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Haven't done many pre-work paddles this year, mostly due to the dog's arthritis and harmful algal blooms. Managed to get out this morning though.

Nor'easter approaches the Catskills.

Baby water snakes (Nerodia spp.) and racers have similar patterns. They all darken with age.

Agreed. Esp nowadays when professional training is devalued and big chain stores sell kayaks and SUPs with no info or training.

How bad is the wear and what's the original finish? Is it actually the wood or just the finish that's worn? If wood, is it dented or actually broken? I've just added layers of varnish to varnished paddles with wear. For dents, a rag with boiling water has swelled the grain enough to mostly...

I was in a Penobscot. I'd call the trim 'bad' because I had no ballast and if there'd been any sort of wind I would have had a lot of trouble controlling the boat from the stern seat. In other words I agree that 'good trim' is relative to the context, and if the boat is doing what you want...

Yeah, I think the 66" would probably wear me out after a few hours, but it does feel beefy enough to trip with while not being a club. It did very nicely this morning pushing a 16ft tandem along with a guide stroke and underwater recovery - I was enjoying the longer length. But I could tell...

Looks great, nicely done Brightraven. The rugs are a very nice touch! Late to the party here, but a couple more rough and ready options for filling in the side of the seat are proposed by Lisa DeHart. In one video she suggests salvaged seat belts or other webbing attached all the way across...

Heavy is in the eye of the beholder? Of course it's absolute weight is more than, say, my 60in sassafras Badger, so it would feel heavy if I used them immediately next to each other, as the sassafras feels heavy after I try someone else's carbonfiber. But the S&T is lighter than my cherry...

I just added that book to my reading pile. Didn't realize he disappeared on the Anderson.

I've been slowly digging into trip report archives and just finished this epic. Fantastic trip, fantastic report, fantastic photos. Really enjoyed this, thank you for sharing!

What species of wood is that one? Sounds lovely. My S&T Northwoods is 31.5 oz, ash, but only 5'6".

Gorgeous boat, congrats!

I should have said that I feel like  I lack grace when paddling sit & switch compared to using an ottertail with underwater recovery or single-side corrections. I've been practicing the latter for years and only just started learning the former. It's hard for me to see grace in it now, at my...

I have to say I'm still in this camp, but like Chip I plan to keep working on technique and see if that sentiment changes. It feels like it lacks the grace of single-side correction paddling. But, I'm certainly still new. I do recognize it's faster, which for me is attractive in terms of...

I too was surprised by how much the Advantage did respond to a sculling draw and sideslips. I imagine that would decrease with more load? I was using a 59" Tremolo ottertail so maybe that extra length helped with my stern rudder and underwater recovery corrections. I was also out on a calm...

Too true. I believed myself the first time I said it, even if she knew better. That said, you can only paddle one boat at a time, so I do think I should offload at least one or two. I can just never decide which.

Ah, I had mis-remembered your Firebird as a Trillium. Overall I've been very happy with my Phoenix, but on a couple longer lake trips I'd been wishing for something better for sit&switch cruising. I'd started second guessing taking the Phoenix over an NS Solo...and then along came the...

Thanks, Steve, Alan and tketcham, that's all helpful. I have a long way to go if I plan to keep it up. I must say my back is more comfortable when I kneel, enough that I tried kneeling on the tractor seat a couple times just to stretch the back a bit. If I keep the hull I'll either put in...

Spent a bunch more time (8+ miles) in the Advantage yesterday. I agree with folks who said leaning outside assists a turn. Very notably there was virtually no wind, which I'm sure changes things quite a bit. I was certainly experiencing this and was glad you'd described this ahead of my...