REVIEW: 6 LIGHT TOURING KAYAKS TESTED // 2016 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORIES GUIDE

SPRING 2016
LIFE STYLE
BORN TO PADDLE

BORN TO
PADDLE
• TALES FROM
CHILDHOODS
ON THE WATER
GRAND CANYON RECORDS SMASHED

• STAYING YOUNG WITH

ALEKSANDER DOBA

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THE
COLORADO
C
RIVER 2
WAYS
• A SLOW
6 REC-TOURING KAYAKS

APPRECIATION OF
LAKE POWELL
• THE RACE FOR A
NEW GRAND CANYON
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FESTIVAL SEASON
DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORIES GUIDE

RIVER-TRIPPING’S
MILLENNIAL PROBLEM
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 FOREWORD

Jeff Moag

O
My childhood paddling experiences boil down to found his passion, and music has been with him boogie-woogie on the keyboard. A dozen
a few laps of the pond at day camp, three trips his whole life. musicians made the trip on a floating stage built
on the Current River and a Boy Scout canoeing Though I didn’t grow up paddling, those atop two 26-foot canoes. They played Handel’s
badge. That, and the time my father and I childhood trips left their mark. In my twenties, Water Music, traditional Canadian Maritime reels
paddled a rental kayak around a small bay. I after I broke my knee so badly I could hardly and, when dad and I came close, joined in for
was 10, and it was the first time either of us had walk, it was paddling that saved me. On the “Take me Back to Tulsa.”
been in a kayak. It was a peculiar boat, set up so water I was free again. No limping, no pain. I’d It reminded me of the Bluegrass festivals
the two paddlers sat back-to-back, like a kayak found my thing too, but it wasn’t one my dad and I grew up with, and the best of the paddling
version of Dr. Doolittle’s Push-Me-Pull-You. My I shared. He doesn’t paddle, and though I know events I attend now. There was a sense of
dad was unfazed. He’s blind, and couldn’t see the Bluegrass standards by heart, I can’t sing family on the river that day, the same feeling we
which way we were going anyway. any one of them in tune. celebrate in this issue with a collection of essays
Every one of those early trips is still strong So last spring, when David Jackson about raising kids as paddlers (Born to Paddle,
in my memory. Childhood experiences are submitted a terrific photo essay about canoe p 32). In a roundabout way, each of those stories
powerful; they shape the rest of our lives. builder Bill Miller’s annual fiddle fest in New is about the value of helping children find an
When my dad was 7, his father brought Brunswick (“Death of a River,” June 2015), I activity that they love, and that you can share as
a Victrola home from the second hand store asked my dad to join me at the very next Fiddles a family. It’s something you want to start early,
where he worked. The scratchy records it on the Tobique. if you can. But what I learned that day on the
played opened my dad’s world, and soon my We joined a flotilla of canoes for a six-mile Tobique is that it’s never too late to fall in love
grandfather started to bring home other things float down the Tobique River, me with my paddle with paddling, or music for that matter. Nor is it
that didn’t sell at the store–a guitar, a mandolin, and dad with his fiddle, playing Bob Wills tunes. ever too late to share those favourite things with
a fiddle. My dad learned to play them all. He’d Our new friend Maurice drifted nearby, playing someone you love. –Jeff Moag

4 | canoekayak.com
MAKE YOUR ESCAPE.
Wherever there’s water, there’s an opportunity to get away from
it all. Just you, the outdoors, an Old Town NEXT, and the rhythm
of it all. It’s the canoe-kayak crossover that lets you escape
civilization, even when you’re smack dab in the middle of it.

To learn more, escape to

PADDLENEXT.COM
 CONTENTS
SPR I NG 2016

FEATURES DESTINATIONS

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14 // FESTIVAL SEASON
THE LAKE FORMERLY KNOWN AS Six can’t-miss paddling festivals celebrating
BORN TO PADDLE
THE COLORADO RIVER
everything from Appalachian whitewater to Inuit-
Paddling moms and dads, toddlers and River-runners are taught to despise Lake style paddling and pure speed. By Conor Mihell
teens share memories, and a few lessons, Powell, the watery tomb of Glen Canyon. So
about coming of age in kayaks and canoes. why can’t Brendan Leonard sustain the hate? PUT IN
18 // WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG
PEOPLE GONE?
DEPARTMENTS The generation that came of age 40 years ago led a
boom in wilderness travel. They’re still out there, but
4 FOREWORD // 12 LETTERS // 22 ASK EDDY // 62 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORIES GUIDE
where are the young people? By John Nestler.
72 ALEKSANDER DOBA UNFILTERED // 74 DIRTBAG DIARIES

