# Kayaking: Lazy pace or Mt Dew comercial?



## bykfixer (Nov 6, 2015)

I like kayaking in tidal water. A nice slow, sight see-ing journey against the tide for excersise. 
But when fall foliage is at it's peak with the tide for cruising with a camera handy.

Yet every so often surfing in a kayak is quite a hoot. My favorite kayak surfing adventure was double overheads in the James River on a giant sand bar in Hopewell Va during Hurricane Isabell. 
Holy Cow! Bobbing and weaving around floating boat debris that were being destroyed as the waves smashed them against locks and docks. 
Each ride lasted about a minute, yet seemed like 30 minutes.

I was at my brothers watching waves over top a 30' pier at Va Beach on TV when his power went out. What's a fella to do?
He says "where you going?" I said "Kowabunga dude! Surfs Up in Hopewell" 
It's a giant sand bar at Jordan Point harbor. And on an ordinary day waves get 6" to a foot when strong breezes come out of the east.

A few hours later I was back in his living room grinning ear to ear and thanking my lucky stars to be on solid ground and hoping the roof didn't come off his house that night when the storm hit us sure enough.


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## orbital (Nov 6, 2015)

+

Have a 17' Wilderness Tempest (skeg), love it..
to the point of replacing it with the same if something happened to it.

When kayaking, I do it like cycling as workout w/ high angle strokes___ enjoy going fast on calm water by myself.
..not trying to impress anyone, just pushing myself & paddle stroke efficiency.

Definitely not Mt Dew commercial,,, more like strong coffee & 2%

Thinking of starting a thread on the kayak paddle stoke, it's a somewhat complex maneuver


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## LGT (Jul 31, 2016)

orbital said:


> +
> 
> Have a 17' Wilderness Tempest (skeg), love it..
> to the point of replacing it with the same if something happened to it.
> ...


 I also enjoy both bike riding and kayaking. 20 mile ride followed by a hard 1 hour paddle is a good day.


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## roger-roger (Sep 3, 2016)

Latest boat.


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## mousehunter (Jul 19, 2017)

I started out with the intent of using a sea kayak to fish any place I wanted on the Texas coast. I put a lot of miles on that kayak, never fished it. Eventually wanted to paddle with people, so started doing white water, that led to slalom, which led to kayak polo (water polo in kayaks). Competed at nationals a few years as that hobby grew in the US, but eventually it became more competitive than me. Becoming a home owner (2000) also nuked my 3 days a week on the water. All of that also led to getting married as well.

fast forward till today. I am still married, but now self employed/retired. Can and need to make time for myself in the form of exercise. Always wanted to run the Texas Water Safari back in my sea kayak days (only 20+ years ago), never had the time to take off work to run and recover from it (264 miles, with a 100hr cut off to finish-plus recovery). Stepson is interested, so got a solo canoe to work out with and a tandem boat to run it (long tedious process of outfitting ahead of me). So back to miles (hopefully several times a week) and occasionally thinking of fishing.


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## scout24 (Aug 8, 2017)

You folks are hardcore. Went out on a lake in a local state park on Sunday with Mrs. Scout for the first time. A rental two person sit-on kayak. We both enjoyed it, enough so to want to do it again during foliage season.


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## P_A_S_1 (Aug 9, 2017)

Personally I enjoy the lazy pace as I like to be on the water for long periods but the occasional chop and fast current is always welcome. 95% of it is on the East River in NYC so paddles are pretty much tied to the tidal table. Tugs, ferries, and jet skiers keep it interesting enough (especially at night).


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## markr6 (Mar 25, 2020)

orbital said:


> +
> 
> Have a 17' Wilderness Tempest (skeg), love it..
> to the point of replacing it with the same if something happened to it.
> ...



I just stumbled upon this old thread. Glad I did because I just purchased the same kayak. For the same reason...workout/cover some distance on the river. I took it out last night for the first test; I'm hooked!! I'm coming from 10 years in a 12' kayak, so the extra 5' and 4" narrower really makes a difference. Actually, it didn't feel that different, but I'm sure if I had the 12 footer I would have been blown around in the wind or pushed down river with a lot more effort to get back up!

That 17' teeter-tottering on top of my jeep really makes me nervous though! The 12' I didn't even know was there.


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## orbital (Apr 11, 2020)

markr6 said:


> I just stumbled upon this old thread. Glad I did because I just purchased the same kayak. For the same reason...workout/cover some distance on the river. I took it out last night for the first test; I'm hooked!! I'm coming from 10 years in a 12' kayak, so the extra 5' and 4" narrower really makes a difference. Actually, it didn't feel that different, but I'm sure if I had the 12 footer I would have been blown around in the wind or pushed down river with a lot more effort to get back up!
> 
> That 17' teeter-tottering on top of my jeep really makes me nervous though! The 12' I didn't even know was there.



+

Really good choice!

believe it's considered _British hull design_ in overall shape, with decent maneuverability for a longer boat w/ skeg adjust,
& at the same time good straight-line speed.

