Watershed Drybag System

Lots of people take cameras in their kayaks down river and so I know I'm not the first to come up with their own little system for keeping it all together and dry, but I quite like what I have working now.  It's simple and secure.

Equal to the camera itself, the most important element is my lovely red Watershed Ocoee Drybag.  In my opinion, Watershed is by far the best drybag on the market.  It's zip-lock style closure and rugged construction make it one of the only products I would trust to keep my camera or laptop dry.  Also, the Ocoee is the smallest bag they make which when closed, rolled, and clipped shut makes a tube shape that fits just perfectly between my legs in my kayak.  Recently, I invested in an upgrade to this bag when I got the newly re-deigned padded liner.  Another bag in itself, this liner is made to fit whichever size of Watershed you have and can be removed and zippered closed if you wished to use it that way, but in truth, it fits so perfectly into it's waterproof home that it takes some effort to get it in and out.

Padded liner with camera, 2 lenses, large and small microfiber towel, pouch for extra battery and film, etc.

Gear loop through center column

But those are all other people's great ideas that I'm just using.  What really dialed my system in for me was how I devised to secure it into my Shiva creek boat.  Like most modern creekers, the Shiva has a plastic center column just afore the cockpit rim to which a water bottle can be affixed by a bungee.  This bungee cord is kept in place by passing through a little hole made into the center column.  I realized that there was just enough room to pass a small bit of cordage through this hole as well... in fact, it's the perfect size to just accommodate the type of cord I used to make my typical Prussic Loops and indeed, that is what I tied to create a gear loop.  Using a locking carabiner of course, I can now secure the drybag to this loop using any one of it's six built in attachment points.  I prefer to use one on the end as this fits better between my legs.  And the best parts are that the water bottle still has it's home (inside the gear loop) and I made the loop just long enough so that the bag can be flipped out onto the front deck, making it much easier to get in and out of the boat without unclipping and removing the bag! 

Bag can flip up and rest on deck without being unclipped.

Ocoee Watershed fits perfectly and comfortably in the creek boat!

Ta-Da!  A simple, secure and safe system for keeping my gear in my boat.  Should my boat and I ever go on our own unexpected whitewater adventures the gear loop is long enough to let the bag safely swing out of the way as I swim past and yet the loop is small enough that there is nothing on which I could get caught on my way out... though I hope I hope I don't end up using this safety feature anytime soon!

GearHeads Unite!

Back in April I read an interesting article from the Matador Notebook about the gear that technical photographers and film makers take with them into the field.  It's true, even if you're not a professional film maker, you still end up spending a good deal of time thinking about what gear you want with you.  Your gear is like you support system, especially when we venture out to explore the planet in a kayak.  No matter how fantastic your companions are... what makes or breaks your day really comes down to you and your equipment.  At least... I obsess about it...

Paddle Wrap

Something I have struggled with from time to time is what to do with my hands on my paddle.  Specifically what, if anything, to do about modifying the grip.

The paddle that I have used for a long time is the AT2.  I love this paddle and have no real complaints about it, but sometimes my hands would slip at inopportune times.  I have tried the paddle wax, but never really liked how it felt on my hands.  Also, I was never keen on having to re-apply.  Earlier this summer I wrapped the grips of one of my paddles with medical tape.  This I found to be a huge improvement.  The texture really addressed the grip problem, but in the end I wasn't as happy as I knew I could be.  For one, the medical tape hasn't proving to be as resilient as I had hoped; and for another, the cloth tape absorbed water and actually made my hands colder in the wind.

So I went all in and conducted  a $16 experiment: bike handlebar wrap.  I walked down to Subculture Cyclery, one of the local bike shops here in Salida.  They have a really neat new building by the way, and they are all super nice and helpful.  After some minutes fondling every variety of wrap they had on offer, I finally went with the Deda Elementi brand tape.  I like it because it' is nonabsorbent and has a nice high grip rubbery like texture.  At home that night I spent not quite an hour wrapping my grips.  Starting on the blade end, I affixed the wrap with red Duct Tape and coiled it around so the tape overlapped about a third of it's width.  After I wrapped passed the bend in the paddle, I finished it off with another stopper of tape.  If you are wondering, I picked this direction so it would have slightly more texture coming in from the blade as that is how my hands would usually slip.



