down in your boat.The ability to roll will change the whole way you paddle and give you the confidence to play in your boat like never before. 

And if you happen to do a roll in front of boats self-righting?” Nod vigorously and say one of your buddies who’s in a kayak for the yes. 

Screen Shot 2015 12 23 at 3.40.47 PMThis article first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here. 

Editorial: No Batteries Required

Photo: flickr.com/rain0975
Editorial: No Batteries Required

I don’t have kids, but I think we can learn plenty from them. I like the way they just go ahead and do things without asking for instructions. Parents may not see this individualism as a selling feature, nevertheless hand a kid a kayak and she can find water in the middle of the Sahara (or any other dry place for that matter). If I had to choose between an old bearded local with a wishbone shaped piece of alder witching around like some gregorian chanting Ray Charles and a twelve year old in flip-flops dragging a recreational kayak, I’d be drilling my well wherever she said there was water.

I live in a small town where the locals drive pick-up trucks to church, bingo is still played with chips and you can run a tab at the general store. It’s not a kayaking town. Bobby owns a skidder and works in the bush; Darcy’s dad owns the garage but he works for a local carpenter, and Glen is from here but drives into the city to work. As unlikely as it may seem, I’ve had many a foot-on-the-bumper conversations with Bobby, Darcy and Glen about getting their kids kayaks for the lake, camp or beach.

Kids in my town started cutting grass at ten and most have their own ATVs before high school.Yet somehow the kayaks we haul around with us not only appeal to these kids, they know more about kayaks than we do.

They tell me about how cool kayaks would be for floating down the river after meeting and escaping a bloody battle with pirates.The bungie deck rigging that I thought ideal for charts and bilge pumps is apparently really good for stowing plywood swords.The Hula sit-on-top we reviewed in this issue is the perfect deep-sea diving platform. And the bow com- partment of the Silhouette is best suited for live bait with the larger stern hatch to be kept for the fish, of course.

Kids are smarter these days. They have compressed curriculums, computers in their bedrooms and organized solar car rallies as part of grade three science class. Even with the new math and GPS chipped Lego, plop a kayak down in front of kids and they will show you to the water—no bat- teries or solar panels required.

Screen_Shot_2015-12-23_at_3.40.47_PM.pngThis article first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here. 

Editorial: Having Spirit and your Aerial Blunt Too

Photo: courtesy Flickr.com/StefanSchmitz

This was a fun issue of Rapid Mag to put together, although it was not without much contemplating and head scratching. We’ve been thinking lately that we might be editorially missing the boat, so to speak. We wondered why we were running four aerial how-to articles teaching moves done only by kayaking’s elite. What are we doing for the average weekend paddler?

Thinking about it a little longer we realized if we were in this situation five or ten years ago we’d be wondering if we should be running articles about spinning and cartwheeling or enders and side surfing. At the time, these were moves done only by the pros but are now well within the realm of first year paddlers.

Just about the time we had firmed-up our editorial schedule and were feeling pretty good about our intentions of progressing the sport, we received a letter to the editor. Ralf Meyer of Rockland, Ontario wrote: “Rapid is growing up with the sport, moving its coverage, opinions and features up towards an elite level at roughly the same pace as paddling expertise would for a paddler who was a novice when you were in your infancy as a fledgling magazine… The spirit of paddling is lost as expertise and proficiency increase and technique replaces nature.”

RIVER RUNNING BOATS ARE THE FUTURE

I don’t think aerial kayaking is any less spiritual than tandem canoeing a class III wilderness river; but Ralf’s letter did remind us that paddling can be many different things to different people.As boats become even more specialized, paddlers will realize what boat designers have been battling with for the past few years—it is damn near impossible to combine a river running boat with a modern day freestyle machine. So why bother? Because we don’t have the history of other sports such as windsurfing and skiing, we as paddlers are just coming to terms with the concept and investment of owning at least two boats to do it all.

After putting together our “Rapid Insider” boat reviews for the fall issue we should be equally pleased with Liquidlogic for pushing the freestyle envelope with their Skip and Pop as with Wave Sport and Dagger. The Super EZ and GT are designs for the huge number of freeboaters—paddlers like Ralf for whom the spirit lies in the river, not in the air.

Despite the lack of industry hype, river running boats are the future. They are boats people can paddle; they are the boats that are growing paddling and making it accessible. As the line between river runner and full-on play-boat widens, your river runner may have to share garage space with your new aerial spud boat.We suspect soon even intermediates will be hucking huge aerial moves, just like we learned to pirouette. 

