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Lake Nipigon Kayaking Trip Report
Dates: Sept. 12 – Oct. 2, 2017 by Hannah Fanney & Rodney Claiborne Reason for Travel Lake Nipigon is a large lake directly above Lake Superior. We were familiar with the lake’s location, but information on it was difficult to obtain. It looked to us like a less developed Superior with smaller seas and more protection available from the myriad of islands and peninsulas. Our goal was to spend time exploring an area we were not familiar with while testing out the carrying capacity of food and equipment in our boats. We chose the fall season due to our seasonal employment schedule and to enjoy rougher seas, cooler temperatures, and…
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Kayak Changing Rooms — Now!
One of the hassles of kayaking involves changing into paddling clothing at the boat ramp. If you’re like me, you try to do a quick surf change on the beach using something like Orange Mud’s Transition and Seat Wrap (See: Orange Mud Transition Towel and Seat Wrap Review). You may have picked up something like a Sqivvy, a popup changing room. Neither offer a perfect solution. The Orange Mud towel doesn’t allow you to dry off easily, so when you pull you pants and underwear on, it feels wet and sticky. The Sqivvy tends to blow down in the wind even when fully staked and guyed out. The ideal solution is to…
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Getting Icy: The Last Winter Kayak of the Year
Got out for the last paddle of 2013 the other day. It has been a cold winter so far in the northwoods, and in the winter I prefer to paddle on warmer days, but with December coming to an end my streak of paddling once a month every month on Lake Superior for the last 5+ years looked threatened, so I just needed to get on the water. I met up with Dave Schorn, a guide who works for another sea kayaking company in the area, to get a last-minute December paddle in. The air temp was in the upper teens, water in the mid-30s and the waves and wind were…
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The Path to Torso Rotation
In kayaking, if you can rotate your torso, your strokes can become more effective. If you’ve ever taken a lesson or read a book on the forward stroke, you’ve probably heard “rotate, rotate, rotate” or some kind of encouragement like “show me your back, show me your chest” to force you to rotate. The reason for the emphasis is that torso rotation, done the right way, gives your forward stroke more power. It’s not just for the forward stroke though; almost every stroke, from sweeps, draws, rolls, etc., work better with torso rotation. To take advantage of the torso rotation, you have to be able to rotate your torso, and, although that…
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This vs That in Kayaking
Over on PaddlingLight’s Facebook page, I posed a question and some thoughts about paddling sponsorship. Basically, I noticed that more sponsored paddlers are getting sponsored without having to go out on expeditions. I wondered what that does to the look and appeal of paddling (from a manufacturer’s standpoint, it may make sense this way: you get your gear out to the influencers; they influence the hard core paddlers who buy your gear; the hard core show it off to their friends who buy it; and then it trickles down from there). My thought was that I’d rather that sea kayaking look like National Geographic instead of some kind of extreme sport. That…
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Dreaming About Belcher Islands Kayaking
Today, I was going to write an essay about my view on rough water sea kayaking and whether or not this specific subset of sea kayaking really fits in with my view of what sea kayaking is and whether or not the continued emphasis on rough water paddling is good for the sport, but I got sidetracked, probably for the better, by the Google maps on GeoGarage while trying to identify several lights that I saw last night from across Lake Superior. What I saw on Google maps that blew my mind was the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay, and the cool thing: the islands have a history of kayaking that goes…
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The Best Shoes for Kayaking: Two Great Wetshoes You Should Own
Over the 15 years that I’ve kayaked, I’ve used a bunch of different shoes and I’ve had my favorites, but I haven’t found a shoe that I loved enough to buy it twice until now. And, now I have two shoes that I consider the best shoes for kayaking. I’ve purchased one twice and the other one, after it wears out, I’ll purchase again. NRS Comm-3 Kayaking Wetshoe NRS’s Comm-3 Wetshoe is designed for outfitters and guided kayaking trips. It’s made from 3-mm neoprene with titanium, which means that it’s durable. I bought my first one out of a used commercial shoe fleet, guided in it for a year and wore…
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Kayaking the Canadian Sauna Islands on Lake Superior
Last week I did a kayaking trip from Grand Portage to Squaw Bay. I was paddling with Dave and Amy Freeman of Wilderness Classroom (Facebook page), their new intern Dan Modahl and John Amren who used to own Superior Coastal Sports in Grand Marais. Dave and Amy just started out on the last leg of their 13,000-mile trip across North America via kayak, canoe and dog sled. They’ll complete the trip next April in the Florida keys. They started the trip in 2010 by kayaking the Inside Passage. John sold his store a couple of years ago, which freed him up to finally do the Lake Superior kayak circumnavigation that he…
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What’s Our Burden as More Experienced Kayakers?
