Arwen's Kayaking Page

(updated June 11, 2009)

kayaking (and Sailing)

Starting Out (or Kayaking 101)

Spring 2004:

Kayaking has become my latest obsession (I never seem to get involved in anything just a little bit). It's not really my fault, because my best friend actually had to talk me into this. The idea of kayaking was actually pretty scary at first, as I had never even been in a boat of any kind (ok, so I've had a rather sheltered life).

Anyhoo, I wasn't about to let a little fear stop me from trying out something new, especially since it did seem like it might be sort of fun. And I figured that it would be pretty easy to learn. I mean: kayaks are very simple little boats . . . they don’t even have motors or sails . . . just a paddle . . . how hard could this be?

In early May, on my way to a doctor appointment, I noticed that a nearby sport shop had kayaks on display in their front window. After seeing my doctor I innocently walked into that sport shop and told the salesclerk that I was interested in buying a kayak. He then asked what kind of kayak I was looking for. "There's more than one kind?" I'm in trouble! That was the beginning of my research. That week I went to several other local stores (up in this part of the state, local means anything within 50 miles), and spent hours on the Internet. It wasn't long before I discovered that this was not going to be nearly as easy as I had thought. In fact, it soon became rather complicated.

And this was just the beginning! Do you know how many different kinds of kayaks there are? I discovered that there are white-water ones, expedition-touring ones, day-touring ones, and recreational ones. Oh, and lets not forget recreational/touring and recreational/white-water kayaks. Ok, this part wasn’t actually all that difficult. After seeing a few photographs in my first kayak brochure, I sort of figured that I wasn’t exactly ready for a white-water boat. And I wasn’t planning on doing any expeditions, so that narrowed it down quite a bit.

But then there are like a zillion different kayak manufacturers. And they all claim that they make the best boat in the world. So how am I supposed to know who is telling the truth? I ended up just going back to a couple of the bigger kayak stores, where I spent an hour or so talking to the owners, and just got more and more confused! I was obviously way in over my head! But, by now, I really did want a kayak.

So the following weekend, I dragged my best friend down to the stores. In the end, it just came down to picking the one that had the most comfortable seat, came in the best colors, and looked the best to us. (“best” equals what appears to be the safest looking to me.) Anyhoo we bought our kayaks (and a whole bunch of other stuff that apparently we needed), and started kayaking ... with a lesson (which I get into a bit later).

In the end all my effort paid off, because I discovered that I really loved kayaking and I went out 33 times that first summer!

My First Sea Kayak

Written in May 2005

On May 10, 2005 my new sea kayak finally arrived!

This is my Dagger Specter 15.5 Airalite kayak.

It's 15'-5" (470cm) long and 23.5" (60cm) wide. This a touring kayak, but it's also called a sea kayak. It's made out of a special composite material, called Airalite, which looks like fiberglass. So it's much stiffer and a bit lighter than a poly (polyethylene) kayak. And it's very sleek and shiny, and sexy (Hey, kayaks can be sexy, if sports cars can).

My first kayak was a recreational kayak, and this is a performance kayak. It's much longer and quite a bit narrower, so this one is much faster . . . and much tippier. This is NOT a beginner kayak! So it's going to take a bit of getting used to. Just getting in and out of it is tricky (it's a bit like putting on a pair of jeans).

It also weighs 53 pounds, which is 8 pounds more than my first kayak. I can lift it by myself, but it's a struggle for me, but I won't be carrying it very far. Besides, I usually kayak with my best friend, and we can carry the boats together (she has this same model, only hers has a yellow deck).

Cockpit and Thigh braces:

Another big difference is that this kayak has a smaller cockpit opening, with thigh braces. Ok, so what does that mean actually? Here's a good way to explain this: "You sit in a recreational kayak, but you wear a sea kayak." Sea kayaks are just a much tighter fit.

Which is one of the reasons why sea kayaks are made in so many various sizes and models. One size does not fit all. You don't just pick out a sea kayak because you like that way that it looks. You have to find one that fits you right, and that's made for your weight (including the weight of all your gear). It's sort of like buying designer jeans . . . you want something that looks good, but they also have to fit well. Without a good fit, you'll be very uncomfortable.