Screen_Shot_2016-04-18_at_2.49.09_PM.pngThis article first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Rapid Magazine.

 

Open Boat Review: Pyranha Prelude

Photo: Rapid Staff
Boat Review: Pyranha's Prelude

For the ’93 World Freestyle Championships, guys like Mark Scriver and Paul Mason were taking knives to perfectly good Dagger Ocoees. It was a dodgy process of cutting out the most stable, middle foot of the boat and then bonding the two ends back together, hoping to get the rocker profile just right. Even with a coat of paint the boats looked brutal. Although not pretty, the “cut downs” were a work of art. Scriver and Mason had taken a Franky Hubbard/Dagger-designed Ocoee and turned it into a boat that reacted quickly, initiated more easily and could run tighter stuff. They had created the backwoods version of the new Pyranha Prelude.

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all whitewater canoes ]

The hull story

The most significant difference between the hull of the Prelude and any other “real” open boat is that it’s made of kayak plastic—polyethylene—like the more rodeo-specific canoes such as the Pyranha Spanish Fly and the now defunct Dagger Quake and Aftershock. Open canoeists can now seal-launch and rock 360 with the same carefree attitude as kayakers.

The Ocoee is most similar to the Prelude and is a good starting point for a comparison. The Prelude measures almost two feet shorter at 9’5”. Much like the earlier cut-down Ocoees the length was taken out of the middle rather than the bow and stern. What you are left with is a super-short, extremely rockered little craft—we haven’t seen continuous rocker like this since the Dagger Profit. Pyranha narrowed the Prelude to about 27 inches, but the most significant measurement is the bottom between the chines. A stock Ocoee is about 26.5 inches wide, flat-bottomed ending in a hard chine; the Prelude’s bottom is only 23 inches wide and rounder with softer chines and more flare. The mathematical differences result is a much livelier boat.

Pyranha Prelude Specs
Length: 290cm / 9.5 ft
Width: 68cm / 27 in
Weight: 22kg / 48.4lbs
MSRP: $2,085 CDN
pyranha.com

Climbing in

The Prelude initially feels very unstable, especially while getting into Pyranha’s foam pillar bulkhead system. Once settled, you realize that your knees are closer together than you’re used to and the boat is much more nimble. You may want to carve out the foam-padded walls locating your knees further apart for more control. The Prelude snaps from tilt to tilt catching its secondary stability just below the gunwales.

A few strokes forward and you’ll notice its short length, but more so its extreme rocker. If you’re not smooth with your forward strokes—using torso rotation—it’s easy to rock the Prelude front to back instead of driving it forward. Play around with the seat placement before you commit to its location—try slightly forward of the traditional seven inches behind centre. Set the seat too far back in the Prelude and it tends to wheelie with every forward stroke. Outfitted properly, the Prelude’s quick edge-to-edge transfer and nimbleness is both inspiring and unnerving.

Down river

At just over nine feet, the Prelude still paddles like a real open canoe. It shines in tight and technical rivers and creeks where one or two strokes is enough to boost you out of an eddy for a short ferry and then over a drop. It is quite a bit slower than a full-sized Ocoee, which is more noticeable in the flat stretches than in the whitewater. It surfs well, so you can compensate for the lack of hull speed by strategically using the water, surfing the troughs.

The Prelude’s hard chines will carve a nice turn but to keep it carving without spinning you need to fight the spin momentum with a stern draw or cross bow stern draw. The Prelude spins so quickly, you seldom need to stick an eddy turn with an offside tilt. If you must, the semi-hard chine will engage and stop you dead in your tracks. Offside tilts are more useful for quick mid-current changes in direction.

The Prelude’s extreme rocker makes it a boofing machine. With a strong forward stroke, a bit of a hip thrust and knee lift, this boat sails over drops and across small holes. The bow rides up and over crashing waves and holes as the flare sheds a good deal of the water, keeping you fairly dry.

Rolling from your offside is a bit tricky. When upside down, the Prelude tends to rest to one side or the other. If you happen to go over on your offside you’ll have to resort to the underwater ballet of getting it to turtle to your rolling side. Once you’re set up, the Prelude snaps upright far more quickly than a full-sized open canoe. After a roll, the Prelude’s included full-length bags, saddle and foam walls displace enough water that it is almost a pleasure to paddle to shore, not to mention quite a bit more stable.

