So I had a fancy new Greenland paddle made for me and it finally arrived after a long delay. I was so excited to learn how to use it. After my second day of using it it must have fell out of my boat as I carried it up from the beach and put it on my truck. I didn’t notice it until several hours later when I took my kayak off the truck. I tore back down to the beach and the tide was high and the paddle was no where to be found. I couldn’t believe it. Not even a scratch on it and it’s gone. I didn’t even learn how to use it properly yet.
Anyone else lose something like that? The more valuable and boneheaded the better!
How awful!
Well, it was pretty boneheaded of me to lock my car keys and PFD carrying my spare set of keys in my car. Now my PFD is placed in my cockpit as soon as I unload my boat. Only gear I’ve lost was a paddling glove that I didn’t completely shove under the bungee and couldn’t get to in time to grab as it was sinking.
There’s another thread in the advice board about lost gear. While I wrote my phone number in silver marker on my Cyprus, I can’t figure out how to put I.D. info on my GP.
A real bummer about the paddle. Could you run a couple of “Lost” ads in case it washes up somewhere in the area?
locked keys in the car at remote takeout
Took three hours for AAA to get Pop-A-Lock out there.
My wife was SO F’ing pissed by the time we got her out!!!
Um… yeah, I’ve lost paddles 3 times
Werner Camino disappeared out of my truck or kayak. Possibly, it was a theft. Possibly I was daft, as in the next two instances, both Greenland paddles. They were my favorite paddles at the time. Those fell out or off my truck. One, I found the splinters. The other disappeared despite my searching for it. I’d only gone four miles and I combed the road on bicycle, but there was no sign of the paddle.
So, I am embarrassed to say I have lost paddles by stupidly not paying enough attention to them.
~~Chip
Need advice ?
try using an ‘eased in’ method for new stuff: season.
Leave it on the shelf for awhile.
Anyway, some stuff goes thru cycles of leaving then staying.or willfully self destructing.
Divisional stuff like screwdrivers demo stats. Periods of grouped blade drivers n no Phillips alternates with the converse.
Camano - me too
I also lost a Werner Camano, a good while ago.
Unfortunately, it occurred during a brief rest stop in the yak, in the dark, just outside of the surf zone (and quickly drifting towards it). (I did have a spare on the rear deck).
Andy
Lost a throw bag
Left it hanging on a tree. Someone found it and called me. I got it back several months later when we crossed paths again. Paddling community is like that.
Another GP left behind
I left a Greenland Paddle at a launch in Rhode Island once. Long time ago, before most paddlers had even seen one.
After a 2 hour drive home, I realized I had done it. So, I called a friend who was paddling with the group that lived near the launch, and he said he’d look for it. About an hour later, he called me back and said it was still there, and he grabbed it.
I was relieved and said I was happy it was still there, and he said that he knew it would be, because paddlers in RI were “Too smart to use one of those things”.
The other night
I left my canoe and 2 ZRE paddles unattended for a over an hour at the takeout of our local river. Came back at dark to get it and everything was gone. Too late to do anything about it other than scan the immediate area.
Up early and on the water before work the next morning. Found the canoe partially full of water about 3/8 mile downstream in front a snag. Must have slipped back into the water. Life jacket was in it but no paddles. Another 1/4 mile downstream I found one of the paddles in a snag. No sign of the other one despite more searching yesterday. I’ll check again when the water level drops.
Alan
Took a Practice Roll…
– Last Updated: Jun-06-16 1:37 PM EST –
and lost my $700 prescription sunglasses. Forgot to put the croakies on the glasses first.
sing
stuff happens all the time
– Last Updated: Jun-06-16 6:20 PM EST –
right now I'm down several cam straps- undoubtedly one of my fellow boaters has them.
Last weekend I apparently dropped a pair of dollar store sunglasses in the drink. Don't know when or how it happened.
Lost a gps- at the put in- went back to look for it- no sign of it, happened a month or so ago.
Left a step ladder sitting next to the car, for loading the canoe solo, even looked in my mirrors for any left gear as I drove away and still didn't spot it- that's my start for 2016- oh yes other events this year- loaned out my spare paddle when a buddy broke his, lost not one but two bulkhead screws- so the bulkhead was wobbling while I ran a creek. Last night we spent about 20 minutes retrieving a paddle stuck under a rock- then there's all the gear my kids use, don't return, return broken (one ducky valve broken after I just had it commercially replaced) a couple of weeks ago, on the bright side my son found a throw rope I was sure was lost- crammed up in the end of his kayak- still in pretty good shape for being in a boat for at least a couple of seasons.
Biggest thing I ever lost and got back was a squirt boat I pinned under an undercut. Didn't even have my name in it. The folks that retrieved it at low water in TN and contacted the manufacturer (in NC) with the serial #, who contacted the dealer who sold it to me (in Maine) who knew me from working at a camp and then contacted the camp (in Maine), who contacted my parents in Ohio, who contacted me in WV, where I picked up the boat when they came up to paddle the williams. Bought them a bunch beer but it turns out they didn't drink.