I had an interesting experience yesterday afternoon. I went out paddling on Lake Superior in 1- to 3-foot waves, sub-40 degree Fahrenheit water temps and air temps in the 50s. There’s a really rocky and nasty surf break near town, so I paddled there to ride the outside of the break, then I made my way back to the parking lot landing in dumping waves on the beach here and there just for fun. A rec boater apparently saw me paddling and thought it looked fun. Just as I was about to go to the car, I noticed her without a lifevest and no wet/drysuit trying to get out through dumping waves.…
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Kayaking in the Apostle Island Sea Caves
In April of this year, we joined the Gear Junkie on a short trip to the Apostle Islands for their new Off the Map video series. We spent the day exploring the mainland sandstone sea caves and filming the trip. I hadn’t seen the video until today. It’s pretty sweet. Here’s the video: It makes the sea caves seem pretty fast paced, and I love the footage of me doing a roll. All in all it was a great way to get off the north shore and spend time with friends. Check out my original Apostle Island trip report.
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How to Choose a Dry Suit for Kayaking
How do you choose a drysuit for kayaking on cold water? When do you use it? What brand – always Kokatat? How do you get one to fit right? Do you get used to the feeling of claustrophobia with the tight gasket around the neck? How do you care for it? How long can you expect the gaskets to last? These were all questions posed on Paddlinglight’s Facebook page when I recently asked for article ideas. These are all great questions to get answers for when you’re preparing to buy what might be the most expensive piece of kayaking gear that you buy after your kayak. What are my options…
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Kayaking Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast (Skeleton Coast)
Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast, in the southeast corner of the lake, runs approximately 50 miles from the sand spit of Whitefish Point to the first safe harbor at Grand Marais, Michigan. As part of my Port Huron to Home trip in the spring and summer of 2011, I kayaked past this mainly undeveloped area. At the time, I wanted to paddle past it in two days to avoid getting stuck there during bad weather. In the end it took me five days, because of wind and waves. Out of the entire 800-mile trip, the Shipwreck Coast, also known as Superior’s Skeleton Coast, was the most hauntingly beautiful and monotonous section of the…
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Learning the Greenland-style Storm Roll Part 2: The Kayak Roll
This is part two of Learning the Greenland-style Storm Roll. Before reading this start with part one of Learning the Greenland-style Roll. The Storm Roll Now let’s bring all of the pieces of the puzzle together. This time we’re going to capsize and bring the paddle around under the boat with us. The set up is just like a standard layback roll. And right up until you start moving the paddle to initiate coming out of the water the position is exactly the same. So for the first style of the roll we’re going to capsize, set up into the position we were just in doing the last few progressions.…
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Learning the Greenland-style Storm Roll Part 1: The Foundations
Being a Greenland-style kayaker I take great pride in my ability to roll. I’ve spent many hours practicing and honing tiny details to make my rolls smooth, graceful, and quiet. And I am not alone. There are tons of us out there. We are a bit of an odd bunch, even amongst kayakers, because we’ll get together and not actually go anywhere. We just gear up, paddle out a ways into deepish water, roll and then head back in. We call that a really great day on the water. We really work hard on getting better on our rolls. It’s mainly for fun but there is a use for having…
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Kayak Paddle Stuck Together? This Is How To Get It Apart
At the end of a full-day of paddling, you load your car, put away your vest and rescue gear. You get ready to put away your paddle, but after you push the spring-lock button, the paddle won’t split apart. It’s stuck. Likely, a barely-noticeable, fine sand found its way into the connection before you joined the parts together. With luck on your side, the paddle comes apart when you tug on one end and a friend tugs on the other. On a normal day, it feels like someone super-glued the paddle together. When it feels like glue keeps your kayak paddle stuck together, break out the hair dryer and a…