[ Further reading: DIY Whitewater Canoe Outfitting ]

Prelude to fun

Open boaters who are bored with their existing boats and are willing to venture into a sportier package should climb into a Prelude. It paddles like a real open canoe but takes advantage of polyethylene, so we can scuff it up without tearing into layers of ABS. The Prelude is extremely responsive, quick turning and still tracks reasonably well, but unlike with the cut-down Ocoees the only cutting and pasting you need to do is fine tuning and anchoring the outfitting.

This article originally appeared in Rapid‘s Winter 2002 issue. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions here, or browse the archives here.

Boat Review: The Silhouette by Northern Lights

Photo: Northern Lights
Boat Review: The Silhouette by Northern Lights

Northern Lights Canoe and Kayak is by today’s measure a small boat builder. Based in Barrie, Ontario, with shops now in Collingwood ON and Fort Meyers FL, Northern Lights began as a canoe manufacturer supplying boats to the popular Muskoka and Algonquin Park regions. For the last five years they have been quietly turning out about eight touring kayaks a week and have increased their line-up to include five different models.

At 15’10”, the Northern Lights Silhouette is designed with a smaller sized paddler in mind. The soft shined hull and 24” beam offer an excellent platform for learning or perfecting kayak touring essential strokes and skills. The soft chines provide a comfortable transition from primary to secondary or final stability. Northern Lights intended the Silhouette as a smaller person’s craft but we were pleased to find that our larger and longer legged reviewers were able to enter and exit the boat safely and comfortably.  A smaller paddler may want to customize their seat placement slightly forward of the factory placement for better contact with the thigh brace area.

Typically, shorter boars are slower and turn more quickly than longer boats. But what you really need to look at is not the length but the waterline – how much of the boat length is in the water. The Northern Lights Silhouette is a shorter boat yet they have maintained its waterline by producing a boat with very little rocker. So although it is under sixteen feet the Silhouette feels quick to accelerate and will not be left behind in a group of seventeen to eighteen foot boats. The long waterline makes tracking without the rudder a breeze and with the rudder engaged almost idiot proof.

If required, the fully anodized Feathercraft rudder system is easily deployed by a rope system located on the right hand side of the cockpit. With the rudder in the up position, we liked that there is very little play in the pedals.

The hatches are large and can accommodate most sizes of dry bags, making the Silhouette easy to load. The hatch covers are fibreglass with a gasket rand fitting into an internal hatch rim. Fastex buckles and Velcro backed nylon webbing straps complete the system. This closure is more than adequate in normal paddling conditions and only leaked slightly during an afternoon of rolling and rescue practice. The Silhouette is a snap to roll.

The interior is nicely finished with an adjustable high-back seat and foam padding under the front of the cockpit for your knees. The Silhouette comes standard with plastic foot pedals, stainless steel fasteners and cables. The exterior of our Silhouette was very aesthetically pleasing with a blended paint job, recessed deck fittings, perimeter line, ample deck rigging and large comfortable carrying handles.

Small, local builders offer you the ability to customize your boat with colour, materials, seat, bulkhead placements and deck rigging configurations. You also get the satisfaction of wandering in and brushing shoulders with the person building your boat.

SPECS

Length: 15ft 10in
Width: 24 in
Weight: 48 lbs
Cockpit: 16 in x 31 in
Front hatch: 21 US gallons
Rear hatch: 36 US gallons
Total volume: 110 US gallons
SRP: $2750 CDN

Screen_Shot_2015-07-02_at_2.30.19_PM.pngThis article first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Adventure Kayak magazine. For more boat reviews, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

Boat Review: The Escape by Formula Kayaks

Boat Review: The Escape by Formula Kayaks

The new Escape from Formula Kayaks is a nicely outfitted recreational/touring hybrid from Mid-Canada Fiberglass, the long-established builders of Scott Canoes. The same company built a giant model flying saucer for the Northern Ontario hamlet of Moonbeam, so perhaps it’s no wonder they had the know-how to pull off a surprisingly sleek and quick 13.5-foot kayak.

Nobody will get claustrophobic in the Escape’s generous cockpit. With no hatch or bulkhead in the front half of the boat, there’s miles of room for long legs, enormous feet, snacks and cameras. You can easily stow a drybag in the bow for extra gear on overnight trips. Combine that with 85 litres in the watertight rear hatch and you’ve got space for as much stuff as you’d want to schlep above the high-tide line.

