Let’s say you live in New York City and you are taking your lovely folding kayak (because if you live in NYC, any kayak you own must be a folding kayak, right?) on the subway (because if you live in NYC, you take the subway everywhere) and you are wondering at which stop you should transfer to get on the A line to Jamaica Bay. (Let’s also suppose that there is someone inconveniently blocking the subway map that is on every MTA car.) No worries, mate! All you have to do is whip out the kayak hull strapped to your back and trace the blue line to where… oh never mind…it doesn’t actually show that part of the map.
Well, it still serves the dual purposes of looking cool and loudly proclaiming your love for New York City to all those who recognize the NYC MTA map. As if folding kayaks didn’t get enough attention already, here’s one that will twist heads Exorcist-style from port to starboard. And it’s also based on the lightweight and compact Citibot, which was specifically designed for city dwellers like yourself (perhaps).
The Plastiki is probably much nicer looking than you expected it to look when you first heard that it was made from garbage, which could have been as little as 5 seconds ago when you read the title of this blog post. Well, actually it’s made from recycled plastic, which after processing is not as garbagey as a smashed TV or an empty grease-shined KFC bucket. The features that are most readily recognizable as former garbage are the 12,500 empty plastic bottles, still in their original form, that provide flotation to the catamaran hull of the Plastiki. It takes a whole 8.3 seconds for the United States to generate that many plastic bottles.
Hey, I found this great article about paddling a kayak with a single-bladed paddle, instead of the normal double bladed one. I’m always grateful for my double-bladed paddle (as I consider myself much too lazy to switch sides while paddling), but I might try this next time I am rafted up for lunch with my paddling buddy and can only paddle on one side. The basic idea is that each of these special strokes corrects for the yaw of the boat resulting from paddling on only one side. Or you can use a rudder.
Canoeists are scoffing because they have known this all along.
Apparently, large fish are turning out to be a pretty efficient means for propelling a kayak. Maybe boat engines should be measured in fishpower instead of horsepower. Sure, horses can swim, but they are not that fast.
Anyway, those marlins must be pretty damn tasty. Oh wait, it’s not about the meat – it’s about the sport. That just puts kayak fishers in a whole ‘nother class of crazy.
Miles Daisher is the currently most experienced base jumper on Earth, with over 2400 base jumps under his belt. Think you can beat that?
Skydivers have combined jumping out of planes with all sorts of activities, from driving a car to eating dinner. However, few of these combinations result in such a natural and catchy portmanteau as Miles’s “skyaking”. The whitewater kayak that Miles wears adds quite a bit of drag and slows his descent rate considerably – this means that his camera operators wear wingsuits so they can stay with the action.
The water landing looks like fun, but how does he get out of there without a paddle?
If you live in the Seattle area, Lake Sammamish is a great place to have a relaxing and not too challenging paddle (assuming the weather is otherwise nice, of course). If you want to make a day of it, there are some opportunities coming up for exploring the lake. On March 7 and 27, you can join a ranger-led kayaking tour to explore the great blue heron habitat. Here are the details:
Date: March 7 and 27, 2010 Time: 9 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. (2 sessions per day) Cost: $5/person Rental: $10/Single Kayak, $15/Double kayak Registration Info: Call Issaquah Paddle Sports at 866-306-1825
Ages 7 and up are welcome, so this would be a great way to show the kids how to appreciate nature. Be sure to ask about Lake Sammamish’s underwater forest!
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