I’ll stick with Z
D sounds like a wonderful boat. However, your review persuades me that for me, given my weight, experience, and the general all around use I put my boat to, the Z 16.0 is the right boat.
Short video
It’s only logical to show the Delphin in action as a quick follow-up on this review -
Nothing too special, just some fun and side-surfing on the river…
http://youtu.be/QXfkrs8mtFk
Love your videos
Your Z videos were the thing that convinced me I owned the wrong kind of boat. I expect to be working up to some very similar paddling her in Vermont and New Hampshire on local rivers. Not quite ready yet. But by next summer/fall I should be in the thick of it. Looks like soooooo much fun.
Yes, moving water is fun!
Good luck with your paddling the Z! It took me a while to begin to get comfortable in these particular spot and a decent roll helped a lot. Really wish the D was lighter by 20lb - would be a blast then…
Anyhow, keep in mind where I paddle, there is typically an easy out in case of trouble: large pools of slow water and very few dangerous obstacles. So, even if I do get over my head (which I try not to do, but it has happenned, leading to unplanned swims), there is usually little danger, short of some freak accident. Plus I have a good estimate of what’s under the water surface and how deep it is, more often than not since I paddle these spots at all sorts of water levels. Especially, with a long boat that is not reinforced, please be careful where you go.
sweet!
thanks for posting that… how far upstream do you have to attain to get to that spot? I’d love to try it in my Coupe in the summer.
We have some similar rivers
One in particular is in my home area and it is a river I know like the back of my hand. I agree it is important to have an area with good volume and pools to recover in.
This is just up from Angler’s
– Last Updated: Dec-04-11 7:06 PM EST –
This was on the Center Chute. Attaining from Angler's is easy, depending on water levels. Not a problem in a long boat or your Coupe at up to about perhaps 7 feet or even a bit more on the Little Falls gauge (though it does require some caution as there might be strainers and the current gets rather pushy). Above that level, or in a shorter boat, it gets a bit trickier as there are a couple of spots that require some speed even though they are not particularly tricky otherwise. That's in the sea kayak (in a shorter WW boat I have to do a couple of short portages, but there is no point going upriver anyway, since the playspots at Rocky are better for long boats upriver anyway).
The highest I've gone upriver to this spot was at about 8 feet in my WW WaveSport Fuse boat - I had to walk over one rock as I could not attain past it by just paddling.
At that level in the video (5.6ft or so), it is no trouble at all in any boat and takes less than 10 minutes to get there from Angler's.
At 4.3ft or so it takes me about 30-40 minutes to get from Angler's to Rocky Island paddling upriver and not having to portage. At 3.5 or so I can usually go all the way up to above Fish Ladder and see the lower O-Deck at the Great Falls (and with one very short portage of about 30 feet I can actually get to under the deck).
At higher levels I have to portage at the ledge below Rocky Island as the center rocks get fuly submerged and the eddy disappears. But then it is probably better to paddle up the C&O canal then walk down to the Sandy Beach put-in and then paddle to Rocky from above. Probably takes less time and energy too, but there is a short portage that is easy with a playboat on the shoulder but I'm afraid will feel quite long with a 60+lb boat...