24 // MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
In January, the Emerald Mile’s 32-year-old Grand
ONLINE AT ON THE COVER: Kalen Thorien Canyon speed record fell twice in three days. This is
CANOEKAYAK.COM: enjoys a quiet December sunset on how it went down. By Zak Podmore
Coverage from the 2016 Lake Powell. Photo by Forest Woodward.
Santa Cruz Paddle Fest, new REVIEW
BushCraft skills, extended THIS PAGE: David Jackson on Hec- 52 // COMPACT TOURING KAYAKS
photo essays from this issue, tor Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta. We test six rec-touring kayaks that occupy the
plus boat reviews and event Photo by Aaron Black-Schmidt comfortable middle ground between sea kayaks
previews to get you ready for and recreational boats. By Darren Bush
the season ahead.

6 | canoekayak.com
 W
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VOLUME 44 // ISSUE 2 SPRING 2016

EDITORIAL
EDITOR IN CHIEF Jeff Moag
MANAGING EDITOR Dave Shively
ART DIRECTOR Parker Meek
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T
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O S.
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 VOLUME 44 // ISSUE 2 SPRING 2016

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 A R R I V E AT T H E P L A C E
WHERE THE JOURNEY BEGINS.

“A Work of Art, Made for Life” is our motto, and we approach the creation of each kayak
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 [email protected]
BE AN
ON-WATER
LEADER LETTEHRE
OF T
MONTH

Thank you for Mike Beze-

mek’s column, “The Ben-
efits of Stepping Down Your
Paddling” (Canoekayak.
com). I couldn’t agree more.
Years ago, I joined the local
paddling club thinking that Aaron Schmidt
I could gain some canoeing
experience. When I attended the first meeting and
introduced myself, one of the members told me

WEAR IT! to bring my canoe down to the pool so he could

teach me how to roll it! Like so much of this maga-
zine, it all seems to be aimed at who can run the
steepest, who can drop from the highest, who can
cross the widest. Relax people, there’s plenty of
water in your own backyard and you don’t have to
have a sponsor, pretty boats or shirts with decals
— Well said, Doc. We’re
all over them. All you need is that beat-up old boat
sending you a new NRS
that’s been sitting in your yard for years. Just get
Vapor PFD to wear on
out there. You’ll be astonished with what you see!
your next backyard
– Doc adventure. –Eds.

RE: RODENT MENACE?

Eddy should know better; otters are not even remotely related to rodents (Ask
Eddy Dec. ’15). They are in the same family as weasels and skunks. Possibly
there is some “rodent menace “ that “has only gotten worse” somewhere, but
it has nothing to do with otters. I can’t imagine that anyone who has actually
seen an otter would think that it was a rodent. Please get Eddy away from his
desk and back out on the water. — Sally G.C.

RE: ADIRONDACK STYLE

I just got my latest copy of Canoe & Kayak and you people really missed the boat on this one. In your article
“Adirondack Style” (Winter ’16) you reviewed only one canoe actually made in the Adirondacks–the Placid
Boatworks Spitfire. What about the Hornbeck? It’s made in Olmstedville, New York, by Pete Hornbeck. It’s
custom fit for each customer and way more affordable than the Spitfire–$1,200 to just over $2,000. Take a
look at the cars transporting boats in the Adirondacks. Ninety percent of the canoes you see will be Hornbecks. I
bet you’re going to be getting a ton of mail about this one. – Gary S.

– You’re right on two counts, Gary. We received plenty of mail about boats not included in our
Photo: Aaron Schmidt
Adirondack-style review, and Hornbeck does make a fine canoe (We reviewed his Blackjack in
2011, and the review can be found online at canoekayak.com). Our readers also wrote to praise
Swift, Grass River Boatworks, Adirondack Canoe Company, and others. –Eds.

WHAT
DO YOU Write us at [email protected]. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

THINK?
12 | CANOEKAYAK.COM
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 PUT IN TRENDS

WHERE
We join a group of river-runners around their fire,
chatting and munching bannock. The distant drumroll of
Virginia Falls sends pulses of anticipation through the

HAVE ALL
group, who will start down the South Nahanni River in the
morning. One couple tells us they’ve waited more than

THE YOUNG
20 years to paddle the river, making clear just how iconic
this trip is to Canadian paddlers. Or perhaps I should say,
older Canadian paddlers. Every person facing us around

PEOPLE
the fire is at least 40 years old. My girlfriend and I, both in
our early 20s, are as eager as the rest to experience the
magic of the Nahanni. But the faces around the fire beg

GONE?
the question: Does this experience matter to anyone else
our age?
While staging the trip in Fort Simpson, I’d asked Chuck
Blyth, a former superintendent of Nahanni National Park,
R
L
T
S
E
N
H
JO
BY
about the river’s annual usage numbers. I found it hard to

14 | canoekayak.com
 Portaging:
Enjoy it while
you still can.

