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I believe my old Mad River manual said that if you are storing a Royalex boat in non-climate controlled conditions over winter, you should remove the first six screws on each side entirely, and then back the rest out one full turn. I can check for sure when I get home but that’s what I...

After I first tried them I have since installed them in every boat I paddle. They vastly improve the comfort of my lower back in all of my boats, regardless of seat height (and I have them with both high seats and low seats). There is always some amount of effort expended in keeping you on...

I believe Hemlock installs them on the SRT regularly, but that’s a pretty narrow boat. A guy I met at the Ozark Rendezvous I believe had a set installed on a Yellowstone solo. Just epoxied in like the cross bar style brackets are. Just out of curiosity, why won’t the cross bar style work on...

I’d look really hard at the Northstar Opal. Symmetric rocker, plenty of maneuverability, available in IXP or blacklite HD for the scraping, wide enough the primary should be great, small enough to meet your requirements, seems like it fits most of what you’d want. Likely not the fastest by any...

Generally, I do not use flotation bags in standard CI situations, although I do have a couple of sets of bags for dedicated whitewater boats. However, I have been re-thinking my use of them and will probably start including them in certain situations. For instance, I may take some in my...

“Kueper notes that for the regular consumer, bucket seats aren’t custom-made and are shaped to fit the average butt.” The original bucket seat on my now-sold Rendezvous was ostensibly made for a small child, judging by the size. Clearly not for a man of my proportions. The newer Wenonah...

Yes, maybe not analogous to golf ball surface turbulence, but at a minimum the rougher weave surface does increase surface area, which should increase drag and therefore decrease some of the inherent slippage in a paddle stroke. At least when just “pulling the boat to a planted paddle” as the...

Looks like a run I’d like to make someday, thank you for posting. I very much enjoyed following along.

Marc defines a carve in his article as simply a heel to the outside of the turn. It sounds like you are using “carving” to describe something happening even when heeled to the inside of the turn, so there is some discrepancy in how the term is being used. I don’t mean to drift off topic too...

I know next to nothing about SOF canoes, so pardon my ignorance but what are the skins made of? The same fabrics as regular composite canoes? Just one layer commonly, or multiple? I’m assuming epoxied or resin impregnated through similar wetting out processes? Is the skin attached...

This has been my finding as well and many times drove me to get up early on weekends to get in some paddling, even if I had to be back for afternoon/evening plans, etc. I find I’m just able to deal with the work week so much better when I’ve been out on a river with some solitude, even if just...

That’s a cool goal and something I may consider for next year (although I’d count all the free “river power” I can get 😂).

I love me some Current River in the winter. You can see so much more of the geological features without the foliage. Feel free to give me a holler if you’d like some company or help with a shuttle!

I’ve never really tracked my mileage before, but I started keeping a log this year of each outing (mostly to track river conditions, levels, flow, etc). I know some of you have the privilege of paddling almost daily, while others paddle less frequently but on much longer excursions. I think...

Someone told me (when Rutabaga was closing) that they would be changing over to a different model where the vendors/suppliers would be bringing their own inventory to sell instead of Rutabaga’s. Can’t remember if that was in one of Darren’s posts or if it was Bill Swift that told me when I...

Black bears are only relatively recently recovered in southern Missouri where I paddle, with all of them having moved north from the Arkansas Ozarks where there is a sizable population. While attacks are extremely rare, there have been two deaths due to black bears this year in the Arkansas...

I suppose that’s true, but with its symmetrical rocker and T-formex construction it seems much more like a river boat to me than a flat water boat. The biggest complaint I have seen repeated about the Echo is the shallow depth. I’ve seen multiple posts from folks excluding it from...

For reference, here are the original Echo specs:

Haven’t seen much about this yet, and nothing on the Esquif website I can find, but I have it from a couple of sources now that Esquif is releasing an updated version of the Echo for 2026. From a dealer website: COMING SOON - Olive For 2026, Esquif has added a new model of the Echo. Meet...

Photo snapped of me and my Starfire at the Ozark Rendezvous last Thursday on Current River. Beautiful paddle and met some great folks. Water clarity was fantastic.