19x34" Cockpit w/ thigh braces

Most sea kayaks have thigh braces, which are necessary for a couple of reasons (in the photo above, they are the black curved thingies, just in front of the seat). They give you a solid place to brace your thighs (kayak terms are sooo logical), and are used to help control your kayak. They are necessary for advanced paddling techniques, such as bracing and rolling.

Bracing and Rolling:

Bracing is leaning your kayak on it's edge . . . it's also called edging, or carving. Sea kayaks are long and edging helps you to turn much sharper, much like the way you edge on skis or on a snowboard to turn. Edging also helps you to keep your kayak straight in windy conditions.

Rolling is . . . well, rolling over . . . like all the way . . . as in 360 degrees. It involves getting wet, because you're actually completely upside down in the water for a while. You really need to have a spray skirt to do a roll.

My Seals Marina Spray skirt

A spray skirt seals your open cockpit. It fit's snuggly around your chest and stretches over the lip that surrounds the cockpit. It keeps most of the water out when you're out in big waves or even if you flip over.

Rolling is the skill that allows you to get your kayak back upright again, while remaining in the cockpit. I can edge my kayak. I haven't attempted rolling yet. (I've only been out in this kayak twice so far and only had my spray skirt on once. I'm still learning.)

Latest News

Posted June 11, 2009:

I've only been back home for a few weeks (after graduating from my university), and my life has been sort of unsettled, so I've only been out kayaking a few times - paddling only about 25 miles so far. Part of the problem has been that it has been a really rainy and cool spring, so it has been difficult to get people interested in paddling (plus my weekends have been rather full with other things) - hopefully the weather will improve soon and I'll be able spend more time on the water.

Waterproof Camera:

You may have noticed that there aren't any photos on this page (excluding the ones of my gear). This is because I don't own a waterproof camera. When I began kayaking in 2004, waterproof digital cameras were very expensive. But I really wanted to be able to take photos out on the lakes, so I considered getting a waterproof case for my existing camera - but they were too clunky and were still pretty expensive. But I recently started pricing waterproof cameras again, and discovered that they are now much more affordable. I think that I've found one that I can afford that might just work for me. So, if this actually works out, I'll be able to start posting some sea kayaking photos here.

Drysuit and Getter Hurt:

I purchasing a dry suit last year (2008), even though I couldn't really afford it at the time, as I needed one to sail in the spring. But then I was badly hurt during our morning team workout on Valentine's Day and ended up in the hospital . . . with a broken right hip (with the head of hip totally separated from my femur) . . . which required three long metal pins to put me back together. So I spent the rest of the spring semester (I only missed two days of classes) on crutches and in physical therapy, and was not able to sail at all. Major bummer, especially for someone as hyper as me.

As soon as I returned home, I began kayaking (with my surgeon's permission), even though I was still using one crutch to get around. It was so great to get back on the water again, but kayaking was quite painful. The worse part was getting in and out, and I wasn't able to paddle for more than 30 minutes at first. By the end of the summer I has progressed up to being able to do 3-hour paddles, but it was still rather painful.

In the end of August I returned to my university, and immediately met with my sailing coach. I had to schedule a visit with my surgeon and have more x-rays taken, but I was able to return to sailing with my team (and doing morning workouts). Competitive sailing at the college level is rather intense and physically very demanding - and my hip wasn't quite read for what I was trying to do. At first I couldn't last more than 1-hour, before I was in tears . . . and we have 3-hour practices. But my coach was great! She left it up to me, allowing me to sail as much as I could stand it, and then I would hail her in the coach boat and one of my teammates will take my place (being a senior has its little perks, when you're a varsity athlete). Within a few weeks my leg was strong enough for me to last for the entire practice (although never without being in pain the whole time).

My biggest problem was that the heads of the metal pins in my hip were messing up my leg muscles. My right leg generally worked ok, but when I was pushing myself to my limit sailing, sometimes I pushed off my leg and it just folded under me . . . which can be a bit of a problem when you're racing in rough conditions and have to be able to move across the boat rapidly. But I survived the Fall season and was strong enough to compete at MIT in November. Oh, and I LOVE my dry suit, which kept me from freezing when the weather got cold.

Trying to get into my drysuit for the first time made me giggle so hard that it became even more difficult (as if wasn't already hard enough). I felt like I was trying to get into a space suit. It does take some contortions to get into one of these things, so you have to be fairly flexible, and having long hair adds an additional challenge, when you're trying to get your head up through a tight rubber neck seal.

