BS: I need to go kayaking

Subject: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Raptor
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 09:45 AM

And I can't get hold of my buddy who is the only other person in Canada dumb enough to go sea-kayaking in ice water.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 10:05 AM

Are you insane ? [ no offence meant ]

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 10:15 AM

What you need is a lobotomy!

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: gnu
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 10:37 AM

Don't worry... his brain will freeze.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 10:45 AM

If yer lookin' fer a way to end it all, I can suggest more comfortable methods.

- Chongo

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 10:47 AM

Sea kayaking in ice water does not appeal to me. But I miss kayaking in general - I used to go a lot in the summer and haven't had much chance in recent years.

In the winter what I miss is cross country skiing.

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 11:29 AM

The ONLY worthwhile winter sport is SURFING

































But ONLY on the Internet

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 11:36 AM

Our local uni pool has weekly INDOOR Kayak Club. Find other local kayakers and you may find something similar. You'd be surprised what can be fun, indoors.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 11:46 AM

You don't understand Raptor's appetite for the great outdoors, Susan. He is not the type to go indoor kayaking. He prefers the wild waves, the blustery wind, the territorial attacks by maddened wildlife, that sort of thing...

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 12:14 PM

We can't provide the maddened wildlife this time of year but Raptor will find everything else here in Alaska.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Amos
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 12:26 PM

I need to go kayaking too. Fortunately, we have milder waters down here and they allow ordinary humans to indulge over the Xmas holiday, when not sunbathing or writing puzzled queries about the imaginary "snow" which seems to grip the beleaguered minds of so many of our fellow-citizens this time of year like some kind of massive group delusion... Maybe there's something in the water north of Los Angeles that does it... .



A

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: JenEllen
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 12:29 PM

Yeah, Raptor. Nice, lovely rivers in the summer is more my speed, but I tried the cold water stuff. Frozen bits. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 12:36 PM

(LH, it doesn't matter whether I understand what he prefers. I went to what is POSSIBLE. If he really prefers icywetcold he will just go on out and get it. If he prefers the outdoors to freezing in cold water, he'll go for a hike. If indoor kayaking could help he'll appreciate my post. See? Sheeshe!)

Hardi and I love camping, but it is an annual custom when we can't GO to set out the coolers, tent, etc., around the fireplace-- and RECALL. (And plan the next actual camping time.)

My post was general to ALL kayakers, BTW. Mudcat has several, at least one of whom I happen to know could sorely use a little kayaking right about now.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: CarolC
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 01:33 PM

They're putting a kayak launch in a couple of blocks from our house. Our neighborhood is surrounded by a meandering brackish tidal creek that is full of cypress swamp and alligators. The temps today are a bit nippy (mid forties), but I would kayak in it if I had a kayak.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: CarolC
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 01:37 PM

BTW,I've whitewater rafted in the snow. Didn't enjoy it much, but I was in a wet suit, and very wet. A dry suit would have made it enjoyable.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: EBarnacle
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 02:54 PM

Bring your drysuit down to Brooklyn and join Lady Hillary and me at Sebago Canoe Club's annual New Year's Party. If properly equipped, you can borrow a canoe or kayak and go out to start the year right.

Remember, do on New Year's Day what you wish to do the rest of the year.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: gnu
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 03:56 PM

Anyone who's email addy I have can do pic links? I Have a kayak pic that I would like to share.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: robomatic
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 04:43 PM

you can send me kayak pics. I went kayaking just south of Blaine, WA last year about this time, in the snow.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 04:57 PM

I did some kayaking in my boy scout days - slightly warmer waters, mind, in Australia.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 05:20 PM

Maybe Mudcat's resident birder is simply looking for a way to go watch black guillemots.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: LilyFestre
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 05:40 PM

I don't know about kayaking in the cold but I would LOVE to go to my favorite kayak spot and poke about the edges of the lake getting lost in the life underneath the water. Or bobbing about in the middle watching herons play tag with one another as they fly from one side of the lake to the other. Or to paddle really fast and pull the paddle in and hold my bubble wand high in the sky leaving a trail of bubbles glistening in the setting sun. Or maybe an early morning, pre-sunrise paddle....getting lost in the mist, having only my ears to guide me....the lapping of the water on the shore, the sound of fish jumping out of the water and birds calling out to each other.

Yeah. Going for a paddle would be really good right about now.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Willie-O
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 05:50 PM

Where? PM me! Have the kayak, need the wetsuit.

W-O..

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: gnu
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 06:16 PM

I guess my offer may go astray.... unless.... I'll try that.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Smokey.
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 06:27 PM

However cold it gets, don't light a fire at one end, whatever you do. Remember, you can't have your kayak and heat it.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 06:59 PM

I have tried the indoor kayaking myself, Susan, and I'm not impressed. I got one of those "short hull" sport kayaks for the indoor stuff and tried it out in the bathtub. So far so good, had the water nice and cozy hot so that it wouldn't chill me if I fell in...only trouble was, you take just one darn stroke and you're at the other end of the tub. And then there isn't enough room to turn the damn boat around and go back the other way!

