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Air bags are definitely important in whitewater paddling. They keep the boat floating higher in the water so it is less likely to pin on rocks. When I started paddling my Outrage a couple of years ago, I flipped in an eddy and lost my swamped boat into the current in the beefiest part of the...

Why not. Here is one of my local paddling friends running the class III Gorge Drop on the Knightville section of the Westfield River. Asked him if he thought he could do it loaded with gear - he seemed pretty confident.

To me, a skeg drops down out of the stern and is adjustable to help with weathercocking. A rudder pivots at the stern on cables connected to foot pegs and assists in steering. To me what the OP is talking about is a fin - like on a paddle board. If it helps go for it. Not aware of any...

I did my first WW training in a loaner boat - a Mohawk XL-13. This was me in the rental boat in 2005.

I'd go for one of the Outrages.

That's the last guy who took a canoe class...

This post started with a trip on the Sugar River in NH that I did last year as the only canoe with 20 kayakers. Well, I did the trip again yesterday, and this time I was the only canoe with 6 kayakers. On the positive side, of the 6 kayakers 5 were relative youngsters - at least compared to me...

Having a skeg definitely makes it easier to paddle my sea kayak in the wind, but being able to adjust it relative to the wind directions is important. A drop-down rudder would work fine downwind, but not so well with cross winds. To do it right you would need to cut into the stern and put in...

Momentum is what allows you to go where you want to go, make the moves you want to make, and stay in control - that applies to freestyle or river paddling. I find that most of my swims in moving water involve me lazily floating into a feature. Without momentum it is real easy for the boat to end...

Yes - that Staircase rapid is a little bigger than this one. You can see from this how it got its name - a series of river-wide ledges above a big shoot. More interested with more water, but still nothing like yours...

Nice thing about this race is that there are always people on the banks taking pictures. Here are some shots from the first big drop called Stokers. Here are some shots from the last drop - the shoot at the bottom of Staircase. Videos are great, especially for the big stuff, but I...

We did not win. We were in the OC2 Master (AKA Old Fogey) class, which only had two boats. We started first, and the lead changed 5 times as both boats got hung up on rocks and in shallow water. Another mile longer and the lead probably would have changed again. At least we didn't swim.

I'm not much of a racer, but there is one race in CT that I have done several times - the Scantic Spring Splash downriver race. Its a 5-mile race - mostly quickwater with 4 class II+ (maybe III) rapids in the second half. I've done it many times in my solo boat, so this year decided to try it...

Keep seeing fires down your way on the national news. Hopefully they are not near you.

It's been dry here too, but last week we had 3" of rain, so the USACE have been releasing from this dam. There will be 4 dam releases in the next 5 weeks, and I hope to paddle all of them. We'll see - Easter is in there too. Hopefully you will get the roads rebuilt - that must be awful.

We had a lot of rain around here this week, so I got out to do some whitewater paddling on the Upper Millers. It a 7-mile class II/III run with a lot of rocks to dodge and eddies to catch. We had a big group – 4 canoes and 10 kayaks. Few pictures here...

If you are looking for whitewater in RI, the Clear/Branch is pretty much it. It's a 7-mile run with 3 easy class II rapids. My local club (RICKA) ran a race on this river on the 3rd Saturday in March from 1980 until 2005. It was discontinued when insurance became to expensive and river access...

I'd say go for the Yellowstone Solo, but it you didn't like the Argosy with the dog you probably wouldn't like the Yellowstone Solo with the dog. A friend of mine showed up for a trip last week with a Royalex Bell Rockstar. I had heard of them, but never seen one - nice boat. Larger version of...

Two times I had a helmet on and was glad I did: First was a WW trip. I was on shore getting pictures of paddlers going through a drop. I ran upstream to get a picture of someone running a higher drop, tripped on a root and went head first into a tree. I was seeing stars. Second was a poling...

Best we can do around here is a Dunkin (Donuts) next to the Assabet River in West Concord, MA. You do need to get out of your boat to walk over, but its a nice place to take a break. 4 or 5 guys show up in dry suits and you get some interesting looks from the locals. :cool: