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Does the Swift version appear to come from the same mold as the Curtis and the Colden versions?

I have four different sizes of Watershed duffels and they are excellent. In addition to duffels, Watershed also sells waterproof back pack bags although I have not used them. The main advantage I see to barrels over soft-sided duffels and packs is that the barrels are relatively rodent proof...

There will be experienced paddlers there, but not everyone will necessarily be experienced. Experienced paddlers and canoe manufacturers are always happy to talk about boats and offer free advice to less experienced paddlers.

Pittsburgh is within 5 hours drive of Hemlock, NY where Dave Curtis makes Hemlock Canoes.

Canoeing on the Ohio River is not all that appealing due to the locks and barge traffic. The White and the Wabash offer potentials for the longest paddling ventures. Unfortunately, the canoeing experience on both has been degraded by the infestation of the invasive Silver Carp variant of the...

AEDs have made a significant impact on survival rates from witnessed cardiopulmonary arrests due to non-perfusing ventricular tachycardias. But the AED has to be immediately available and immediately applied although a few minutes of CPR performed by another while someone fetches the device can...

The Wildfire will heel over a bit more comfortably at least initially as the design tends to make the hull firm up as it is heeled, at least until the line of the recurved tumblehome hits the water. The Dragonfly because of its rounder bottom will heel more easily if anything. But it might be...

I too own a Kevlar Curtis Dragonfly and a Bell Wildfire in the Blackgold layup. I agree pretty much with what Kim and Stevet have said. I will add that being a half foot longer and about an inch narrower at the waterline, the Dragonfly will go a bit faster when pushed. The Dragonfly is also 1...

It had a skin coat of white pigmented epoxy that was pretty worn, so it was white. But I did paint it with Interlux Brightsides.

I guess I have named a couple. This Esquif Mistral was basically in an unusable condition with a completely rotted balsa wood core bottom. It required a complete rebuild with removal of the inner layer of Twintex covering the rotted wood, removal of the core, then replacement of the bottom...

When you are paddling seated, as opposed to kneeling, the paddle blade will enter and leave the water a bit farther back. When you are paddling with a high stroke cadence the blade is moving quickly through the water. The blade may leave the water at or even a bit behind your hip but you are...

I have paddled hit and switch frequently in whitewater canoes much shorter and with much more rocker than a Phoenix. Obviously, your switches will not need to be as frequent in a longer, straight-keeled canoe. A shorter paddle will allow you to make the switches more quickly and easily and a...

When I started paddling whitewater years ago, canoes predominated over kayaks at least in the Midwest and Appalachian areas. Open boats are now a distinct minority. It is hard enough to find folks who desire to paddle whitewater in a canoe and most of those who do prefer to paddle a solo...

My practice has been as Erica suggests. The stern paddler is often in a better position to judge the "big picture" when it comes to running a rapid. The general route should be discussed between the paddlers before entering the rapid whenever possible but the stern is often in the best...

He gave a concert here in Evansville, Indiana a few years back. I had seen him perform at the Assembly Hall at the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana back in the early 1970s. Gordon had suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm in 2002, was in a coma for weeks requiring mechanical...

If you look carefully at those seats and that essentially useless center console you will see that the have extensions that go all the way down to the hull floor. That is because the single-layer polyethylene hull lacks stiffness. The "footers" on the seats and console serve to stiffen the...

Yes, definitely try ankle blocks as SouthernKevlar suggested. They take a lot of stress off the tendons at the front of your ankles. There is no fixed formula for length, height, or shape. I would get some minicell foam and experiment. This is the sort of thing I typically use for ankle...

Sometimes you can just drill the rivet head off with a drill bit a little narrower than the rivet head itself and push the shank through as Boatman53 suggests. If so, you are lucky as that is the easiest way. But some times the shank is so tightly fit you can't pound it through even with a...

The rear "bicycle seat" of the Perception rotomolded saddle really does not work very well at all. It puts your center of gravity very high making the canoe quite unstable and almost requires you to use a longer paddle. The front wings are also rather in the way when you try to stretch out...

The entrapment scenario was filmed at the Nanty rapid known as "The Ledges", if anyone is interested.