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I'd been thinking about trying it but after gumpus mentioned it too I had to give it a shot. Same setup as my other paddle tests. A 2.2 mile out and back course while holding the heart rate steady at 120 bpm. The paddle was a 50" ZRE medium. First up was a bent shaft held backwards: Time -...

I'd like to get better with my single sided correction strokes. At slow speeds in light wind I feel pretty comfortable with what I think is referred to as a Canadian/northwoods stroke (blade is sliced partially forward in the water for correction) but when fighting the wind or putting down more...

The forum is having some trouble with image orientation with some pictures that should be vertical posting as horizontal. This seems to be happening when using the "attach files" button below the text box. Instead, try using the "insert image" icon above the text box as this seems to be...

I cleared my social calendar this evening so I could run another paddle test. It was a beautiful evening with light winds and mostly clear skies. I wanted to test the speed difference between a carbon bent and a carbon straight. Unfortunately it's not quite an apples to apples comparison as the...

I thought it would be fun to do a head to head comparison between a single and double blade to see just how much faster and more efficient, if at all, a double blade is. I decided to maintain the same target heart rate for both paddles during all testing. While heart rate is not perfect I can't...

I'm a 99% sitter. I went for a paddle this weekend and kneeled for a bit. As usual I find the most uncomfortable part of kneeling to be my ankle joints. When I kneel my toes are pointed toward the stern with the top of my foot in contact with the hull and after a while this stretched position...

This is mostly just a fun mental exercise for now. I'm thinking of taking a 30+ day road trip to the PNW next summer and, of course, have been debating whether or not to take a boat. And, if I do, which boat to take. I think that for me personally paddling exploration will mostly take a back...

I wondered about Shadow after I heard you had moved. How is he adjusting? Do all the extra people bother him? And extra dogs? What does he think of the water? Is it hard to get him the exercise he's used to? Does he get as much off-leash time? Not that I don't care about you and Kathleen as...

What's everyone wearing for winter pants and at what temps? I've always worn regular pants with medium weight thermals underneath. This does fine for the most part but below 10 F, especially when the wind is blowing (common), this leaves my legs chilly. I sometimes wear snow boarding pants...

I've always thought the lower canyons of the Rio Grande looked interesting. It looks like a beautiful area and is quite remote with not much traffic. I think the drive to the pickup at the end is pretty long and rough so I don't know how friendly it is to run your own shuttle. If I ever do it...

As far as I know @memaquay spent this past weekend in the bush with wolves, bears, beers, moose, and Torontonians. That's quite the gauntlet to run and I hope he got out safely. I'm sure the moose did. Alan

Nothing too special for me. A few tent stakes, a fillet knife, and a paddle. I left the paddle where I found it since I didn't need it and it was a very remote area. It might come in handy for someone else down the line. Actually, I think I left the fillet knife as well. Again, I didn't need...

Some people like to know as much as they can about a route in terms of route planning and camp sites. Some people like to know as much as they can about the history of the route. Some people just seem to show up and take it as it comes. Where do you fall and why? Alan

I thought it might be worthwhile to start a separate post on my composite build rather than burying it in the thread with the stripper build. While I have built a couple composite canoes in the past there is a lot of new ground for me to tread here and I thought others might find it entertaining...

I've kicked the idea of building a freighter/square stern for a few years and now that I'm actually building again the thought has cropped back up. I'm curious if anyone has built or used a shorter freighter model (around 16') and what they thought of it. My uses would not be traditional. It...

I woke up this morning and realized it was time to build another canoe. It's probably been 6 years since my last one. At the time I was designing and building canoes like crazy. I'd actually just completed a new design and had transferred it to a thumb drive for printing the next day when...

It's been virtually non-existent here. Early cold and snow at Halloween had the lakes freeze but a nice November opened them up again. A couple weeks of seasonable weather at the beginning of December made them hard again but now the last couple weeks have been very warm and most of the lakes...

Just curious what everyone prefers for winter footwear (please list the conditions and activities you use them in as well). I've personally moved away from all sorts of footwear with water proof/resistant linings and use plain leather. I use my Redwing work boots with steel toe for all my...

Let me start by saying I don't really know or care much about AI. But obviously Chat GPT has been talked about a lot lately and I've been pleasantly surprised at some of the things I've seen come out of it. I decided to sign up for a free account just for some funsies. And what better way to...

I'm not into the racing scene anymore but the trend seems to be towards longer races (50+ miles) that regularly take at least a full day, if not more. I raced the South Dakota Kayak Challenge (75 miles) a couple times, which was always into a stiff headwind, and while I had fun I never really...