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Canoe and Kayak Building Resources
Building resources for wooden canoe and kayak homebuilders.
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Kayalu Kayacam Review: a camera mount for kayaks
Kayalu sent me a Kayacam camera mount to test out on my kayak. I decided to give it a go on a calm day (check out the video below) for this Kayalu Kayacam review. The Kayacam mount attaches to your kayak or canoe by hooking into a deck fitting with a stainless steel clip. The stainless clip attaches to a bungee cord, which you tighten until the mount is secure. Kayalu recommends that you use cameras weighing 7 ounces or less when used on a kayak, canoe or other boat subject to rocking. That’s about perfect for a GoPro9, which is the action camera that I’m currently using. It wasn’t…
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A Siskiwit SOF Hits the Water
Mike from Columbus, MS finished building a Siskiwit SOF kayak, the skin-on-frame version of the Siskiwit Bay. This is what he had to say: I finally got around to building the Siskiwit Bay SOF from plans purchased last year. It took about 6 weeks, 60’ish hours, and perhaps $350 – $400 in materials. Please see the attached pictures (which you may use as you like for PaddlingLight.com). The frames are high quality birch plywood, the stringers of cedar, and the stems from white pine. The entire frame is protected with tung oil/linseed/mineral spirits mix.  Covering is iron oxide dyed polyester (red sections only, white is natural color) waterproofed with 2-part polyurethane.  The cockpit…
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North House Folk School’s Wooden Boat Show 2016
Each year on the summer solstice weekend, the North House Folk School in Grand Marais puts on its annual Wooden Boat Show. The 2017 dates are June 16-18, 2017. The event not only is a gathering of handcrafted canoes, kayaks and other boats, but a festival weekend full of classes, workshops, talks, slideshows and more. It’s a fun weekend and if you love wooden canoe and kayaks, you should put it on your calendar as an event to attend. It also features a wooden boat auction. I let a wooden canoe go that I would have loved to restore this year, because I don’t have the space on my project list…
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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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Greenland Paddles Can’t Get No Respect
In the Fall 2015 issue of Adventure Kayak, James Roberts writes an article called Stickin’ It To ‘Em: Greenland paddles are superior in every way to their wide-bladed brethren. In the article he states, “It’s time Greenland paddles got some respect.” He then goes on to point out the myths and benefits that he finds when using a Greenland-style paddle (GP). I’ll list these below. While reading the article, it felt like being transported back to the late-90s or early 2000s when the online paddling world at paddling.net argued about which was better. I thought this issue was settled back then with the conclusion that you paddle what you like.…
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Aquabound Manta Ray Carbon Paddle Review
For a little over a month, I’ve been using Aquabound’s Manta Ray Carbon paddle as my primary paddle for personal trips and for guiding. Aquabound sent me the paddle so I could do a Manta Ray Carbon paddle review. I’ve used the paddle with a number of different boats, including a NDK Explorer, Wilderness Systems Tempest 170 Pro and a Dagger Alchemy. The conditions that I tested it in ranged from calm to 4-foot choppy wind waves. I also used it for surfing in waves up to 3 feet and for playing in rock gardens in waves to 3 feet. I tested the 210 cm version. Aquabound describes the Manta…
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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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Spring(?) Kayaking on Brule Lake in the BWCA
This spring has been slow in coming. In northern Minnesota, we’re between 14 and 20 days behind median ice out, and it’s wearing a little thin on the nerves. This week some of the bigger lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness finally started to go out, so with that in mind, Jeffrey and Michelle Forseth of Sea Kayak Safety and I went to paddle on Brule Lake. Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe The put-in was completely ice free and it was 50°F, so we figured that we were…
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Kayak Outfitting Idea: Non-Skid Tape to Prevent Jammed Fingers
Last December, I read a blog post on Rouge Wave Adventures about how to performance tune a new sea kayak (the post contained many great tips, so I suggest you check it out). What I really liked about the post is that it suggested a new technique that solved an actual problem that I’ve experienced and you may have also. The technique was installing non-skid tape, such as Land N Sea Vinyl Traction Tape Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe on a sea kayak to prevent jammed fingers. When getting out of the…
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Build Your Own Greenland-style Skin-on-Frame Kayak Course
This winter, you should visit Grand Marais, Minnesota, one of the best paddling towns in the U.S., and learn how to build a skin-on-frame sea kayak. In late March, North House Folk School is offering a 12-day course on how to build your own skin-on-frame kayak. At the end of the course, you’ll have a kayak that you build with your own hands and is ready to take home. I’ve built a skin-on-frame kayak before and it was a rewarding project, and I ended up with a fun kayak that I used for a number of years. The hardest part of the project for me was trying to learn everything…
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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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Kayaking and Canoeing Participation Rates
The Outdoor Foundation recently published the Outdoor Recreation Participation Topline Report 2012 in which it publishes the participation rates in outdoor recreation from 2011. I find these numbers of interest to paddlers, and these numbers are something that we can directly affect be introducing people to the sports of kayaking and canoeing. The report starts out with some good news: In 2011, outdoor recreation among americans reached the highest participation level in the last five years. Nearly 50 percent of all americans ages six and older, or 141.1 million individuals, participated in at least one outdoor activity in 2011, making 11.6 billion outings. In fact, last year, americans enjoyed 1.5 billion more…
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Kayak Weathercocking vs. Tracking
Kayak weathercocking is the tendency of a moving kayak to turn into the wind. It’s caused by a difference in pressure between the bow and stern of your kayak, and it can feel frustrating if you don’t know how to correct for it. Luckily, there are tools and techniques that can keep you on course even when the wind blows. Kayak tracking is the extent that a kayak holds its course when underway. A kayak with high or good tracking stays on course even when a turning force such as a sweep stroke acts on it. A kayak with high tracking can weathercock and without right equipment can be a…
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For Whom The Old Presque Isle Bell Tolls
The Old Presque Isle Lighthouse was built in 1840 and operated until 1871. It’s one of the oldest surviving lighthouses on the Great Lakes. The park preserves both the old keepers house and the light. When originally restored, the owner used wood from a nearby shipwreck, so the interior features knotted wood with lots of holes. He also used all the doors from the ship to replace interior doors, which gives the keeper’s house a wonderful nautical feel. When I was there, the park volunteer had a small fire burning in the fireplace, which made the house feel even more welcoming. After being rescued from a shipwreck, it would have…