Slim paddlers can easily pad out the hips and moulded fibreglass thigh braces for a secure, high-performance fit. The fibreglass seat, however, is a tad reminiscent of the bolted-down furniture in fast-food restaurants and won’t agree with everyone. You’re likely to want extra padding even though the seat is already perched several centimetres above the floor. This seat’s better half is the soft Immersion Research backband with its ratcheted, ski boot-style buckle.

On the water, the broad, shallow-v hull makes a stable platform great for birdwatching, photography, and other serene pursuits. Putting a moderate tilt onto the boat’s multi-chine side gives it a second keel with a shorter waterline, enabling quick, neatly carved outside turns.

The sturdy, retractable rudder is easily deployed by a pull-cord just to the right of the cockpit without a clumsy backward reach. But since there’s no cleat on the deck to secure the pull-cord, the rudder tends to rise and stay out of the water when it bumps over seaweed or logs. We also found it hard to get the rudder to sit back into the narrow groove that’s moulded into the rear deck for this purpose. A cradle to hold the rudder on the deck would eliminate play in the foot pedals along with the need for the bulky weather stripping that’s been added to prevent it from scratching the fibreglass. The rudder is optional and the Escape tracks well without it in all but the strongest crosswinds. On edge, the boat turns at least as fast without the rudder as with, so paddle the boat before you fork out the extra 22 percent for this add-on.

With features like recessed deck fittings, molded gutters for draining around the cockpit, a metal security bar behind the cockpit for attaching a cable-lock, comfy suitcase-style grab handles, and bungy cords forward of the foot pedals to keep them from sliding off the rails, the Escape has all the bells and whistles of its higher-volume touring cousins in a size that’s more suitable for luxury-laden day trips and weekend excursions. You also get the light weight, smooth finish and clean lines of a fibreglass boat in a user-friendly design usually reserved for plastic.

Specs

  • Length: 13 ft 6 in
  • Width: 24.5 in
  • Mid-ship depth: 12 in
  • Weight: 36 lbs
  • Cockpit: 32.5 x 18 in
  • Carrying capacity: 240 lbs
  • Rear hatch volume: 85 L
  • MSRP: $1,799 CAD without rudder; $2,195 CAD with rudder

Screen_Shot_2015-06-29_at_9.39.17_AM.pngThis article first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Adventure Kayak magazine. For more boat reviews, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

Dagger’s GT Kayak: Whitewater Kayak Review

Scott MacGregor surfing on a wave on the Ottawa River in Dagger Kayak's GT
For the love of surf and the love of river running, Dagger Kayak's GT is your perfect balance. | Photo: Rapid Staff
Dagger GT / GTX Specs
Length: 7 ft 10 in / 8 ft 2 in
Width: 24 in / 25.5 in
Volume: 67 gal / 76 gal
Weight: 38 lbs / 40 lbs
Cockpit: 34 in x19 in / 34 in x 19 in
Paddler Weight: 90-180 lbs / 140-230 lbs
Standard Features: Precision seat, thigh braces and Clutch Outfitting System
MSRP: $1,495.00
dagger.com

With all the hype freestyle paddling has received it is easy to forget that a vast majority of paddlers prefer running rivers.

For park and play paddlers the concept of river running consists of limping down the river, helplessly floating past the hero ferries of yesterday in boats designed to maximize their freestyle potential.

Yes, it’s true some playboats are decent enough river runners and they’ve helped push the envelope of what is acceptable but they lack the exhilarating all-river performance of longer traditional boats. Without any more editorial tangents let me introduce the new Dagger GT.

Dagger Kayak’s goal was not to create a playboat that could river run nor to design a river runner that could play…but to create a boat that was equally balanced at both. Partially as a replacement of the popular Redline series and partially as an evolution of the more playful Outlaw/Showdown series, the new GT and GTX were borne of a desire to fill a niche that was left empty. Dagger wanted a boat that is equally at home running harder rivers and playing by today’s new school standards.

An 8-foot kayak by Dagger Kayak’s for river running and surfing

Coming in at just under 8 feet in length, Dagger Kayak’s GT splits the difference between traditional river runners and park and play boats. If you’re the type of person who likes a sweeping oversimplification of design we’d say the GT series is an old school RPM combined with a new school ID.

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all river running kayaks ]

Like the Dagger ID, the GT and GTX are relatively narrow and have a very slight curvature across the planing surface combined with raised edges. The design theory is that you can more easily tilt from edge to edge than you can with a wider, completely flat hulled boat. Rather than going with the more traditional river running continuous rocker, Dagger shortened the planing surface putting a hard rocker break just ahead and behind the paddler.

