Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
By:Kurt Maurer
Date: 1/13/2012, 7:03 pm
In Response To: Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle (ancient kayaker)

One more little bit for you: when we talk about losing paddles, we usually think of wild conditions and the heat of battle. Well, not necessarily. I'd have to say you're much more likely to lose it while relaxing .... or doing something outright stupid while messing around in relatively safe conditions. At any rate, the way you lose a paddle is in the way you least expect, which is tough to guard against.

Don't any of you play Harpoon Yourself? It's loads of fun, you throw your Greenland stick in the water ahead of you like an Inuit going for a walrus or something, and if you do it just right, the paddle goes under, stops, then comes shooting back out right at you. The object is to catch it on its return flight. With your hands, not your eyeballs or teeth or other soft, sensitive part. You'll miss your mark once in a while, then the game becomes practice for deploying and using your spare to go fetch it back.

It's also not a bad idea to practice paddling without a paddle. No, I'm still not kidding, I do all of this fairly routinely. One of the more impressive demonstrations I've ever seen was John Caldeira's friend Julie paddle one of his yaks several yards from shore, do a series of rolls, then paddle back .... all without a paddle, just by hand. Just a little bitty runt of a girl, too. Some big hairy chested men we turn out to be....

Messages In This Thread

Paddle: Spare paddle
ancient kayaker -- 1/11/2012, 5:20 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle *PIC*
Kurt Maurer -- 1/11/2012, 6:43 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Clayton Plunkett -- 1/11/2012, 7:26 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
ancient kayaker -- 1/11/2012, 8:02 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle *PIC*
Noel Bennett -- 1/11/2012, 10:42 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
ancient kayaker -- 1/12/2012, 10:35 am
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Bill Hamm -- 1/16/2012, 3:11 am
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Bill Hamm -- 1/12/2012, 1:22 am
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Bryan Hansel -- 1/14/2012, 7:11 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Kurt Maurer -- 1/14/2012, 8:01 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Bryan Hansel -- 1/14/2012, 9:45 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Kurt Maurer -- 1/14/2012, 9:54 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Mike Bielski -- 1/11/2012, 7:28 pm
Spare paddle, etc
Dave Gentry -- 1/11/2012, 9:37 pm
Re: Spare paddle, etc
Mike Bielski -- 1/12/2012, 8:01 am
Re: Spare paddle, etc
Dave Gentry -- 1/12/2012, 9:58 am
Re: Spare paddle, etc
Randy Knauff -- 1/12/2012, 11:00 am
Re: Spare paddle, etc
Will N To Go -- 1/13/2012, 11:53 am
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Paul Davies -- 1/11/2012, 7:47 pm
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Bill Hamm -- 1/12/2012, 1:20 am
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Matthias -- 1/12/2012, 2:14 am
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Bill Hamm -- 1/16/2012, 3:14 am
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Matthias -- 1/17/2012, 2:10 am
Re: Paddle: Spare paddle
Bill Hamm -- 1/22/2012, 3:46 am
Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
John VanBuren -- 1/13/2012, 10:56 am
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Mike Savage -- 1/13/2012, 2:07 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Mike Bielski -- 1/13/2012, 2:36 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Mike Savage -- 1/13/2012, 7:40 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle *PIC*
Etienne Muller -- 1/13/2012, 4:05 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Mike Savage -- 1/13/2012, 7:52 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
ancient kayaker -- 1/13/2012, 3:40 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Kurt Maurer -- 1/13/2012, 7:03 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Bryan Hansel -- 1/14/2012, 7:18 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Thomas Duncan -- 1/15/2012, 7:19 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Kurt Maurer -- 1/15/2012, 7:30 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Dan Caouette (CSFW) -- 1/15/2012, 7:34 pm
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Bill Hamm -- 1/16/2012, 3:21 am
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Bill Hamm -- 1/16/2012, 3:15 am
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Craig Robinson -- 1/17/2012, 2:01 am
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Craig Robinson -- 1/17/2012, 2:11 am
Re: Don't Leave Shore Without a Spare paddle
Robert N Pruden -- 1/18/2012, 5:28 am