Chuck,
You don’t really live in CA. The Tahoe area where you live is really a suburb of Nevada.
LOL,
Steve
PS - How’s the GP paddling coming?
OOPs! mariner might be better
I am so embarrassed! Sorry to have forgotten these grat folks and this great company soon to be gone (though parhaps to be reincarnated).
Air temp is currently 67 deg F
here at 5:30 PM. High was 71 dg F. Water is about 55 deg
Eat your heart out. LOL
Have both
Carry the foam in winter (sometimes) and when I want to use it for the ever-elusive roll.
My inflatable doesn’t strap onto the paddle very well and I’m afraid it will slip off in use. Gotta try and fix that.
Mariner is staying?
Peter, is Mariner staying in business? What have you heard? Thanks!
Live in Nevada
– Last Updated: Feb-03-05 11:19 PM EST –
paddle frequently in The Ahhnald Republic. Don't use the GP much, but may get one sized for me.
as far as I know from their ad in sea
– Last Updated: Feb-03-05 11:12 PM EST –
kayaker and what I've read on P.net they have stoppped taking orders for boats and are folding it up.
maybe some enterprising person can buy the plugs and molds off of them and get them to teach him or her something while they make the last of the boats for orders they have taken.
I don't know much about it. Checked their
website?
Paddle Float
I use a North Water foam padle float over the winter months. I stow it on top of a fabric shelf that has been installed under the deck of my WS 170 Pro. It fits nice and snug in that position and is not in the way during a wet exit.
I use a
Mariner blow kind. What’s with the talk about how LONG it takes to blow one of these things up? It takes me 3 full breaths. Must suck to have small lungs. 
Foam Float-safest
True story-out practicing in the ocean with some pros and they asked me to wet exit and they’d time me with my blow up. It was rip-ass windy and in the bobbing waves I let go accidently with my partially inflated float (I too had a few puffs of air in mine up on the deck bungies) and it took off for Europe. One pro simply handed me his foam float and I was back in my kayak 60 seconds later. We never found my inflatable and there is NO way I would tether one into the cockpit as there is enough going on in there during exits. The ONLY beef I seem to pick out on this topic is the size of the foam floats but having used one for taking pictures in rough conditions as a stabilizer and also for cooling off when overheating–I find the multiple uses make the storage challenge worth it. I use my Northwater as a seat on the beach of camp a lot too. Go foam—they are foolproof with no valves or worry.
Another for the fray…
Quick to inflate & also after the rescue a 1 second deflation is the Wildwasser Multifloat. We also use them as a dry day bag for windbreaker, extra fleece, other lightweight items. Basically works like a roll top closure dry bag that snaps around the shaft and the blade fits into one of two pockets on the face of the bag. About 4 breaths to inflate and once done, unclip the roll and swat flat. Oh, don’t carry your sandwich and swat flat, bad form. 
Costs $40, about the same range as most good floats.
Just another $.02
See you on the water,
Marshall
http://www.the-river-connection.com
Wet Exits
Just one (last) comment on wet exits and foam floats in the cockpit - most of the people who see it as a problem are probably as tight into their cockpit as I am in the Explorer LV. I’d never carry it inside of that boat for all the reasons mentioned, hence the extra RDF’s I order. (Which are set up perfectly! thanks to the folks at Maine Island Kayak and NDK).
But a lot of people paddle pretty loose in their boat, often the same people who go out in relatively calm water where some of the other considerations are also less pressing.
For the Squall, practice has shown the float is not in my way - it would be if I were taller or heavier. For anyone considering where to put any larger object in or in a kayak, they should spend time in a pool or a local pond on exit and entry practice making sure it all works. I’ve seen boats that had stuff on deck that would have totally sabotaged a paddle float re-entry, or critical gear mounted in a way that would make it very difficult to grab once the boat was upside down and bouncing around in waves.
Like most of the basic safety gear, floats are pretty useless without some serious time spent practicing with them. One good session in colder water will usually answer the “how to stow” part.
Celia
It sure seems like it would be easy
to make a paddle float out of walmart blue closed cell foam. Has anybody made their own?
Yes,
and I know they said they were retiring. I just think it’s a shame. I won’t be able to get a new boat for a couple of years, but I had hoped to get an Elan. Oh, well… On topic…I have a foam Northwater paddlefloat with a counterweight, and it’s terrific, but it does get in the way on the deck.
Folks have done it
But you need somthing reliable and quick to deploy. If you are using this system in the real world and it fails, you are in really bad shape. For most paddlers a paddle float rescue is one of theri last hopes for getting back into the boat
Home Made Float
I’ve seen a home made float of curved shaped blue foam - don’t know the source - with electrician’s or duct tape wrapped around it at a couple of times to allow the paddle to slide thru. The attractive thing about this is that it fits very unobtrusively on the decks and would slide onto the paddle very easily. And is financially very expendable if it gets lost.
I can’t speak to how secure it would be in messy conditions in actual use though. Anyone who tired this - can you?
Celia
This would be me!!
– Last Updated: Feb-08-05 1:03 PM EST –
Celia, I am the one you saw with ths float! What I love about it is that it is cheap, very easy to make, fits to the shape of your boat, way easy on and off, even when upside down I can grab it, with eyes closed put it on my paddle and use as emergency assist to roll up!
I used a section of builder's thermal insulation. It is very strong, resists compaction from repeated use and easily shaped. To make it work, the hollowed out side that conforms to the boat also it the right shape for most paddles. Simply take a piece of platic laundry bottle and cut a strip abot 3 inches wide and the width of the float. Wrap duct tape around the float, and the plastric strip on the underside. That way the strip holds the tape away from the float when you take it off, making paddle insertion a snap.
Hey, it even save a migrating squirrel last year from drowning .5 miles from shore, fished him out and put him on my deck, mission was successful!
Does it also
help you catch road runners?
Perception
Perception dual-chamber inflateable. I keep it rolled-up in my cockpit, and have only ever used it twice: once before I knew how to roll proficiently, and once (with about 3 others) to stuff a kayak’s forward compartment with floatation after the owner lost a hatch cover in surf & had to paddle back to the launch. Paddle floats & duct tape can save many a day.
The latter use, I find to be the most compelling reason to carry it for me. That, or to use as an outrigger if I get sick on the water, or need extra stability for whatever reason. I’ve done re-enter & rolls in 4 - 6 foot seas while injured and with my boat damaged. I doubt I could do a paddle float re-entry in that same scenario. I might consider the paddle float to supplement an re-entry & roll if I were really banged up.
Wayne
DIY Minicell Float…
– Last Updated: Feb-07-05 10:37 AM EST –
I use a GP so regular paddle floats don't work. Took a 2" thick minicell piece, about 8" wide, and cut a slot in the middle to fit tightly over my GP. It provides enough buoyancy to do a paddlefloat rescue.
No longer use it, since I paddle almost exclusively with my SOF for touring. Coming out of the boat is out of the question since wet exiting means a very flooded boat where coaming is almost underwater. On the plus side, there is almost no need to come out of the boat because of how easy it is to balance brace, scull and roll. Short of a debiliating injury, coming of the boat would be mental failure rather than a technique failure.
sing