Then I ran into a bit of a problem the first time I sailed when I was wearing my dry suit. No one told me that it was important to get most of the air out before zippering the suit closed. My first sign of a problem was when I sat down in the boat, and noticed that my legs were inflated. And then I had trouble staying on the side, when I was hiking out, as my suit kept sliding (because it was too inflated.

It was a pretty gusty day, and near the end of practice, a couple of us tipped over when a strong gust quickly changed the wind direction. The next thing I knew, I was on my back, looking up at the sky . . . floating on the surface like a little raft . . . sort of like a blue and yellow Pillsbury Dough Boy.

It would have been funny if not for the fact that I could barely swim in such an inflated suit . . . and we were out in 3-foot waves . . . so I was blowing away from my capsized boat. Eventually I made it to the boat and, with the help of another teammate, we got the sailboat righted and made it back to shore ok.

Just before Thanksgiving I went in for another surgery . . . to have the metal pins removed. And then I dove home two days later, with staples holding my incision closed (which was nearly as bad as it sounds). The surgery caused some minor muscle damage (and some major bruises), but it felt so much better to have those pins out. By the time that my spring semester began, I had recovered to the point that I no longer needed and physical therapy, and could do almost everything during our team workouts . . . trying to run was still not at all pretty (picture a tall female who moves like Quasimodo).

By the end of February our team returned to the water, which was COLD (both the air and water were in the mid 30s F). But my dry suit was great

Older News

January 29, 2008: Ok, so it's a bit early to be out in my kayak in New England - in Northern NH our lakes are frozen and ice out generally doesn't happen until mid April. Besides, I'll be at my university until mid mid May - but my school in right on Mount Hope Bay (which connects to Narragansett Bay), and we have our own kayaks, and my work study job in on the waterfront. Even though the bay not frozen over, the water needs to warm up a lot before the school's kayaks are made available again (probably in April).

Note on Sailing: But I'll be on the water here well before April, as I'm a member of my university's sailing team - and we're currently scheduled to return to the water in the end of February - but you need to own a dry suit, to sail before spring break. So I need to get one, as I need all the practice I can get. The trouble is that a good dry suit is very expensive, and they are really hard to find in tall sizes. But my coach just set up a discount for our team at a really great sailing store in Newport - so I'm hoping that they will have something that will actually fit me, that I can afford. With any luck, I'll be able to drive down there this weekend.

I've wanted a dry suit for a couple of years - ever since I first saw one at New England Paddlesport Show at UNH. But the cost was really hard to justify, as I felt that I could manage ok without one. I do have a wetsuit, a dry top, and a spray skirt for my kayak. And I carry extra clothing with me, in a dry bag in my kayak's hatch. Until the water warms up, I just have to say fairly close to shore to be safe, just in case I tip over. (So far, I've never tipped over - but it can happen pretty easily.) But, when you're a collegiate sailor - you get wet, unless there's like no wind (in which case, you aren't really sailing). So now I have a very good reason to purchase a dry suit, which will make cold water sailing and kayaking much more enjoyable - and much safer. This fall we sailed until Nov. 11th, and I froze from mid October on - and I never want to be THAT cold ever again.

So I tend to think about kayaking, even in the middle of winter. That's what happens when you're as obsessive about things as I am (ok, so I need help). But kayaking is one of my favorite things, so I enjoy just thinking about it.

Lake Winnipesaukee Speed Limit: I've been fighting for a speed limit for New Hampshire's largest lake since 2005, and today the latest speed limit bill (HB857) was passed by the NH House - now it just needs to be passed by the NH Senate. If this happens, we'll have a 45 mph speed limit this summer (25 mph at night). 45 mph is still really fast on water, but it will be much safer than paddling out on a lake where some boats travel at over 70 mph. I've personally had close calls with high-speed powerboats, who didn't even see me until the very last second. So I'm really happy about this bill's progress.

Links

	Squam Lake Association - Conservation group for the preservation of my favorite place to kayak. The two Squam Lakes consist of 65 miles of shoreline, 30 islands, 13 reefs, 20 coves, and 3 bays, so this is a wonderful place to explore in a kayak.
	Outback Kayak - A family run kayak store/adventure tours in NH White Mountains. This is where we bought our kayaks and where we took our kayak lessons.
	America's Rivers - River Conservation nonprofit organization
	Kokatat Watersports - my Kokatat Front Entry Dry Suit