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all surfing kayaks ]

Mark Lyle of the Dagger design team explains: “We went through five prototypes before we had what we wanted. There is a lot of trial and error involved in boat design, more than some people might realize. It was important for the boat to feel loose on a wave but we noticed that a longer planing surface made a lot of other moves harder. As soon as we shortened the planing surface we could boof and pivot better and the boat responded better to paddler input.”

The GT’s kayak outfitting accessories

Dagger’s new Clutch Outfitting isn’t industry leading but it contains all the essentials a paddler requires to be safe and comfortable. The kit has a certain sense of familiarity to it that leaves paddlers with a feeling of self-empowerment instead of shyly asking the store staff what the new auto-ratcheting, micro-adjustable, heat-moldable, thermo-resin doodad does to ensure they can get out safely.

[ Read more: 7 Items To Make Your River Running Life Even Better ]

The peel and stick hip pads and assorted foam shims are all pretty self-explanatory and likely revolutionary compared to the typical river runner’s blue foam and duct tape jobs—brutal. The fully adjustable thigh braces are a pretty slick system with no exposed bolts and the seat and Bomber Gear backband are fully adjustable. Throwing in a compact screwdriver and a little wrench would be a nice touch.

Dagger Kayaks’ GT adjustable sit-in kayak seats

Short people win once again; they can move the adjustable bulkhead wherever they want. The seat is adjustable from front to back but should be set for boat performance not fit (more on that later). With the seat in a centered or forward position the narrow bow results in a pretty snug fit for tall or large footed paddlers.

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all accessories ]

Dagger Kayak’s GT is a boat you are likely to spend hours in and not likely to flatwater cartwheel so taller paddlers of any weight might need to try the GTX to be comfortable. Tip: removing the foam from the plastic bulkhead buys you almost another inch. Coming back to the GT after paddling boats like the G-Force we realized foot and leg comfort is more a factor of width than length. Despite the added length of the GT, the narrow bow made for a limited foot room.

A balanced whitewater kayak that promotes confidence

The first thing we noticed is that you need to get the GT trimmed properly—balanced from front to back or even slightly bow heavy. The short planing surface and hard rocker break just behind the seat allows you to, on command, roll back onto your stern raising the bow for boofing and crossing larger eddy lines.

If you’re not trimmed properly the boat is slower, you will fall off otherwise nice surf waves and you tend to wheelie or plane across currents instead of carving through them. Forget about working to keep the bow up, it doesn’t dive or pearl like the Redline.

Having a similar hull to the ID, the GT is an extremely user-friendly boat. With its raised edges and lots of flare, we were crossing eddy lines with hardly any tilt and the twitchy stern of the Redline is gone. The secondary and final stability promotes confidence. Paddlers accustomed to edgier boats found it a soft carver, those used to mushy modern playboats loved it.

[ View Video: Why Whitewater Rescue Skills Are Vital ]

Either way, both agreed the GT provides the experienced paddler the comfort zone needed for harder river runs while beginners and intermediates benefit from having a boat for which they don’t need to remember all the rules. One tester summed it up best, “I haven’t felt so at home in a boat since my RPM.” Why is the RPM one of the best selling boats? Because people are able to paddle it.

A user-friendly 8-foot kayak with lots of rocker

Eight feet and lots of rocker might be the perfect combo for blending flat, green all-day front surfs and respectable spinning. For a little perspective, the GT is only an inch longer than Wave Sport’s XXX. Get in a munchy side surf and you realize the GT is a longer, larger volume boat, and it’s not as easy as we remember to blast our way out. Which is okay, most likely GT owners aren’t really into big munchy holes anyway.

[ Read more: 5 Underrated Kayak Safety Skills ]

River runners aren’t hanging onto their five-year-old boats because they are cheap, there just isn’t a huge selection of new boats satisfying their needs. The evolution of rodeo boats has shown us that you don’t need ten feet of plastic to get down a river, but the hottest freestylers are now too specialized to be passed down and resold as all-river boats.

By combining the slippery feeling of their freestyle planing hulls with the user-friendliness of older, popular designs like the Redline and RPM, Dagger has the makings of another winner in their line-up. For 2003 Dagger will round out the GT series with a smaller version making the GT family a good choice for free-boaters, schools, clubs, new boaters and anyone else looking to catch an eddy. For more top picks and expert reviews, check out Paddling Magazine’s guide to the best whitewater kayaks here.

For the love of surf and the love of river running, Dagger Kayak’s GT is your perfect balance. Feature Photo: Rapid Staff

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