Did you just add that bird?
Yep about an hour ago. Now I own an OT Pink Flamingo.
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I didn’t do the Ballon tire route, but my father picked up a Dept Store 10 speed at a flea market that I fixed up. I loved it. After a while. I learned of its limitations and bought my present Bike Shop, properly sized bike. It’s a shock to realize I’ve had that bike for 31 years. Like a few other old timers, we still love and cherish those old tools, for the scrapes and miles and the memories. I replaced every piece, literally, except the chromoly frame/fork and the stem lock nut.
One SOT told me, "I started in one of those (gesturing generically to my touring boat), but couldn’t stand or cast in it. This here is 111 lbs, the seat raises/lowers, it feels like I’m sitting in a lawn chair at home, and I can stand in it. All I could say is, Amen, brother. Don’t let me get in your way.
I keep most of my boats at my daughters waterfront. Canoes, kayaks, paddles, and two PDFs in each size, make an inventory for family and friends. I probably paid as much for whistles than some pay for a paddle, but if somebody has an introductory boat and a cheap paddle, it will serve the purpose of getting out on the water until you want to do more. If you keep it, you can share with a friend. I let everyone select a paddle and eventually they’ll find a favorite. The duralite 140 Pungo’s are my favorite give out boats, because they are stable and fast. I fixed the bulkhead issue and will add deck ropes.
As a kid I had the 26” Schwinn single speed most kids had. My dad had a cousin that had a son that had MS and he wanted him to have a bike. He ordered a English racing bike for him thinking 10 gears might make it so he could ride. No one I knew had ever heard of more than 3 gears in the early 60s. Well it didn’t work for him and my dad bought it for me. I never could have imagined something like this and the chain skipping around on cogs. For about a month I was the fastest kid in town and I could climb the hills no one else could. I was flying down my street in the tallest gear and I went to the side of the road in front of my house like I had a million times on my balloon tires and there was a storm drain with slats wide enough apart for that British tire to fit between.
I was launched over the bars and scraped from head to toe and the fork bent back past where the tire hit the frame. My dad took it apart and hammered it back in his vice but it never was right again. Least little speed and it would twitch all over. I’m sure the wheel wasn’t true as well. It was forever to hang from the garage ceiling on a nail. 10 years later everyone had one.
I have an Old Town Penobscot 16 Royalex. It was too top heavy feeling. So I put hardwood dowels in a metal lathered and bored a hole to extend the seat drops. I thinking I dropped the seat from, maybe about 2 1/2 inches to 4 inches. Seeing your green Pink Flamingo makes me want to take it out again. I only personally used it three times since I bought it. I got hooked on the 9 ft Perception and started going upward in kayaks. I never regretted any boat that I bought. Just upgraded. Reached the 175 Tsunami and fell back to the 145 Tsunami as my favorite all around boat. I wish I had bought a lighter model of the 175. I like it fine. It just never lived up to my expectations. The lightweight models were about $3,200, vs. $1,500. I ponder whether I saved $1,700 or threw away $1,500. The main problem is that my new Colorado doesn’t have the ladder rack that my old S10 had, and it’s too heavy to lift and carry around (aging knees), especially getting in/out of storage and levering it up on a truck rack that I’m shopping for. Then I can’t seem to extract the speed potential from the three additional feet of waterline length and narrower width. My guess is greater weight and more wetted surface or some such tech stuff. Bottom line - it don’t work more better.
*there is a post re: lengths of front and rear overhang allowed by state. I need a ladder rack.
I love that boat, and it’s perfect the way it is. I still have the one I bought in 1998, and it has seen miles of lakes, rivers, swamps and sounds. A few years back my wife painted “Ol’ Penny” on the side. She’s part of the family.
BTW, maybe you should start a thread about those of us who pedal and paddle. Anyone ran shuttle with your bike? I have it made some solo day trips possible.
I don’t seem to balance well for some reason. I don’t get sea sick or vertigo. I just feel unstable. I think it comes down to famiarization. When helping to build family houses, I felt uneasy on the modular scaffolding. By time we finished building, I could scale and descend like a monkey. I suspect the canoe could be like that. In fact I seem to recall being able to change seats in our 17 ft aluminum Grumman during the 70s. I also recall the manuever was without wearing the PDF. That does bring up a memory and shows how time influences our precautions. You are resurrecting a lot of memories for me, Dave. I wish we still had that old aluminum canoe. It got wrapped around a rock. We did put on those old Type I PDFs before going through rapids. I laugh now - ignorant yahoo’s, but dang good fun. I’m not partial to shuttling. It’s to finite with a predetermined end. I like the freedom that it sounds like you may favor. Set out and return when you’ve seen enough. I once started out on a foggy morning. The atmosphere and sound of boats was surreal. Visibility about 1/2 mile. Objects when in view were boldly silhouetted. Even the channel bouys that mainly disappear in the surroundings stood out stark and black against the white backdrop. The sun began to burn through; I felt resentful, like it was intruding… I’d do that again in a heartbeat, but after reading posts, I’d carry a strobe. My VHF has one, but bigger and easier to activate is probably wiser. I’d go alone because I won’t put anybody else at risk. I’m open to lesson learned experiences, but comments about intellectual development have probably already been used by mother jyak. That trip turned out to be close to 8 1/2 and was the most fabulous trip ever. Like my peak downhill on a bike, a similar trip has never been attempted or desired.
