Category: Kayaking

I went paddling today. This time I didn’t have anybody with me to moderate my paddling, so of course I went out too fast and went too far. I got to the point where Vicki and I turned back on the weekend, and it only took me about 20 minutes (Vicki and I took about an hour there and back). Just past there the creek doesn’t seem to get any narrower, but it gets very shallow except for a deep channel on the outside of curves, so the current gets very strong. Also, it gets pretty twisty with overhanging trees upstream from there, so you spend a lot of time pausing to read the river and sweeping on one side or the other.

That’s where I noticed something that I’d mentioned last year some time – sometimes when I’m going around the inside of a corner where it gets shallow, my wake will hit the bank and bounce back and push my stern out, helping me around the corner. Also on straightish sections, the boat seems to hunt around for the deep part – it’s hard to figure out exactly what’s going, but I think the wake is bouncing off the bottom or something.

There were a fair number of people out on the river, including three racing canoes hammering downstream in close formation. It was just that sort of day where you had to leave work early and enjoy it. As well as the canoes and kayaks, I saw my first swan of the season, plus it appears that the female redwing blackbirds have finally come to join their males. I also saw a couple of nests in the reeds – sort of basket-like and up high. I think they must be last year’s.

According to the Google Maps Pedometer, I went 4.3 miles, and it took me about an hour and five minutes. It took me about 35 minutes to get up to Browncroft Ave and 30 minutes to get back. I guess that shows how much I overdid it – in spite of the strong current I couldn’t go downstream much faster than I went up.

One strange thing – last time I paddled, I found a lump of dried blood on the side of my left leg and a small scab. My legs get a bit numb when I’m paddling, so it’s easy to imagine me cutting myself without noticing. This time, same thing. Dried blood in the same place, and some on the floor of the cockpit. I can’t tell if I re-cut myself or re-opened the same wound. I looked very hard to find something I could have cut myself on in the cockpit, and I can’t find it. I’m going to have to remember to put on a bandaid next time.

My elbows are throbbing now, but I’ve taken some Alieve and I’m hoping it will get better.

This is my first real weekend off in nearly three months. Last weekend didn’t count because I was sick, although I spent half of today napping and reading in bed, so it’s not like it’s any different when I’m well… But it looks like the crisis is mostly over, and I might be able to start keeping regular hours again. It will be nice to come home in the evening and have time for more than eating and going to bed.

Vicki and I took advantage of the glorious sun and went for a paddle on Irondequoit Creek. My second of the season, Vicki’s first. The water was WAY higher than it had been for my first paddle, but surprisingly the current wasn’t too strong. Vicki’s favourite kayak, a Hurricane Tempo, was just sitting there on the dock. On the other dock, there was a carbon fibre racing canoe with a carbon fibre racing paddle in it. Oh, how I wish I had the knees and elbows to give that one a spin around the block! We couldn’t find any unoccupied staff around – one guy was building new canoe racks, and somebody else was showing some people around the kayak sale racks. So Vicki signed the form and waiver, and grabbed the Tempo. But first, some guy there was rather perturbed that she was taking it – it seems that he had just returned from renting it, and had wandered off to find somebody to help him put it away and let him pay. We assured him that we were renting it, and he should just relax and enjoy the fact that he didn’t have to put it away.

While this was going on, a guy who’d been standing around our dock not saying or doing anything went over to the other dock and took the racing canoe, heading downstream to the bay.

We went up to the weir and a little bit further – exactly the same place Rob and I turned around last time. The weir was a total non-event with the river so high. Except my hat blew off and I had to go back and get it. Coming down, we crossed the weir just as the guy in the carbon canoe was coming up. I said something complementary about his canoe, and he told me that according to his GPS he was making 5.5 mph upstream. That’s pretty impressive, but not exactly world championship speed. He asked me if I’d ever though about racing, which of course I have, and he told me about a race he organizes on the Genessee river, with an amateur 3 mile race and a pro 10 mile race. I’d love to give the 3 mile race a shot. Unfortunately I didn’t get most of the details, but he said he was going to be putting flyers in the Bay Creek shop in the next couple of weeks. I suggested he also post it to the flowpaddlers.org chat forum.

