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Welcome to PaddlingLight.com–a magazine-style blog about lightweight canoe and kayak travel and about paddling in general. It started years ago as Nessmuking.com, but morphed as the philosophy changed. First, read about my Lightweight Paddling Philosophy.

The second thing, you’ll want to do is check out the archived content–there’s lots of it. The technique category is good fun. Try these canoe and kayak navigation articles. Many of the most popular articles deal with winter kayaking or cold water kayaking.

Some of the most popular posts include the Free Canoe and Kayak plans and Building Resources.

5 Comments

  • Jeffrey Lee

    Bryan,

    Jeff from AquaDynology here. (Sorry about contacting you via a comment, but your contact form wouldn’t accept my submission …)

    Been enjoying your recent articles on outdoor risk management and recreation participation rates. Good food for thought, both.

    Wondering if you happen to have any photos of the series of t-storms that blew through the Duluth-Two Harbors area on July 4?

    A buddy and I were crossing from Raspberry to Oak Islands in the Apostles when we got chased down by the freakiest rolling shelf cloud I’ve ever seen, with 60-mph winds, and soon followed by 5-foot quartering waves. We were too far from shore so had to ride it out on the water, before continuing to camp.

    After a decade of Superior paddling, I’ve never seen anything like it, and would love to see any photos you might have!

    Thanks, Jeff

    • Bryan Hansel

      Hi, Jeff,

      I live in Grand Marais, which is a bit further up the shore. We had a few bad storms, but I didn’t see anything unusual.

      I just checked the form and it worked for me. Did you enter the captcha correctly? What did the form tell you after you tried? Can you try it again and let me know?

      • Jeffrey Lee

        Thanks, Bryan.

        I know you’re up in Grand Marais, but I also know you often ramble around, and that you really know how to make a camera do its job :-) So, I was hoping for some good photos.

        In the meantime, I found some others on the web from that particular storm and a few similar ones, and will post a write-up on my site soon …

        BTW, your contact form worked for me today, so probably just a glitch that day.

        Thanks!

        Jeff

    • Rick Eliot

      Hi Bryan
      The Southern Alaskan Baidarka looks like it will be much more stable than the 23”x22’ double I built a couple of years ago. A large friend (6’6”, 280 lbs) must have a high center of gravity, or something, as he finds it almost impossible to balance in it.
      Let me know your address and I will send $30.
      My printer cuts off the four outside hull shape forms. I wonder if you could send me another drawing that will show the full page width?
      Any tips on how to convert the cross section into Yost type forms will be appreciated. I see the station interval is 1 foot, but I don’t know how to scale the drawing up to boat size.
      Thanks for all your contributions to our sport.
      Regards,
      Rick Eliot

      PO Box 154
      Lyndonville
      VT 05851

      • Bryan Hansel

        I’m confused by what you’re asking. The drawings are full-sized, i.e. you don’t need to change the scale. You’ll need a printer that can print 24×36 inches to print it. You can take this file to an office supply store or a printer to have it printed full-sized. To print it on a smaller printer, you’ll need to scale the drawing, but then it won’t be full-sized. You can send the $30 donation to Bryan Hansel, PO Box 149, Grand Marais, MN 55604-0149.

        Sorry, I don’t have any advice on how to change this to Yost-style forms, other than pick which stations you want to use and use those for your Yost-style forms. Maybe a few in front of the cockpits and a few between. I’ve only built one Yost-style kayak, so I’m not up-to-speed on the structural requirements.

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