My son left a kayak paddle up on top of the undercut at Millers Folley, their ducky had gone flat so they overload a shredder- I accused them of partying too much and having s@@t for brains (I felt it was my parental duty) for hitting that undercut and having to climb up on the rock and then leaving the paddle when he jumped back onto the raft but I got the paddle back, but I had to buy the beer because my son hadn't turned 21 yet. It takes some serious rock climbing skills to climb the back side of that rock (of which I am not capable of) so I was thankful to get the call.
Twice I've had commercial rafting guides poach gear, Rivers poached a c1 iliad paddle after my boat got stuck in a hole for a long time in the left slot of landslide (new river dries) I took solace in knowing that my paddle was to short for them to be useful, glad I had a spare
NOC poached a carlisle ducky paddle when my nephew got cocky and decided to launch out into the middle of their commercial trips and ended up wiping out on turtle rock when he couldn't get left because of the traffic- I blame him for that- but the NOC trip saw it all happen, partly caused it and then took the fricken paddle. Those folks pride themselves on their river etiquette but that's just bs. Wrote their river manager a letter about that one. When you see stuff go down and know who it belongs to then you shouldn't poach. Totally not cool.
I have lost a boat and paddles out of the back of pick ups. Most of stuff including the boat we got back. Rough back roads- fortunately no one hurt.
The really entertaining stuff happened when I was younger and video boating- falling on a slick rock and watching the pelican case with camera inside get shot out of my hand on the impact with the rock and shoot up into the air and into the middle of the rapid (roller coaster wave- lower gauley) or accidently knocking your boat off the rock and you have to jump in (Millers- new) and you just have to swim after your stuff or lose it.
Put your name and phone number on everything you want back. Stuff happens. Take solace in knowing that it is just stuff- not important like someones life, or health, or spirit. after all a paddle is just a paddle. Its about the journey not the gear. So stop bein' "qu@@r for gear".
I took my new subaru in for its first oil change today- already has a bunch of boat related dings and scratches on it- I'm beat to hell too, limpin' around the put ins and take outs- ahhh but its all good when I'm in a boat and on the water. Someone pass me an ol' milwaukee cause it don't get any better than this! lost a paddle, who cares! Get another and let's go paddlin'!
the only gear I ever left behind
…was returned to me by a fisherman in a motorboat.
Kokatat tow package
The waist-mount style. Left it on the beach, launched, returned, gone. 
Us RI paddlers
are pretty opinionated. 
Yikes
– Last Updated: Jun-06-16 11:03 PM EST –
Loosing a paddle is a bad deal, but I'd feel better about loosing one in action than loosing one because of carelessness.
Thank heavens for being prepared with a spare.
Lost gear…
If my memory serves me; I’ve lost 2 pair of sunglasses.
My fault; no croakies holding glasses on, and paddling whitewater. No biggie; I only wear cheap sunglasses. the more expensive ones are in car or truck.
BOB
What a terrific response!
Thanks! Now I feel better about hitting my brand new Honda with my kayak when I was unloading it.
Better a dent in the car than in the boat.
Lost boat purchase cash
I have lost small items on river trips before but one time I lost $600 in a Wells Fargo envelope that was going to be used to purchase a Wenonah Encounter.
I was running errands for my wife over lunch time and lost the money out of my pocket. I phoned all the places I had been with no luck so I placed a Lost/Found ad on CL. A week later I received a phone call from the day manager at the local grocery store saying she had my money. She could not sleep one night and for some reason ended up browsing CL during that time. One of their clerks had found the money in the parking lot retreiving carts.
As I left the store still in disbelief I handed $50 to the first person who looked like they could use it.
Brian
Great Responses!
Thanks for that. I’m over it now. Life is good.
I actually have another one. About 3 weeks ago I was using my new sprayskirt as a cushion on the roof rack to slide my kayak onto the rack as the towel I was using blew out of the truck on the way over (seeing a pattern?). I normally drive a couple blocks home but this time I had to get dog food and drive out of town. So I must have left it on the rack and it blew out of the truck. I didn’t realize it was gone until several hours later. I only went about 5 miles and scoured the roads on both sides. Twas gone! I put an ad out in the local chat boards but nothing. Who has any use for a smelly wet sprayskirt? I think I’m the only sea kayaker in town. Oh well. At least I have a trusty backup. Oh yeah, and I found my towel…
Happy Paddling!
One more
A friend of mine lost his drysuit once. A goretex one. He changed beside his car after a paddle, and apparently drove away with it on to of the car, never to be found even though he searched and asked everywhere.
It happened at a very popular paddling launch, so I’m not surprised it was never found.