This afternoon a friend texted me to tell me that he was driving past a local campground and saw two canoes for sale and that one of them looked like something I might paddle. The campground is only four miles away so I went to look immediately. My friend was right. One of the boats was exactly my current boat but in almost new condition—a Dagger Impulse (whitewater) canoe. Mine is in horrendous condition but works for the $100 I paid for it. This almost newish one was only $200. I bought it. The other canoe was an old school Blue Hole tandem in very good condition for only $125. I bought it, too. I’m picking them up tomorrow. As for the Blue Hole, I don’t even know the length or exact model. I really didn’t care. It was a very nice Blue Hole canoe for $125!
Both boats only a 7-minute drive from my house!
Great day!
awesome, though you just drove down the price of Royalex lol. Eckilson used to paddle an Impulse; it’s why he became such a good swimmer.
The first step toward recovery is… 
Very nice score(s)!
That’s great! I bought two sea kayaks today. I responded to a local ad for 2 sea kayaks that had been damaged when a roof rack failed (or more likely the person putting them on failed) and they flew off at 65 mph. The sea kayak market isn’t very active here (SW Colorado) and I wasn’t expecting much, but they are actually quite nice and in really good shape. One is a Current Designs Gulfstream, which I could paddle today, and the other is a CD Solstice GTHV which has a little more damage. Good winter projects for me.
Jealous of your 7 minute drive though - mine was and hour and a half each way!
swweeet! enjoy those 2 canoes (scottfree)and the 2 sea kayaks (ptickner)!
Matt - it was your fine example at made me such a good swimmer 
To you guys that are great swimmers…
I’ve taken a swim twice in the last ten or twelve years. Once because I was paddling high water Class III in a Class II boat, and once because I was following a friend who was following a friend and I was slow to get to a line during a high water run. So—only twice in maybe a dozen years. My lack of regular swimming is NOT bragging. In fact—just the opposite. The guys who swim are the guys who take risks, and who push their limits. The guys who rarely swim (like me) are not to be admired. I rarely swim because I rarely test my abilities. I salute the good swimmers among us for pushing their limits and accepting the risks and consequences.
How do you know if you’ve gone far enough if you don’t occasionally go too far?
well said. I recall being proud of being swim free for 3 years, then had the same thought you write of. I believe the relatively sharp chines on Eckilsons Impulse and our habitual ritual of surfing every darn hole we could find honed our self rescue skills rapidly. There was one special day, a 3 mile run through Satans Kingdom and Roostertail that took us 7 hours, in the snow. Roostertail has a nice hole and a couple surf waves, and we spent hours there. My son swam, which was a rarity, and I believe there were 7 swims between 4 of us total, from Ecks 4 to my none. I laugh thinking about the sun being gone, we’re in the dark, big wet flakes coming down, and I hear Eckilson saying “just one more” implying one more turn in the hole. About 5 seconds later I hear a big “WHOOOOMP” and knew that that Impulses chine had caught and sent him for a ride.
No swims personally that day, but vanity caught me a few days later, same place. Paddling an Encore, I had no excuse lol.
Hey, you guys-We oughta get the Old School swim team together again, for a “very special episode” of “How Not To Paddle Northeast Whitewater.” Blub-blub-blub-blub!
Thanks for the laughs.
Sincerely, Mark Spitzlotsofnewenglandnycreekwater
When I started paddling (canoes) I only ran what I was willing to swim and quite frequently swam. When I switched to a decked boat (c1) and developed a reliable roll I started running more difficult water and while I rolled some, the swims became infrequent.
When videoing commercial raft trips (New and Gauley Rivers) I swam 2 or 3 times out of 500 trips and the rolls were infrequent.
Then I slacked off the paddling a bit, got old, and started swimming class II (in a short canoe) just to keep it interesting.
The hips and knees gave out, hips replaced, so now it is kayaking with no desire to swim at all. My whole goal is to make class II look good. The roll has to get a lot better before I can be a solid class III paddler again. Maybe I’ll get there and maybe I won’t. It’s the journey that counts… ‘still havin’ fun. Swimmin’ is for folks that have their original hardware.