“PARTICIPATION
IN A SPORT OR
ACTIVITY IS NOT A
PREREQUISITE TO
OWNING OUTDOOR Black-Schmidt

PRODUCTS,”
THE STUDY
SAYS. IN OTHER
WORDS, WE’RE A
GENERATION OF
POSERS.

Jim “Bucky” Buckingham shares

Black-Schmidt
river lore with younger paddlers on
John Nestler the Bow River, Alberta.

believe my guidebook, which claimed that “Generation X and younger are doing adventurous things, but much less camping,”
only about 700 people paddle the Nahanni Hartling says. “They want to be online by 5 p.m., posting their trophy photos, after a
each year—a far cry from the 18,000 commercial river trippers shower and before a beer at the pub.”
who experience America’s big-dream river trip, the Grand Hartling, who is 54, isn’t the first person of his vintage to make sweeping
Canyon. In fact, traffic on the Nahanni has fallen since the pronouncements about young people, but the research backs him up. While there is
guidebook was published; the Canadian Park Service counted certainly a cohort of hard-core young adventurers out there, many in my generation are
only 475 river travelers in 2015. Those who do come are older perfectly content with day-trips. Some just want to own the gear. The Outdoor Industry
than ever, on average. “When I first started on the Nahanni, Association described my generation thusly: “participation in a sport or activity is not a
everyone was my age,” Blyth said. “Now when I go down prerequisite to owning outdoor products.” In other words, we’re a generation of posers.
they’re still my age.” Hartling grew up in a different era, building his own fiberglass kayak and hiking in
Neil Hartling, owner of Nahanni River Adventures, told wool clothing from the thrift shop. Nowadays his customers show up with thousands
me that the average age of his customers has increased by of dollars of clothing and gadgets, which marketers have convinced them they need.
one year, every year, for the last 30 years. Today the average Sadly, the cost of all that swag may keep younger people off the river.
age of his clients is 57. This aging phenomenon isn’t unique Bill Hansen, owner of Sawbill Canoe Outfitters in the BWCA, recalls “an incredible
to the Nahanni. Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area fad among young people in the late ‘60s for backpacking and hiking. It was quite a
Wilderness is also experiencing a similar aging effect. In 1969 phenomenon at the time, spawning great interest and media coverage.” This surge
the average age of an overnight visitor there was 26. In 1991 got a lot of young adventurers hooked on the outdoors, and that generation has kept
it had increased to 36. By 2007 it was 45. with it ever since.

CONT. ON P. 16

canoekayak.com | 15
 PUT IN TRENDS

Church and scouting have historically

been gateways to wilderness trips, but
Hansen has observed a steady decline in
organized youth outings. On the upside,
Hansen reports a marked increase in college
wilderness courses. And Jason Zabokrtsky,
founder of the Ely Outfitting Company in the
BWCA, says there are still plenty of 30- and
40-something parents bringing their kids on
trips into the Boundary Waters.
One river contradicts this aging theme:
the Grand Canyon. In 2006, the National
Park Service instituted a weighted lottery

rock ‘n
system for private permits, replacing a
wait-list that had swollen to more than 20
years. Suddenly, younger paddlers had an
opportunity to get on the river, particularly if
they targeted less-desirable winter launches.
Self-support kayaking trips on the Grand have
become something of a trend for paddlers of

roller
my generation. According to the NPS, the
majority of winter permits are drawn by people
in their 20s and 30s.
The surge in Grand Canyon self-supports
marks a change in the way paddlers today
explore wilderness. New types of craft,
from crossover kayaks ideal for multi-day
whitewater trips, to standup paddleboards
and packrafts, allow a whole new range of
experiences and multi-sport adventures. If that
diverts young paddlers’ attention from classic
canoe trips such as the South Nahanni and the
Boundary Waters, that’s fine—they’ll discover
the classics soon enough. “The millennials we
see in the Boundary Waters absolutely love
Grab your paddle and get in the groove through tranquil the experience,” Zabokrtsky says. “And find
real satisfaction in the wilderness experience.”
flatwater pools then rock it over whitewater drops and rapids.
For my part, I’ve already learned that life
The spring-fed San Marcos River in San Marcos, Texas is a passes too quickly, and all too often people
place both veteran and beginner enthusiasts love. So bring put trips like the Grand, Nahanni, or BWCA
your boat or rent one – you will definitely want to stay a while. out of their reach. Those experiences are
here now, completely within your grasp. Don’t
Home to the world’s toughest canoe race: wait decades, or until you have all the gear.
261-mile TEXAS WATER SAFARI • June 2016 Nothing’s stopping you from loading a little
food into a boat and immersing yourself in a
wild landscape.

