Category: Kayaking

Another boring paddling story

I’ve haven’t been writing about paddling much, mostly because I haven’t been paddling much. And I haven’t been paddling much because my shoulder recovery is not going as well as I’d hoped, and sometimes when I’ve gone paddling I’ve been in pain for days afterwards. But I’ve been making slow progress in getting some fitness back – on my best days, I can paddle about 2.5 miles without stopping, at about a mile per hour slower than I used to go 10 miles.
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Empire State Regatta

Today I went to a kayak race. Not, unfortunately, to race. I was there to act as time keeper.

It was a fun time. The weather was awesome, the venue was pretty good, and the organizer pulled out all the stops in terms of providing food, drink and entertainment. The only problem was the turn out. Basically we got the local paddle community, and Scott Stenberg up from near where I work, and that’s it. Nobody from the Adirondacks and nobody from out of state. That’s too bad.

Last year the same organizer ran a race, which was unfortunately the weekend between the 90 and Long Lake. But in spite of that, he had a huge crowd. But because he was a first time race director, he was completely overwhelmed and didn’t get any real results, just a list of boat numbers and their finish times, and didn’t have any real prize presentation. Every paddler wants to see proper results. I don’t know if this is an unfair stereotype, but it seems to me that canoers care more about prizes than kayakers do. I dont know if that’s why people stayed away this year, but I’m sure it’s a factor.

Any way, this year he’s doing it right. Results up quick, and some nice prizes. Hopefully, word will get out that the problems from last year were fixed, and the crowds will come back.

Help me, smart people

This is how the v-rack is attached to the rack
This is my new v-rack. The connection is simple and strong, but it’s too simple for me. It doesn’t allow for access to my hatchback – I could probably get it open a tiny bit, but I’m afraid of the sharp edge of the square bar and what it would do to the glass of the hatch. What I want is either a quick and easy way to remove the rack entirely, or to undo the back clamp and pivot the whole thing forward around the front clamp, or even better, a quick and easy way to loosen up the connection once I take the boat off, so that I can slide the whole rack forwards so it’s not interfering with the hatch, and then slide it back and tighten it up again.

Some of the ideas I’ve had:

  • A quick release skewer from a bike. Not sure if I could get the size I want or whatever.
  • Something like a cable clamp, preferably one that goes over center and locks down really well.
  • Something like a cotterless hitch pin.
  • A plastic knob or wing nut to make it easier to unscrew.

Better ideas, or better explanations of my half-assed ideas above would be welcomed in the comments.

I’m back, baby

I paddled for the first time since my shoulder got bad, back in October. I didn’t go far, but that wasn’t the point. It was a chance to see how fit I am (terribly unfit), how fat I am (again, terrible – I couldn’t do up my PFD), how bad my shoulder is (not as bad as I thought based on experiments on the erg), how badly my technique has fallen apart (not bad at all), how bad my balance in the boat is (pretty bad – I nearly dumped several times and the boat was wobbling back and forth like a crazy thing).

I was also checking out the fit of my old rack on my new car. I originally bought this rack for my 2001 Corolla, and with the replacement of a couple of “Q-clips”, it has been on the Corolla, the Prius and now the CR-Z. It’s a little beat-up looking and the bars are ridiculously close together, but it’s on strongly enough that I can grab them and rock the car back and forth. I tied down my surf ski on top, and it actually held on pretty good, but then again I was only going a short distance on slow roads. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere other than Baycreek until I get my V-bars.

The last thing I wanted to check out was my new “million dollar” idea. I bought a coffee maker at the garage sale last month, and I cut out the “bubble pump”, a tiny one-way check valve that allows the hot water to flow up out of the reservoir into the grounds. I attempted to fit it in the venturi of the ski, figuring that would allow water to drain out at speed like it’s supposed to, but not to flow back in when you’re stopped, which is a pain in the ass at the start of a race. Unfortunately, I didn’t glue it in right, and water was flowing in around it. Even worse, it came out towards the end, and when I was getting out of the boat, I managed to lose it overboard.

Oh, that’s another thing I had problems with. When I finished, I approached the dock, and realized I was on the bad shoulder side. So I spun around (which unfortunately involved back-paddling on my bad side). But when I approached the dock, I still thought it felt a bit high. So I went to the other dock, the one the rental boats go in and out of. It’s much lower. I did my usual “sprawl onto the dock as the ski leans over on its side” ungraceful exit, but at least I ended up on the dock and not in the mucky water.

Overall, I probably paddled a little more than a mile and a half. I purposely didn’t bring my GPS because I didn’t want any incentive to go further or faster than I should. I had to rest a lot, but mostly because of how out of shape I am, not how sore my shoulder is. It feels easier in the boat than on the erg – last time I tried the erg, I was barely able to do 1000 metres (0.6 miles) in 200 metre increments. I’m going to try taping over some of the holes in the fan on the erg to see if reducing the resistance makes it more life-like at the slow speeds I’m paddling these days. But I tried to keep a good technique going while I was paddling, and I think that part at least hasn’t deteriorated too badly.

Man it feels good to be back.

Assembling the KayakPro Speedstroke Gym

I got the Speedstroke on Tuesday and I started to assemble it. I didn’t finish it on Tuesday, and because I had to spend Wednesday night in Ithaca, I had to wait to tonight to finish.

I started assembling it with the guide that came in the box with it.

First impressions: The erg goes together really easily. It’s very well designed for easy assembly. The quality of construction was absolutely amazing. Everything is built to extremely tight tolerances and it all just fits together without having to bend anything apart or crimp it back together. Ikea could learn a lot about precision from these guys. So could the manufacturers of all my kayaks. I love the fact that almost all the screws and bolts are already screwed and bolted into where they are going to go – no more hunting around in various bags and trying to match up part numbers, just unbolt it, bring over the part that’s going to be bolted to it, and bolt it together again.

That was great until I got to the bit where you start threading the ropes and bungies, at which point the manual *sucks*. Fortunately Kayakpro had sent me a link to a different assembly manual, and this one went into way more detail regarding the ropes. With nice clear close-ups of the individual pulleys everything was just as clear and easy as the original assembly. Within a few minutes I had everything assembled and ready to paddle. And another link they gave me described setting up the built in computer and how to calibrate it.

I got on and paddled for about 150 to 200 metres, which was where I felt the barest twinge of pain so I stopped.

There was only one small niggle. I could not for the life of me found any description of how to set up the strap that controls the foot brace position. Fortunately I’ve paddled a few of this model of erg so I could figure it out pretty well. Oh, and one other thing – they tell you not to extend the paddle any wider than the “maximum” width, but they don’t clarify whether that means with the paint marks showing or not showing.