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What was it and what was the price? I'm in a tent in New Hampshire and missed it.

Bon voyage, recped!

I've never heard of a Royalex Starfire, which isn't gospel. They were made by Bell, Placid, Colden and now Swift, but all I ever encountered were composite builds. I can't download to upload your photos, Erik, but (linking) notice how much more freeboard the Hemlock SRT has than the...

Very nice boat and nice paddles to go with it. Good luck with the sale, Woytek.

Re damage: I have pried off both wood and carbon gunwales with both wood and carbon paddles. I've never noticed any damage on any of the gunwales other than a slightly accelerated wearing away of the oil or varnish finish at the contact spot on wood gunwales. Easily restored. A soft wood shaft...

What carrier?

Bents are usually much shorter than straights. What is meant by Dimensional Weight?

For those of you who have bought a canoe paddle recently and paid separate shipping costs, could you report what you paid and what carrier was used. You don't have to identify the paddle or the seller. For example, one member told me privately today that he paid $40 shipping for a wood paddle...

Short answer: Yes, sometimes I pry off the gunwale when correcting. Middle answer: When I do this, I almost always palm roll and do a partial or full in-water return. That requires symmetrical blade faces and, ideally, a symmetrical grip. Most of the correction happens during the in-water...

I doubt the dent could be pulled or pushed out, but I'm not positive. Never tried anything like that. To smooth it back into shape, you could fill it with auto body putty, such as Bondo, and paint it. Plastic end caps (decks) of various sizes can be found for sale on the web if you search. For...

What blade, Alan? I assume an asymmetrical grip.

Yes. You can tell because the hull is a five-layer laminated sandwich of vinyl-ABS-ABS foam-ABS-vinyl.

Brand new REI Halfdome 2+ at Buck Pond Campground, Adirondacks. I liked the tent but wanted more room so just exchanged it for a Halfdome 3. This campground has sites on Buck Pond and Lake Kushaqua. @85dragonfly was on the adjacent site and his red Colden Wildfire is visible in the background.

It seems obvious to me that smokey air would adversely affect the lungs and breathing, as well as irritating the eyes and nose. Forest fire smoke is also carcinogenic, perhaps worse than smog. And smog in city air—Los Angeles being an early poster child—is one of the primary reasons we have air...

I agree. At the WCHA Assembly two weeks ago, a pair of "Maine guide" paddles made by Alexandra Conover were auctioned off. I think they went for $400. I inspected these paddles quite closely by eye and hand before the auction. I shared privately that I thought they were the worst paddles I...

Maybe? While it's true that Dr. Burke's research on the amount of propulsive force gain attributable to a bent shaft paddle over a straight shaft paddle relied on assumptions made from video studies and mathematical modeling of one outrigger paddler, there's no doubt that there is some amount...

Ray points out multiple times that paddlers should have a self-rescue system that suits their skills, abilities, ages and physical conditions. That's reasonable. However, the system he demonstrates—filling a dry bag with inserted plastic bucket with water, then rolling it closed, then clipping...

"For the first time in recent memory, Nova Scotia has closed hiking trails, backcountry routes, and all forest access across the province and one Canadian Air Force veteran just found out exactly how serious the government is about enforcing it. "Jeff Evely, a retired Master Warrant Officer...

Thanks for the write-up, Erik. The Dead is one of my top 10 paddling places of all time. I did it probably 30+ times in the 80s and 90s and miss its continuous rapids and wilderness feel. I don't know what goes on during Labor Day weekend at the Dead nowadays, but in those days there were...

This video has its own thread here but I'll put it in this thread, too, because Nolan Whitesell's 1987 run of the Niagara Gorge, a few months after @TomP and I ran Section IV of the Chattooga and the Ocoee with him, is still the biggest water open canoe run in world history.