/TourSanMarcos www.TourSanMarcos.com | 512.393.5930

16 | canoekayak.com
The Great Calusa Blueway Paddling Trail
is a 190-mile marked canoe and kayak trail
that meanders through the coastal waters
and inland tributaries of Lee County,
Florida. It attracts everyone from first-time
kayakers to advanced paddlers and is
home to abundant marine life, shore birds
and crustaceans.
fortmyers-sanibel.com/calusablueway

DON’T MISS THE 2ND ANNUAL FORT MYERS BEACH

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 PUT IN EVENTS

FESTIVAL
SEASON
READY TO CELEBRATE YOUR LOVE
OF PADDLING WITH HUNDREDS, OR
THOUSANDS, OF LIKE-MINDED FOLK?
JOIN THE FUN AT THESE INSPIRING
GET-TOGETHERS FOR SEA KAYAKERS,
CANOEISTS AND WHITEWATER BOATERS.
L
E
IH
M
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N
O
C
BY

WESTERN MICHIGAN COASTAL back and forth and showing off for their
KAYAKERS ASSOCIATION SYMPOSIUM friends. That’s pretty special.”
MAY 27-30, MONTAGUE, M ICH. While the adult program aims to introduce sea
It’s not very often that sea kayaking and family kayaking to beginners through a series of instruc-
friendly are mentioned in the same breath. After all, tional sessions on Big Blue Lake, registration fees
sea kayaks are generally the pursuit of empty nest- include the first-come, first-serve opportunity to sign
ers; when it comes to taking the kids paddling, ca- up for British Canoe Union 3-Star training. This gold
noes are de rigeur. But that’s not the case at the standard in intermediate-level sea kayak skills and
Western Michigan Coastal Kayakers Association’s rescues is offered on the open waters of Lake Michi-
(WMCKA) annual symposium, hosted each Memo- gan—and was a big reason Story was first drawn to
rial Day weekend on Big Blue Lake, northwest of the WMCKA event.
Grand Rapids, Mich. WMCKA has a fleet of kid-sized She’s since returned as a volunteer instructor,
kayaks and a specific program for youngsters aged and relishes the joys of teaching new paddlers, as
seven to 14—besides a full complement of classes well as the sense of camaraderie. With cabin accom-
for beginner to intermediate adults. modations and a dining hall, the weekend festival
This family friendly vibe keeps five-time festival has a distinct summer camp feel. “The energy is very
goer Tammy Story coming back. “At the end of the low-key,” says Story. “Everyone is very supportive.
day, you see kids coming in off the water and they There’s not a lot of testosterone involved.” wmcka.
are so happy,” says Story. “They’re paddling, yelling org/symposium Tom Daniels

18 | canoekayak.com
 SOUTH SOUND TRADITIONAL INUIT KAYAK SYMPOSIUM
JUNE 10-12, BELFAIR, WASH.
SSTIKS, as it’s known amongst the Greenland-style kayaking
community, got its start in the early days of traditional kayaking’s North
American renaissance. Back in 2002, a community of skinny-blade
enthusiasts was looking to organize their own skills and rolling training
camp in the Pacific Northwest. The humble, DIY roots of the event
remain paramount today—as does a strong conviction that Greenland-
style paddling is “borrowed knowledge from an ancient culture that
we are obligated to freely share with anyone interested,” according to
longtime participant Tim Mattson. qajaqpnw.org

CHEAT RIVER FESTIVAL

MAY 7, ALBRIGHT, W.V.
With bluegrass bands, dancing and art vendors, the Cheat Fest is a
classic Appalachian good time. The festival is a fundraiser for Friends of
the Cheat, a grassroots organization that advocates for river access and
conservation. It’s also a perfect way to kick off spring paddling season in
the Southeast—a lower-key counterpoint to autumn’s Gauley Fest. Water
levels are often ideal for boating on the Cheat, which features some of
the best Class II to IV whitewater in the West Virginia. The main event
is the “Massacre-ence,” a mass-start downriver race through the Class
III-IV Cheat Canyon. cheatfest.org

