The weather may be milder but the water is just as cold! If you're paddling on your own you should dress for immersion unless you're very confident you won't ever fall in - the only person I know with that level of confidence is a Level 5 coach (which is not to say paper qualifications are essential...

Probably, as a generalisation. Edging is easier if you have lower primary stability and higher secondary stability - so it's easy to tip the boat so far but harder to tip it further. Hard chine kayaks tend to have those stability characteristics. But the shape of the cockpit, the foot and knee brace...

Unless you're trying to push your boat backwards, pushing with the top hand only means you have to pull harder with the bottom hand to balance the force on the paddle. You certainly need to hold the top hand in position to support the paddle, but not positively push - although, if your arm is straig...

The surface tension of pure water at 10ºC is 0.0742N/m, so if you take the width of a paddle blade as 20cm, the force required for the blade to break the surface is about 0.015N. For sea water it's about 1% higher. That's the weight of about one sixth of a gram, so not something you'd notice. Once t...

downwards pressure on the blade to counteract the surface tension of the water

I think it's the angle of the blade. At the plant, the blade is angled tip forwards, so will rise as you pull, unless you push down as well.

James, looking back we are actually almost in agreement: With a good paddle lock the only way to spin at my normal 60 spm would be to either introduce spillage by adopting a poor technique or changing paddles to say a Stick or to shorten the stroke. We're agreed on the effect of the headwind - You s...

Using the mountain bike analogy it is pretty well recognised that you spin uphill (upwind) in a small ring and not to grind big gears. I agree with what you say about take out position and burying the blade properly, but I have never been happy with the mountain bike analogy. The resistance on bike...

an 8 by 4 sheet of ply won't fit in my vehicle or trailer If pandemic restrictions weren't a factor and the distance was reasonable, I'd be happy to put 8 x 4 sheets of ply on my roof rack. Depending on the route and number of sheets I'd probably use a sheet of 18mm ply or some longitudinal timbers...

I'd private message you if I could figure out how to On a desktop, use the contact icon on the right. On a phone, tap the username you're messaging to see the profile and it should become clear. PMs are read on the forum but the recipient gets an email notification (and the sender knows when they'r...

I feel suitably chastised

No chastisement was intended, sorry. No criticism of trying access what's on Facebook, or even contributing to threads there. My point was only that if the dialogue on the FB group had taken place on this or another forum, it would be (and would remain) much more accessible.

Facebook group called 'Greenland inspired kayaking' where they've had loads of discussions about splits. The problem is that it's such a busy group that I can't find the various posts I've seen in the past That's the problem with Facebook, it filters what you're looking at and it's transient - that...

I'd agree with long strokes as opposed to short, but not long strokes going past the hip. Up to a point, I agree with James that shorter strokes and higher cadence works, but when the wind is strong enough to blow the boat significantly backwards between strokes, I'm with Dave - reach forward, keep ...

I like to have a feel of the wind direction and strength (old racing sailor) when going downwind and a hood prevents this - even high collars can reduce the feel a bit.

I'm the same, but it hadn't occurred to me that sail racing might be the cause, thanks.

Rog, the boats had 8 days camping gear in them. They were rocking from side to side but not moving position. We couldn't have carried them with just two of us, and any attempt to unload would have just had the gear blown away!

This link is to a video I took after reaching a safe landing. Please do post if there's a problem seeing it. The forecast was F5 to F8. It increased to what you can see when we were about 100m to far side of the island on the left and it took us about 10 minutes of flat out hard work to reach the b...

I bought a set of 4 piece Lendals (as they were then, now Celtic) with nylon blades. Later I bought the same 4 piece but with carbon blades. I use the carbon set as my normal paddle and carry the nylon set as spares, or to switch to if I think I might be abusing them. The advantage of two otherwise ...

Hi Jack

Maybe force 5 inshore; check windy.com to compare offshore and inshore strengths. For some reason that's the Friday morning forecast, for the next 24 hours, it would normally be updated at 18:00.

That's good going, Mark. I tried archive.org but didn't find that page. I was interested as I have Turbo of that age, and I do try to be helpful!. If you click on the link to CrossMax you get a pop-up that says: Our Cross Max® process uses high density metallocene polyethylene to rotomold extremely ...

Also, a lot of gloves constrict your circulation, so you're not getting as much warm blood pumped round. Even if a glove isn't tight, when you bend your fingers the glove bulks up on the inside of the finger joints.

A short bit of discussion here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=134287

I agree with what rhysie says, I have a GT and have paddled a Menai and didn't notice much difference. BUT my son, who is 6'4" and 95kg, can't fit in my GT because his backside is too wide for the seat. He fits in a Skerray XL cockpit, but the front deck is quite low for anyone who paddles with thei...

You mention you haven't used epoxy much, and have runs to sand off. I saw you wore a dust mask, but also cover arms and hands too - a friend did a lot of sanding epoxy and became sensitised to it, he couldn't even sit in an epoxy boat without a reaction.

I'm leaning towards not putting in the hatch. Anyone care to persuade me? I'll try! I have a day hatch (not in a Nordkapp) and although I can usually access it myself on the water, I mostly use it on the beach. If I need something on the water and don't fancy reaching back into it myself I can raft...

Did you find the section about Nordkapps in the Almanac? Or Nick Crowhurst's definitive refurb thread?

Ace make the polythene mouldings for Hou and Enigma and are a very well established kayak and canoe makers. The only finished Ace canoe I've seen, however, was very badly fitted out, and it was one that was on display - maybe they rushed getting it ready, but it really wasn't a good advert. If you'v...

11.5ft will be significantly slower and will feel like harder work, that's not necessarily a problem if you just want to paddle for a few hours rather than actually going somewhere. If you're paddling on the sea it is strongly recommended that you don't paddle alone, particularly if you aren't thoro...

I would ask P&H. They are usually quite helpful.

The SCA access point is just about the end of any real rapids so you shouldn't be at much risk of a scrape. I've paddled the river down to Perth in an open canoe and don't remember any in that area, it all seemed pretty quiet, although flowing. You can see flow on the Google maps aerial photos but i...

I bought a see-me steady light and plan to mount it on my hat or maybe on a short pole from my BA. Due to covid restrictions and/or frozen canals I haven't tried it yet.

Generally it's a personal choice; how much you expect to use it, what can you afford and what features you need. Some sports are more fashion conscious than others, more accurately fashion is is exploited by manufacturers more in some sports than others. For example, skiing is very fashion dominated...