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Good wife example #1: A few years ago, a dear family friend who I had known and was best friends with his kids since kindergarten, was turning 80. He had paddled the 90 mile Adirondack race many years prior and wanted to do it again one last time in his home built solo wood kayak. As his health...

what is your "boat" and how do you propel it? If you "paddle" a canoe or a kayak, neither of which originated from English words. It is assumed that the word canoe came into English from the term 'canoa' that is used for the Caribbean dugout canoe in Columbus' travelogues in 1493. Possibly...

Although there appears t be no defined upper limit to its size, you likely have not paddled in a woodland vernal pool. Typically they are very small surface water bodies filled with snow melt or heavy spring rains. Every woodland hiker has had to negotiate around one or more of these.They are...

I inherited this 1984 F250 diesel from my dad several years ago. He had already made the wood rack sides for transporting firewood. I added the wood top cross rail supports and bolted on the front bumper upright support. Since the bumper was all steel, it was quite a sturdy attachment. Not so...

My two year old 51" GRB carbon bent gently curved blade weighs in at 10 ounces, matching the advertised weight. Exactly the same as my older 51" GRB flat blade.

Steve, were you paddling single side with correction strokes, or hit and switch to maintain a straight forward track? There are so many variables that may come into play. While I very much enjoy using my straight wood otter tail paddles and those of similar variant shapes, they are primarily...

A few years ago, in the early fall of the year I slipped off an old cabin roof while giving it a coat of aluminized asphalt paint. I thought I was being careful, but must have dripped a drop behind me. That is all it took for me to go flying down, right onto a rubble pile of a concrete cinder...

Watch Kevin's review video in the link on the web page I posted. He shows the paddle weighs just 10 ounces. He also makes note of what I noted in that at the exit to the recovery it lifts more water than a flat blade, and he also likes the catch, as I mentioned In my experience. Good on the...

I will when I return to camp on Wednesday as I prepre for the 90 miler.

Sounds like a copy of what GRB developed 2-3 years ago. I have one of these from GRB, but don't notice a lot of difference from their standard flat blade carbon bent paddle. Maybe I am not using it exactly correctly. Due to the very slightly cupped curvature, I think it makes more exit splash on...

Back to my long term as instructor for wannabe BSA high adventure guides wherein canoe skills were a large part but not the only skills concept to master, which included all "hard skills" aspects of tripping and wilderness guiding skills leading youth trips both on water and on land. We as a...

Although most of my students in 30 years have not been in the same upper class economic level, a few have shown up for BSA wilderness guide training with a bent and have had the same paddle orientation problem. Most all of the class are college age students with a desire to work at an Adirondack...

The subject of recent posts was whether bents were 2.4% (or more) faster than straights. My point above was that it doesn’t take long for a new to racing paddler, wanting to eventually place well, will soon adopt use of a bent paddle in future races. Why? If all in some odd race were required...

If there is no significant speed advantage, someone has to please tell me why in every one of hundreds of canoe races I have been in or seen, 95% of canoe racers adopt using bent shaft carbon paddles and will finish well ahead of 95% of (mainly first time racing beginners or "tourist paddlers"...

Caleb's Tremolo paddles (at least at one time with the several that I have) at the very thin tip were carefully thin sawed split and a spline was inserted and glued in place to prevent damage of splitting and chipping. I have no evidence of any damage on tip or edges after more than 20 years.

Oh, I see, it is really the compression bandage that I have seen demonstrated in a previous training. Not to be confused with the israeli version of the Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT), of which it is also designed to be self applied. I do carry one of those, since one was demonstrated in...

Pack a kotex pad or two, very useful for dressing open wounds and stopping bleeding. A side benefit is if you travel with a lady who forgot to pack what she may need, you could (temporarily) become her best friend.

Did you ever watch a war movie where the medic tears open a packet with his teeth and dumps a powder on a wonded soldier's bleeding wound? That is a clotting powder, likely what is impregnated in the Israeli bandage and other similar dressings you can buy from medical supply.

A blade that tapers to a very thin edge all around the blade is important for quiet and in-water recovery. We've all seen such as the Feather brand big box store clunky paddles and their ilk that go for ~$20. Thick rounded edges, Might as well use a 2x4. It will drag down air on the catch and...

For regular power strokes, be sure to match the entry catch with the relative rearward velocity of the water for a smooth noise-less and cavitation-less entry that does not drag air down with it. At the end of the stroke, unless doing the Indian or box stroke, slice the exit straight out in the...