Consensus so far is that I really dig it!  What I hadn't expected was how much fatter it would make the hold on the paddle.  This threw me off right at first, but very soon I wasn't even noticing the change.  The very next day I took my improved paddle to Gore Canyon to really try it out, I figured I could always take it off if I didn't like it, but on it stayed.  It had been pointed out to me that the bike wrap might get a slippery or slimy texture when wet, but this turns out not to be the case, at least not with this brand.  Also, I took great care to wrap it tightly and evenly and it has so far been rock solid and shows no sign of slippage.

If you want to customize the feel of your paddle, I highly recommend giving this a try.  If, however, you have smaller hands or the paddle feels large in your hands already, I might advise against this alteration.  There probably are some skinnier tapes out there that I would love to learn about.  After a couple weeks of paddling almost every day, I still feel like I have greatly improved my dexterity and control over my paddle.

Molan vs. Vision

Recently, I responded to the thread on the Mountain Buzz about new boats with edge.  The poster described his experience in a Liquid Logic Vision 44.  While sitting on the edge of the river awaiting rafts to come by to photograph, I wrote out a response that I thought was a nice brief summation of my thoughts on the Vision and Pyranha Molan, my last two freestyle boats.  What follows is a lightly edited copy of that response.

Well I like them both, but they are very different. The Molan I feel has a bit tighter control when it's surfing on its hull, and it feels looser across the wave or pile, spins very well... The Vision has more rocker and lower volume ends and so it was for me much more predictable when engaging the bow or stern. The Molan is so bulbous that I find it more challenging to initiate and then it tends to cork out in random directions. When you do nail it, the loop goes huge though. The rocker of the Vision helped with surfing too. 

As far as weight, I'm about 140 and feel almost too light for the Medium Molan. The length is good, but there is a bit too much air down around my feet. On the other hand, it's a very comfortable boat.

When I look at the bow of the new Pyranha Jed, it looks like they were trying to address that overly bulbous bow. 

There is a huge amount of personal preference and style that goes into what you are going to like in a playboat.

I hope this helps!

Immersion Research Klingon Empire Sprayskirt

I stay continually amazed by the advances in materials, R & D, and attention to detail that have become standard in the world of high-end outdoor pursuit gear.

After I got in my Shiva, it became clear that I would need to invest in a new skirt as well.  My favorite IR Suparman skirt just did not fit on the boat's XL cockpit, so I had to resort to using an old BomberGear EZ -Fit that I still had.  This worked well enough, but the stitching was fraying and a couple of holes were getting worse each time I stretched it on the boat.  Then, I was happy I had gone ahead and ordered a new one, because my slide under the MJ rock on the Embudo ripped yet another hole clear through at the rim.

So anyway, after some research I decided on the new IR Klingon Empire.  Originally I had wanted to find a skirt with an implosion bar, but learned that many manufacturers are getting away from this feature. And here's what sold me on the Klingon: (apart from me being an old Treky) the wrapped bungee rand is coated right in the middle with an extra-sticky rubber to really lock onto the cockpit rim.

The Shiva (all three sizes) have a keyhole that measures 93 inches in circumference.  Skirtfit.com is a fantastic resource where you can find almost any boat's cockpit dimensions.  Use that info to dial in your next skirt size.  For IR, that equates to an XL keyhole.

First thing, I tried and succeeded in getting this skirt on the boat dry... a huge improvement and a real time saver in some situations.  I noticed also that it was actually a looser fit than I had expected.  I guess I was used to having to give myself a hernia getting my old skirts on.  On the other hand, I'm more confident I could release it with one hand if I was in a tricky spot.  When it's on though, it is rock solid.  I tried to push it in and pull it from all directions and I never could get the rim to budge.  I am completely confidant in this skirt's ability to stay on the boat.

IR makes both a Klingon, and the new Klingon Empire.  They both include the same principal of the sticky rubber on the rand, but the Empire includes a Kevlar abrasion resistant zone in the front.  The tunnel is very comfortable as well.  The neoprene there somehow seams stretchier than what was used in older skirts.  It makes for a good fit up in my drytop, but it doesn't feel tight.

So far, my new skirt has made it down Brown's Canyon, Pine Creek through Number 5.5, and the Bailey stretch of the N. F. of the South Platte.  I might walk MJ's next time I'm there just for concern of what that rock does to skirts...

Relativity & Undercuts

I had grazed a sieve or an undercut a few times, and felt that inexorable pull toward oblivion, but I had never actually been through an undercut... until... that is, last Saturday on the Rio Embudo.