It's useless if you ask me. I'd rather just read a book or something.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: EBarnacle
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 08:01 PM

LAdy Hillary took me to a pool session a couple of years ago where they were teaching rolling. I had no problems with wet exiting or remounting larger boats but I could NOT get my knees into those expletive deleted playboats they were using for the training. I did end up with a very nice set of cuts and scrapes from trying, though.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Janie
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 08:03 PM

Burrrrrr! Stay home and read back issues of National Geographic until the spring thaw. Eh?

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 10:32 PM

Yeah, right.

That's the before shot.

This is the after shot.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 11:22 PM

Be sure to write a song---and call it Kayakety Yak.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 12:59 AM

As LH's post illustrates perfectly, size does matter. :~)

Our uni-yakers manage some quite hilarious stunts in our large pool, and it looks so pretty at kayak-eye-view level that you can imagine yourself anywhere at all on the reflections on the water. There's room for fun and there's LOTS of room for just ole water-gazing. And how, one might wonder, could a non-yaker know this? Ah, I was in the water, too!

Stones were right all along-- you just might get what you need.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: CarolC
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 01:42 AM

I've done both. It's not the same thing. Roll clinics are for people who want to learn how to roll (never mastered the art myself - only managed half of a roll), or for people who enjoy mentoring other kayakers who want to learn how to roll. For people who kayak specifically for the purpose of enjoying the beauty of nature, a swimming pool just don't cut it.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: open mike
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 03:12 AM

i need to go canoeing...the only water that has been on my canoe is rain water..how sad..

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Raptor
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 03:57 AM

It was wonderfull. but we had to break a lot of ice to put the kayaks in. We're hoping to go New Years Day but its supposed to be -15 degrees. That might not be as enjoyable.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 04:50 AM

As a young soldier in Germany we kayaked on the upper reaches of the Danube [ Donnau ] it was rather beautiful.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 06:20 AM

CarolC, READ my prev. posts!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 08:54 AM

Well, I can certainly understand your need Raptor. Cold weather is no detractor but cold weather and rain dampens my enthusiasm somewhat. Photographing is less rewarding. Kayaking's origin is amongst the icebergs, I daresay.
hg

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: CarolC
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 12:46 PM

WYSIWYG, I read ALL of your posts.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: EBarnacle
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 01:21 PM

If you dress properly and stay upright, you don't even get wet.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: gnu
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 01:25 PM

Found the pic.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Nick E
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 03:20 PM

Kayak, Check
Icberg, Check
Seal, Check
Haprpoon, Check

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: gnu
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 03:29 PM

No grenade?

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Gurney
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 11:47 PM

Haprpoon, Nick? is that an Innuit word?   Raptor needs an Innuit companion!

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: EBarnacle
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 08:28 PM

Jamaica Bay was beautiful today. A gorgeous day to be on the water.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 09:29 AM

I even saw some raptors yesterday. Of course you won't see such sights in a swimming pool...

harpgirl's blog

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: LilyFestre
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 10:27 AM

HarpGirl,

    Thanks for sharing your photos here.....absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!!!   It makes me long to be out on my favorite lake!!! Were you in a kayak when you took most of those? I'm wondering about the alligators....do they seem to take notice of kayaks?

*happy sigh* Really...thank you so much for sharing your photos!!! :)

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: EBarnacle
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 10:30 AM

I was watching the late news on WNBC and saw one of our members who had mentioned that he had been doing safety for the Polar Bears' Club. There are plenty of us out there but few who make it onto the tube.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 05:04 PM

Thanks Michelle. All photos from my kayaks. When it gets below fifty the alligators go under the mud until spring in North Florida. I don't worry much this time of year. Sometimes really big ones sun themselves in winter. It is best to avoid them in mating season. They see you for sure. Once in a while you will run up on one if you're not careful and they tend to flip-flop or dive. That can be disconcerting. It could probably knock a flighty person out of a boat. That might not be good. Don't snorkel around alligators. It's definitely not for scaredy-cats. I am mostly VERY careful in the spring, summer, and fall. I don't plan on getting twirled by an alligator. It isn't going to happen, it isn't going to happen, it isn't going to happen......
harpy

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Willie-O
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 07:59 PM

Hey, winter (real winter, not Florida "winter") offers lots of opportunities for great kayaking.

It really helps if you're totally demented.

There's also the combined-medium events aka BAD IDEA THEATRE

If our hill looks really fast one of these snowy days I just might try some of this foolishness...

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Janie
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 11:28 PM

Whoohoo!!!!

Thanks for sharing those links, Willie-O.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to go kayaking
From: Willie-O
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 10:00 AM

I'm surprised I never thought of it myself...I'm trying to decide if using a paddle (in the first one) is really the best idea...I think they need to design a real snow paddle, maybe bent a lot backward--I can see producing some really interesting footage if you dug in too hard with a regular paddle....