Lol. We do both. I look for parks with rivers and lakes to kayak in. No white water and none of the lakes are big. We have fun. I now have a Dagger axis, 10.5 which is manoeuvrable in meandering rivers/creeks but I guess at that length it still is a rec kayak. No matter, I have fun. Thanks to my pelican for getting us started.
Jyak ,It’s a PFD , Personal Floatation Device.
Oh man! Don’t tell me I do that more than once. I read and respond on a 2.75 inch sq phone screen. The auto correct changes things and if it has the right number of letters I sometimes overlook it. I read every post and at times my eyes burn and can’t see. Appreciate the notice. I’ll get you to walk behind me to make sure ai don’t have toilet paper on my shoe. Thanks string. I owe ya.
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Yup, I finally turned off Autocorrect on my phone and iPad because I was tired of it second guessing what I was typing. It had, at various times, changed GP to GPS, PFD to PDF, “gunwale” to “unreal” and “tuilik” (a garment for kayak rolling) to “tulip”.
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String, it’s everywhere. I gave up trying to find one reference to a life vest as a *** . It happens when I take my tin foil hat off. Now I just see stars. This is bad. Not sure I can change anymore.
Are you sure I wasn’t talking about wearing a Portable Document Format.
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jyak:
Falling is a very serious danger, for old people, so the CDC and PTs have come up with balance tests, which can also be balance improvement exercises. The two hardest are standing with your feet in tandem (heel of one touching toe of the other) and standing on one foot. The CDC only asks that you do it for ten seconds. A PT video I watched had you do for a minute. If you can do it for a minute, without needing to catch yourself, you have no balance problem. I can do both for a minute, no problem, so I have no balance problem. But I also get nervous in tippy boats. I found that the big problem with that POS, SOT I have is the absence of sides or top to press my legs against. But, yes, you can improve your balance with practice and you can get used to the feeling of a tippy boat. My plan is to gradually work my way up, starting with a very stable rec kayak and working up to a narrow touring kayak. Again, there is nothing wrong with a rec kayak, but you can cover more miles with a narrow touring kayak and I might have people I need to keep up with.
SOTconvert.I understand your recommendstions, and appreciate your desire to help. I’ve been physically active my whole life. Msny times jogged before work. Worked in multi story buildings and infruriated coworker because I used stairs uonto thev6th floor rather than elevators. I camped and hiked my whole life, and continued after having my own family. Many times covering miles with one of four kids on my shoulders. I use to be able to stand in canoes. In the 90s I was bicycling up to 1,200 miles a year, based on logs. Switched over to kayaking around 2004. Had a membership at the YMCA and swam 2 to 3 days a week for aboutv2vyears prior to this . . . This . . . I call it the bioexperiment to make animal virus transfer to humans incident. The pool closed permanently. I actually did more than stand and balance. I had a shoulder injurythat had sepsis nearly kill me. physical therapy 3 days a werk from July 2018 through January for my shoulder, that include 30 minutes each session on stationary bike. and 2 times a week for 6 weeks after that for my legs. I’ve had a $3,800 home gym since csntvremenber,15 years. The sepsis resulted in arthritis in my left shoulder and some in my right. My knees are shot. In before I retired, I worked at a wood shop part-time and started full time in Apr 2007. Took the steps 2 at a time up to the past 10 years. Now I take one step at a time but still do it 2 to 3 times a week. My problem isn’t my sedentary lifestyle. It that I’m plumb-wored-out. Knee replacement is an option, so is shoulder replacement. I take 4 doses of antibiotics prior to teeth cleaning to prevent resurgence of infection. I can have joint replacement but have to consider the infection risk. It’s complicated. Yet I still kayak with 2 detached tendons in my left rotator cuff. My daughter and her husband are physical therapists. It’s 5:39, got to prep for a 16.45 mile trip around Poole Island on the Chesapeake. Thanks for the concern, I enjoy reading your posts by the way. Thank for that also. Let you know how my trip goes. NW 4 mph, 94°, tide is high around 930, so into the tide both ways. Why me.
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For fog not a strobe. A 360 white light per coast guard requirements
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Thanks. Makes sense.
Sotconvert, I hear you. But when I mentioned balance, I was talking about a lifetime inability to ice-skate, walk tightrope, shoot baskets, or bunny hop over trees. You had a good doctor. Mine said if you fall, get back up and act like nothing happened. Or inspect the ground and say interesting. In all seriousness, I mentioned recent therapy that included such things. Including stationary bikes and my resurrecting bike riding. I don’t want a tippy kayak. I don’t want one. If someone gave it to me, I won’t use it. I’ve actually asked in five different headings about the Delta 15.5. Because I fit in it. To date, I haven’t had a single comment directed to me about the Delta 15.5.
I’m fairly active for an old guy. I walk deliberately and have no problem (if I first spit out the gum). In 2016, I put a roof on my house. I’m not happy that I’m a broken toy. I don’t see my problem as being old, the problem is my lifestyle wore out the parts. I feel like a gimp, and I feel like I’m old. But I have a hard time acting my age, probably look it. I’m actually shock to see how many other forum members are the same way. When you see so many people ignoring pain, it’s inspiring. Now we have a goal: Don’t be first to give up.
By the way, I did my trip. Nephew was doing awesome. Almost got him to go all the way and cross the bay (21.5.miles), but he said the goal was 16.5 milles. My normal paddle partner (his mother) passed us in a power boat as we were heading in. The lure of fish. So far they got three.
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encouraging you to just do the knee and get rid of the pain. Or both. It sucks getting old ( one original one bionic knee and two bionic hips which are not a bother at all!)
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