..bet I'v had mine a good 10 years now.

I have a straight Werner Shuna paddle (fiberglass laminate)


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## Poppy (Apr 12, 2020)

I have three 10'4" Pelicans. One a sit on top the other two, sit in.
A lazy river, or a lake is fine by me. 
I enjoy spending a few hours with my kids, with a six-pack, paddling, chatting, taking in the sun, and listening to music.

Later we'll throw something on the grill, or go out to dinner.
Man... Life is Good on the lake! 

Of course I had to pimp mine out with some LED lights, a water proof glove box, and basket for my Bose speaker! 
It's funny, riding in the kayak with the speaker on, vibrating the sound within the boat, it's like riding in a speaker box, or an auditorium with perfect acoustics.


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## thermal guy (Jun 6, 2020)

I went kayaking down the Au Sable River in Michigan When I was like 15. I got sun burned so bad I had to go to the hospital. I fell out dozens of times got lost and dam near poked my eye out when I ran into the bank.Kinda turned me off water activities for the rest of my life. Lol


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## archimedes (Jun 6, 2020)

thermal guy said:


> I went kayaking down the Au Sable River in Michigan When I was like 15. I got sun burned so bad I had to go to the hospital. I fell out dozens of times got lost and dam near poked my eye out when I ran into the bank.Kinda turned me off water activities for the rest of my life. Lol



Been there done that. Not planning on a repeat.

If I'm gonna be on the water, I now prefer it to be in a powered conveyance.


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## peter yetman (Jun 6, 2020)

Nooooo, too much noise and smell.
There's a complete beauty in sitting in the middle of a piece of water with just the sound of the waves lapping at the side of your boat.

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” 
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

They taught us Kayaking at school, I joined the Kayaking Corp to get me out of having to wear a uniform and parade around the school.
We used to take our boats on the local river two afternoons a week.
I took the future Mrs Yeti when we were small and were observed snogging on the river bank. "Sex at their age!" I heard some lady say. Hardly, we were still in our lifejackets.

I'm now restoring my racing dinghy which is a Solo, my pride and joy until someone put their towball through the side and I snapped the mast bringing it home. I've been so upset that I haven't been able to look at it, but we're moving house and I'll have the space to fix it.
It was fantastic for Winter sailing off the North Norfolk Coast I swear the thing used to take off when I got the whole rig humming.
The only downside was feet that felt like ice blocks.

Give manual boating another go Arch, you know it makes sense.
P


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## archimedes (Jun 6, 2020)

peter yetman said:


> Nooooo, too much noise and smell.
> There's a complete beauty in sitting in the middle of a piece of water with just the sound of the waves lapping at the side of your boat....
> 
> It was fantastic for Winter sailing off the North Norfolk Coast I swear the thing used to take off when I got the whole rig humming. The only downside was feet that felt like ice blocks.
> ...



Well ... I guess sailing is still ok. It is a conveyance, which *I'm* not powering.

But canoes, kayaks, rafts, and the like ? .... Those are right out


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## Poppy (Jun 14, 2020)

I finally pulled the trigger on another Pelican Bandit 10' sit on top kayak.

Last year when they went on sale for $179, I went to the store and they were out of stock.
This year they became just about un-obtainable. There has been a huge demand for kayaks, bicycles, and other family toys, due to the extra time people have on their hands due to the corona virus.

The manager at ****'s wouldn't honor my year old rain-check, not that I blame him, so I had to pay full price of $279 plus tax. He said that the factory has been closed due to the corona virus, and they haven't been able to re-stock.

Due to a bad hip, I wanted a SOT, and each time I went out, my daughter grabbed it. Especially since she started taking the dog with her.

I wanted the same style, because I thought that one would nest inside the other, and I was right! Win one for Poppy!

I strap two together and put them on the roof of my car to transport. Maybe, three will work well. Hopefully.


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## jrgold (Jun 14, 2020)

my son and his friend taking their turn on the kayaks last week in the Russian river, CA. One sit in, one SOT. For the wife and me, she prefers the sit in because she likes to stay dry, i prefer the SOT because i want the option to take a dip lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Hooked on Fenix (Jun 28, 2020)

One of the nicest places I've found to kayak is at Silver Lake near Lee Vining, CA. It has a nice slow meandering stream feeding into the lake. You paddle hard upstream as far as you can handle, turn around, and float back to the lake by just steering a bit. I don't like riding big waves in a kayak since I made the mistake of doing it in an inflatable kayak when I was a kid. It couldn't stay straight in the waves, turned sideways, tipped me out, then launched to shore without me at 30 miles/hr. The paddle smacked my foot and made it bleed when I got hit by the next wave. I swam to shore as fast as I could, thinking about the possibility of sharks. I' m not doing that again.


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## Poppy (Aug 27, 2020)

My daughter brought one, I brought the other three kayaks to the lake Tuesday.
Perfect weather.


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