I don't think we wholly disagree. I just happen to think that the skills translate and at times directly transfer.
I know a few paddlers, including some excellent sea coaches, who believe that ww is worthwhile cross training for sea kayaking. It has worked for me.
From a practical level, running whitewater prepared me for Sullivans Falls and rock gardening at the Downeast Symposium better than anything else I've done.
Yes, I popped my skirt on the Sac twice this past season. Once my boat was wedged and once when I blew my roll. However, on one of my last runs of the season, I rolled at the lower feature - that greatly built my confidence and that transfers with me in any of my kayaks - ww or sea.
I had forgotten about the Tsunami Rangers' rating system. I remember it seeming like the most accurate/informing for sea conditions.
Popping of the decks Actually I’m a lousy example. I had a hellacious problem with moving water regardless of where it was for a long time - ramped up the panic. I got my first success at staying in the dratted boat in moving stuff in WW, and I haven’t capsized in anything tidal in a while, so at the moment my 50% ratio in the river is better than my 0% ratio in the ocean for moving water.
But admittedly the tree branch that caused my last swim in the river wouldn’t have been in my way at Wood’s Hole channel.
not reading the previous posts the first kayak i paddled was an aquaterra chinook. great boat! probably did more to advance modern kayaking than any other boat imho
Both of you impress the heck out of me Most folks I know in their 50’s are looking to shave a couple points off their golf score and here you two take up whitewater, go rock gardening and figure out how to roll in moving water. Outstanding. I know many people in their 50’s who paddle whitewater, they just took it up much earlier. What do your kids think?
As for the Tsunami Rangers sea conditions rating systems it can be seen on their Kayaking Ocean Rock Gardens DVD. Also, since Wilso seems to have an ample stack of Sea Kayaker lying about, it is in a older back issue.
That’s how I got into it Lots of excelent coaches out here think WW prepare sea kayakers as well. George Gronseth comes to mind. We aren’t in total disagreement. I’m just of the opinion that sea kayaking doesn’t offer the best background for WW, better than nothing-sure, but they are vastly different environments. Just an opinion.
So let’s bring this thread back around to what Celia had in mind, based on old/new designs. If we twist the “completely different sports” of WW and SK into that context what do we have? Look at the boats, lots of Anas Acutas, Gulf Stream/Orions, Nordkapps, Pintails, etc. The 70’s all over again. They are solid sea boats and they work for what many sea paddlers do. Big innovations in the racing field, but I don’t do that so will limit myself to a recognition of it and move on. Is anyone paddling 14’ fiberglass ww boats anymore? Slalom paddling has refined considerably, but look at the boom years of ww in the mid to late 90’s and follow the innovations to the present. I couldn’t think of the boat transformation and contrast the two sports in any other light, but “completely different.” You’ve been a good sport in following me til now, thanks for bearing with me.
It helps tremendously We also have no kids, and it does facilitate things like paddling. Good amounts of free time and knowing what you’re going to do with your pay helps a lot.
Most of our friends who do have kids are saddled with college bills, and more and more have offspring in their 20’s and even 30’s living at home with them.
Though the politics of 3 felines in the house can approximate children sometimes…
Current trends in boat design In whitewater there is a trend to bring back some hull speed and rollability. The new ‘Green Boat’ and the Liquid Logic Remix are among the recent evidences of this trend. The Wavesport Diesel was an earlier indicator that paddlers wanted more than the park and play boxes.
In sea kayaks, it is telling when the apparent hottest boat this past season was the Nordkapp LV - a version of a 30+ year old design. There is buzz about Foster’s newest design.
The newest sea kayaks often seem to be trending towards less rocker and longer waterlines (Nordlow excepted). The Rockpool, Tiderace, and newest Current Designs boats are evidence.
Don’t go too far there… It’s only in the last couple of years that I stopped going “eek” every time something started going south. It’s better but I’m still not the world’s quietest paddler. Maybe that’s I so enjoy the river, even just class 2. The sound of the water covers up my own sound effects.
Interesting Neither my girlfriend or I have any kids and most of the people we paddle with are also childless. I wonder how common this is among kayakers? If it’s common now, it may not be in the future, since we don’t have any descendants to carry on the tradition.