The weather was chilly and I might not have been paddling my absolute best, but the crew I was with was solid.  We had automatically set safety earlier at Cheese Grater and the same was true for this rapid in question, MJ's Shoulder.  A little bit of history for me and MJ's... this rapid is most often an auto-portage for me.  Not that it is particularly difficult; it's one of those were the fun to hazard ratio is really not working out well in the paddler's favor.  It's short, fast, manky, and the only move to be made is to keep it straight and punch two holes at the bottom.  Compounding the hazard side of the equation is the fact that at the very end there is a wall of rock constricting the channel by half from the right.  The second and final hole is here... and this rock is undercut.  I've run this rapid twice before, each without incident.  One of those times I was chasing a swimmer's boat downstream and looked over to see that I had just missed the portage eddy.

One of the best ways to learn and improve in an endeavor like kayaking is to embrace your own narcissistic tendencies and watch videos of yourself.  A huge thanks to Mike for the footage and to Atom for doing me the huge favor of emailing it to me.  The first thing I noticed was that I was not nearly as aggressive as I needed to be as I came through this rapid.  While I had been on line, I didn't have enough momentum nor forward posture and got completely stopped by the first hole.  My brace pivoted me to the right as I came out of it and right into the undercut wall.

Here is where my memory and what is shown on the video really diverge.  What I remember vividly is my bow slamming into the rock and everything pausing for a split second.  Next the whole 80 gallon boat felt like it was sucked down and under the rock.  I even recall a slurping sound.  I could feel the boat appear to be pushed down along the rock as I was hoping it was going down river.  The rock was scraping along the top of the boat and my elbow pads as I was smashed on my back-deck with my arms raised in a high brace in front of me, trying to keep my face off the rock.  At one point, I think instinctually to preserve my right shoulder, I let go of the paddle with my right hand.

This all happened painfully slowly.  Slowly enough to consider pulling my skirt and swimming.  But then it was suddenly over.  Fortunately I found my paddle again with my right hand and back-deck rolled up and easily made it into the eddy.

In the video though, this whole rock situation only lasted a couple of seconds at best.  And it was only another couple before I rolled up too.

Is time compressing or expanding?  Was I speeding up?  Are there bizarre ripples in the relativistic flow of space-time that exist under undercut rocks in rivers... or just this particular undercut... or how about simply under rocks?  Between rocks?

I just know that I'm thankful that the only damage was the hole torn into my sprayskirt by the underside of that rock.  My elbow got a good hit, and my shoulder has felt a bit strained in the days since, but it's getting better.  Now I can't wait to see how I feel about running her again... eventually.

Kayak Sherpa Backpack System by NRS

Just recently I indulged a whim and bought myself the kayak backpack made by NRS.  I was hoping that this would turn out to be a nifty little bit of gear that I could keep rolled up in a dry bag in my boat, but now I'm not so sure.

I won't get into the mechanics of how it goes on the boat because you can see the whole video at the NRS page.

When I first tried this on in the backyard I was stoked.... but then on the river some issues developed.  First of all, it's heavy and doesn't pack down nearly as small as I had expected.  There is a surplus of heavy, reinforced padding making the back of the contraption.  This seems bulky and unnecessary because the hull of a boat is going to be smooth against your back, so the backpack really shouldn't need extra padding there.  The hip and shoulder harnesses are well padded though, and that's a good thing.  When I tried to pack it in the boat, I really had to work to fold and stuff it into a very reasonably sized dry bag.  It wasn't a very quick operation.

Once rigged, I knew getting a loaded creek boat up on my back was going to be tricky, but it's kind of ridiculous as to how much effort it takes to balance the thing on the nose, hunch down and get it all into position on your back.

After I passed that point without falling down, I was surprised as to how tippy and ungainly it was riding on my back.  Maybe this is because the Shiva has so much rocker, but I always felt like I was being pulled over backward.  I had to bend forward in this overly exaggerated way that really made my lower back hurt.  Also, as it's difficult to put it down and get it back on, there is really no way to rest on the trail. I was able to set the nose down and lean back on it in a rather precarious manner, but that did very little in the way of actual rest.  Tipping was also an issue.  Any little list to the side was cause for concern.

I tried to get the rig as synched down as tight to the boat as I could, but it didn't really seem to help much.
This afternoon I was experimenting with rigging it with the cockpit to my back, hoping that the curvature of the boat would work with me and not against me.  This was not an improvement.  While it was indeed more comfortable, as soon as I walked around it was clear that there was not enough support to stabilize the boat.

So yeah, I'm not hugely impressed.  Rather more work and weight than it is worth.  At least it will work well to walk my play boat across downtown to the river park.