It was a fun little paddle, and my elbows only hurt a little. Last time I was given some suggestions about seating position to stop my legs from falling asleep, and it helped a little but not entirely.

Last fall, I bought a decal to decorate my kayak. It arrived soon after my wrist went into a cast, so it was late in the season before I put it on. It was a sunny day, about 55 degrees out. The instructions said to wait until it was 60 degrees out, but I dragged the kayak out to the sun and thought that would be good enough. It wasn’t – the paper got all wrinkled up. But I decided to leave it to see if it got any better.

In the spring, when I brought the kayak out for the first paddle, the paper actually had flattened out. But I couldn’t seem to get the paper off without pulling off the vinyl. But yesterday I managed to get the paper off – it turns out that the isn’t any vinyl under the paper around the edges, only where the black stuff is. For some stupid reason I expected clear vinyl with ink, not just black vinyl. A few little chunks of vinyl came off, but on the whole I think it looks pretty good.

It’s 80 degrees out, and so Rob and I snuck out from work at lunch time and went for a paddle. We didn’t go too far, just up past the weir. But it was lovely. The weir was in full flow, and we had an audience of people who were hiking down a trail in Ellison Park who stopped to watch. So we had to make it, and it was touch and go for a while there – Rob didn’t line up with the outflow at all, so when he hit the V it of course dragged him immediately across and he banged into one of the uprights on the weir. I lined up and paddled with short fast strokes and made it up, but almost buried one side of the cockpit when I did it. Rob watched what I did and copied it successfully.

My kayak was sitting on the floor of the garage all winter because one day in the fall I took it down to try to install a decal on it, and was too lazy to put it back up. Consequently there was a neat little row of bird seed along the foot peg rails when I lifted it onto the roof rack. And I can’t seem to get the backing paper off the decal without removing the vinyl, either.

Along the way, there were a lot of pairs of Canada Geese out, mostly with the female hidden down in the weeds and the male at the edge of the free-flowing water making threatening noises and gestures as we paddled by. At one point, there was a single goose in some flotsam with his whole head and neck down on the surface of the water. At first I thought he was dead, but he turned to watch me was I paddled past. I’ve never seen that before. There were also lots of turtles, and a couple of male redwing blackbirds. The water was clear and fast and VERY cold.

Lifting my kayak and Rob’s kayak on and off the roof racks, I started wondering what it would cost to trade up to a lighter kayak. There are things I love about my kayak, and a couple of things I don’t love, but the only thing I hate is that is weighs around 70 pounds. I was talking to one of the salesmen at Bay Creek, and he says they don’t make the Skerry in fibreglas any more except as a special order. But they have the ‘glas Pintail, which is pretty similar but a little lower volume. Since I’m unlikely to be camping in the kayak, that might do. Given the price difference between what I could reasonably expect to sell the Skerry for and this, it might be doable after a few more weeks of overtime. If I don’t die from the stress first.

For the record, what I love about my Skerray:

• Handles beautifully. With the skeg up, I can spin it, with the skeg down I can track straight in a quartering breeze.
• Fast and responsive. It rewards your effort.
• The snug fitting cockpit gives you tons of control – the kayak feels like an extension of you.
• Looks nice. The grey colour isn’t harsh or glaring.

Things that I don’t hate, but don’t love about my Skerray:

• The cockpit. While it’s nice that my thighs go naturally into the thigh braces and the sides of the seat press into my hips to snug me in, it’s a right bitch getting into and out of the boat. I haven’t tried a wet exit yet, and I’m a little worried how hard it would be. They have two Pintails at Bay Creek, and one of them has a keyhole cockpit – if it means easier ingress and egress without giving up the snug feel, I’m all for that.
• The skeg sometimes makes an sloshing sound as it hits the sides of the skeg box when I’m paddling hard with it down. It sounds like somebody sneaking up behind me until I realize what it is.
• I don’t know if it’s the seat or the way I’m sitting, but my legs go numb after an hour in the boat. I read that some people put a rolled up towel under their knees to help that, but with the snugness of my cockpit I don’t want another impediment to getting out in a hurry. Somebody at Bay Creek today said to try rolling my butt forward a bit to take pressure off the sciatic nerve. I’ll try that next time.