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I took more than a half-dozen courses in whitewater canoeing and kayaking at NOC in years past, as well as some private instruction with a couple of the instructors. But the last one was now a good few years back and things might have changed. I used to know quite a few of the instructors but...

It had been constructed using white tinted resin which was quite worn with the fabric showing through. So I did paint it with Interlux Brightsides. The stems had been pretty beat up and rather crudely repaired using some type of Kevlar felt. The end result left one stem pretty misshapen. I...

Here is a John Berry built MJM:

S fiberglass is a superior material to use for external patches as the edges of the patches can be feathered very smooth, it does not tend to "fuzz up" when abraded like aramid does, it has excellent strength in both compression and tension with a good tensile strength to weight ratio, and it...

It depends. If I were doing a northwoods canoe camping trip involving multiple portages where packed size and weight were important, I would take my inflatable Exped pad. If packed size and weight are not a big concern, such as on the downriver trips I am more likely to do now, I take a Paco...

If you have a split in the interior vinyl layer of Royalex it often is covering a more serious crack in the interior ABS layer. The crack may extend past the split and there can also be parallel cracks in the ABS covered by apparently undamaged vinyl. The vinyl is much more elastic than solid...

Well, here is one paddler I know who has paddled some pretty significant whitewater solo from the stern of an unladen and untrimmed (and un-outfitted as well) tandem canoe. This is "Bookem Danno" going over Baby Falls on the Tellico ledges. He used to also paddle the Lower Yough this way...

There has been a trend, which I believe is ongoing, toward spoon-shaped blades by whitewater canoeists. These seem to provide a bit cleaner water entry at the plant, and a bit more security during the catch. Paddles of this type include the Mitchell Premier, Werner Bandit, Aqua Bound Edge, and...

I use an Astral Greenjacket. It is a PFD primarily designed for whitewater use but I use it for all canoeing activities now. The articulated front foam panels are much more comfortable and adjustable than PFDs with one single, big slab of foam flotation. It also has a sizable zippered front...

Silky saw. Choose the size that fits your needs the best.

Here is a video covering the very early days of whitewater slalom and downriver racing in the US. The footage is shot on the Nantahala River and showcases some very old school kayaks, canoes, C1s and paddling gear.

Black ABS was not uncommon back in the day. Other common colors besides tan or off white included yellow and green.

I would probably wet sand it with some pretty fine wet or dry paper, maybe around 320 grit or so. Make sure you get all the sanding dust washed and scrubbed off before you apply more epoxy.

You just need to fill the weave of the glass with more epoxy. It is often or usually impossible to achieve a completely smooth surface in one go because the fibers will swell as the take up the resin.

The deck plates do look like those used by Mad River Canoe. If so, MRC embossed a hull identification number into the hull material of their Royalex canoes on the outside stern but you often have to look very closely to find and decipher those embossed characters on an old hull.

Given equivalent thickness and quality of the Royalex or R-Lite, a rounded or shallow arch cross sectional contour will always have more inherent stability than a flatter bottom.

Most epoxy manufacturers recommend thickening the mixed epoxy with silica powder to create an "epoxy glue" for filling cracks and for filleting. Presumably it increases bond strength. Cold cracks are a bit different than cracks resulting from impacts. Cold cracks virtually always start at the...

Yeah, I had a log at one time, but I have forgotten where I put it and now I can't find it.

I have heard of the seal of a Watershed duffel fail one time but have no way of knowing whether the seal was closed correctly. The seal has no zipper, by the way. It works like a zip-lock closure on steroids. You are correct in that when after sealing the closure and folding it over, it is...

For a big through and through crack like that I would apply both interior and exterior patches. Fiberglass will work for both. E fiberglass is cheaper but S fiberglass is stronger and more abrasion resistant. I would recommend plain-weave fiberglass cloth of 6 ounce/square yard weight. I...