Stupidest Canoe Accessory Ever?

[Guest]

I nominate this product as the stupidest canoe accessory ever made:

https://www.footstake.com/

Just, just. . . . .why?

 

[latremorej]

Ha! I like how they keep saying that they promote proper storage.... I guess I will have to break up the concrete in my garage so I can push it into the ground! Either that, or store my boats outside in the sun!

Jason

 

[clemency]

I'm holding out until they come out with one to property store my paddle.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

The proper place to store the inventor/marketer is on the moon.

 

[yellowcanoe]

But its so STURDY! Omit the S.

 

[alsg]

The FootStake appears to be a MiStake.

 

[Waterspyder]

You're missing the other advantages of the foot stake. Think of it as a weapon to fight off bear attacks or mounting on the front of your boat for ramming the attacking viking hordes. I'm sure with a little creativity there are probably thousands of uses heck it would probably even make a great plow if you are stranded in the wilderness you could use it to plow a field to grow crops.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

That was good for a laugh!

 

[meopilite]

I want 1. Oh, wait, ya gotta get 2.

 

[ATwaterGA]

I nominate this product as the stupidest canoe accessory ever made:

https://www.footstake.com/

Just, just. . . . .why?

In defense of elevated storage for canoes.. Here in South Georgia I leave aluminum canoes on the banks of our pond. Unless they are elevated off the ground, fire ants build huge nests in the bow and stern under the decks. I elevate them off the ground using scrap 6 X 6 treated pine poles. Once I was getting in my son's kayak that was also stored upside down on the ground and as I was sitting down, I noticed a black widow spider on the seat. The kayak is now also elevated off the ground. Also built the rack from scrap materials.

 

[yellowcanoe]

In defense of elevated storage for canoes.. Here in South Georgia I leave aluminum canoes on the banks of our pond. Unless they are elevated off the ground, fire ants build huge nests in the bow and stern under the decks. I elevate them off the ground using scrap 6 X 6 treated pine poles. Once I was getting in my son's kayak that was also stored upside down on the ground and as I was sitting down, I noticed a black widow spider on the seat. The kayak is now also elevated off the ground. Also built the rack from scrap materials.

But overnight?
I realize we Northerners aren't attuned to Fire Ants.. I have to take a practical painful refresher every winter.
They are that fast?

 

[Guest]

I keep all of my outside storage canoes well off the ground in home storage, less for ant issues and more for preventing rain driven dirt splash accumulating on the brightwork edges.

But in use, in camp or, as shown in the MisStake photos, picnicking with the boat on some beach, I just try to not set it on an ant mound.

Seriously, I do not see those silly 6 inch tall wedge feet holding a boat upright in any wind, in any soil. Especially not as shown on a sandy beach.

The Scary Reasons prose to buy a MisStake is funny enough, but the photos of that kludge strapped to the rear deck of a Sundolphin are hilarious.

https://www.footstake.com/why-users-recommend-the-footstake/

BTW, a set of MisStakes is $90. Gawd only knows what they weigh.

I realize we Northerners aren't attuned to Fire Ants.. I have to take a practical painful refresher every winter.

Same refresher course, usually when I start dancing around wondering Why are my feet burning.

Sometimes that is almost unavoidable. We have done a couple trips on southern blackwater rivers in flood where the edge of the launch was a visible perimeter of evacuated fire ants. For a change no one dawdled getting into the canoes.

On one of those trips we got to see a floating ball of fire ants bobbing along in the current.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXnQd6hhFOo

On the whole I prefer bumping a wasp nest on an overhung branch to swimming with that hunka hunka burning hate.

 

[frozentripper]

I used to make comments about an essential piece of gear on long trips was an anchor, don't leave home without it... jest kidding of course. But it seems that Old Town sells a canoe anchor kit... at only 1.5 pounds, how can it possibly be heavy enough to grab onto anything except maybe sand bottom... haven't tried it and maybe it actually does work..

https://oldtowncanoe.johnsonoutdoor...esl3/5001141/ProductImage/5001141_primary.jpg

https://oldtowncanoe.johnsonoutdoor...esl3/5001141/AlternateImage/5001141_alt01.jpg

You wanna anchor... rope and rock and tossa dat bigga heavy basta over the side. You gonna be OK.

 

[Guest]

But it seems that Old Town sells a canoe anchor kit... at only 1.5 pounds, how can it possibly be heavy enough to grab onto anything except maybe sand bottom... haven't tried it and maybe it actually does work.

It might work too well on a rocky bottom.

40 years ago I went out with a friend in the Grumman to fish a few miles below Holtwood dam on the Susquehanna. We dropped a similar anchor off the bow in the calmwater on river right. The spillway for Holtwood is on far river left, so no worries.

Until the release. The stillwater got deeper, and faster. The anchor flutes were stuck between rocks on the bottom. The canoe began to take decidedly bow down trim. We were on the verge of going down before my bowman cut the anchor line.

I have been leery of anchors, even mushroom anchors, ever since.

 

[gumpus]

I want one of these

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fXo2FdKG5bo

 

[Odyssey]

Reminds me a bit of a device sometimes used by snowmobilers. Many years ago when I was included in fun sledding activities at the end of the day we'd prop up the back end on a log standing on end, so as to keep the tracks from contact with the snowslushcrud preventing them being frozen rock solid to the ground next morning. Anyone with a backyard and a machine had a log for this purpose. I took for granted that was as far as that idea would ever get. And I was wrong. Years later I saw a gadget that you'd lever your sled's arse end up and it'd stay stable till next morning. No log necessary. It probably looked goofy at the time. After all who doesn't have a log handy in the backyard? But someone thought that out and came up with a better mousetrap...or log.
Not sure about this kayak-paddleboard stake thing. Not sure which I'd be more embarrassed to carry around, a couple of those fan-dangle stakes, or a couple of honest to goodness logs.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

[No message]

 

[Guest]

Craigslist Sporting Goods ad of the Year.

 

[Pringles]

I didn't see where they came in designer colors. I'll wait.