Gabe DeWitt

OUTDOORS INC. CANOE AND

KAYAK RACE 35TH EDITION
JUNE 18, M EM PHIS, TENN.
Maybe it’s the thrill of experiencing the
pushy current and tricky eddy lines of
North America’s largest river that has
attracted the likes of Olympic gold medalist
Greg Barton and surfski legend Oscar
Chalupsky to Memphis-based retailer
Outdoors Inc.’s annual Canoe and Kayak
Race. But with multiple boat categories
and age classes, this 5-kilometer (3.1
mile) race on the Mississippi River draws
more than 500 paddlers–speed freaks and
ordinary folks alike–and features a famous
mass start. If you’re looking to try your hand
at racing, there’s no better place to start. Courtesy Outdoors Inc.

outdoorsinc.com

canoekayak.com | 19
 PUT IN EVENTS

Brian Connon

AUSABLE CANOE MARATHON

JULY 30, GRAYLING, M ICH.
North America’s granddaddy canoe race, the 120-mile AuSable dates back
to 1947. The marathon begins with a running start in Grayling, a small town in
northern Michigan. Paddlers jockey through the darkness on the twisty-turny
AuSable. Hours later, sunrise is a welcome relief as competitors anticipate the
finish line at Oscoda, Mich., on the shores of Lake Michigan. With $50,000
in prizes, the AuSable is limited to serious canoe racers. Yet plenty of thrills
and spills—especially at the twilight Le Mans-style start—make the AuSable a
popular spectator event. ausablecanoemarathon.org

ADIRONDACK CANOEING SYMPOSIUM

JULY 14-17, RAY BROOK, NY
Freestyle canoeing has been likened to “obedience training for your canoe.”
It’s all about displaying mastery over your craft, blending paddle strokes and
weight transfer to make a canoe dance. There’s a long history of freestyle in
the Adirondacks—the birthplace of organized canoeing in the United States. The
Adirondack Canoeing Symposium celebrates this rich tradition with certified
instructors and small-group learning. freestylecanoeing.com/adirondack

BATTLE ON THE BLUEWAY

JUNE 11-12, FORT MYERS BEACH, FLA.
Florida’s 190-mile-long Calusa Blueway is known for some of the most
diverse canoe and sea kayak touring in the Sunshine State. So it makes
sense that the Battle on the Blueway, a wildly popular festival launched for
standup paddleboards in 2015, would add kayak, surf ski and outrigger
canoe categories in its second year. Besides two- and seven-mile races,
the family-focused weekend event features presentations on the region’s
rich biodiversity and indigenous Calusa heritage. paddleguru.com/races/
BattleontheBlueway

20 | canoekayak.com
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 PUT IN ASK EDDY

SCENT OF A
WOODSMAN
Eddy’s got answers
DOES VICTORIA’S SECRET BOMBSHELL Eddy thinks the stuff smells precisely like the breath buddy Captain Tenneal crammed cases of the delicacy
PERFUME REALLY REPEL MOSQUITOES? of an obese, three-legged raccoon feasting on potato into his DeHavilland Beaver and rendezvoused with
Eddy has long suspected that cologne is a repellent. chips and rotten chrysanthemum (it’s a long story), and Eddy on various Boundary Waters lakes in exchange
At least, rubbing himself down with scratch-and-sniff apparently the mosquitoes agree. What didn’t bother for flats of Coors Light, at that time not yet available in
ads torn from old issues of GQ at the local library sure the bugs a whit? Those vitamin B mosquito-patches. the Great White North. So Eddy knows a thing or two
doesn’t attract anything, whether it be mosquitoes or “It’s a big business,” says Hansen, “but they don’t about hopscotching small planes through lake-land.
human females. Those suspicions were pretty well work.” Aside from the useless stick-on patches, how We always looked for lakes about a half-mile long,
confirmed by a 2015 New Mexico State University does bug dope work? Says Hansen, insect repellents which says Don Lee, owner of Alaska Floats and Skis
study that tested 10 different bug dopes. The scientists work by masking the scent of various bacteria naturally flight school in Talkeetna, is a pretty safe distance for
slathered their hands with different bug sprays and found on your skin. Some people just smell better to most charter aircraft with pontoons, from the Beaver
jammed them into clear plastic tubes swarming with skeeters. For a long time, people thought that CO2— down to the Piper Cub. “Taking off in a floatplane takes
skeets. As expected, the three Deet-based products your breath—was the main attractant, but Hansen says 20 percent more distance than a plane on wheels on
kept the critters at bay, says assistant professor Immo that the CO2 mainly just accelerates the attraction. So, a runway,” says Lee. When landing in an unfamiliar lake
Hansen. Surprisingly, the all-natural lemon-eucalyptus stop panting, or try Eddy’s special repellent: smoking a or river, most pilots will first fly over the reach to scope
oil was just as effective as the famous chemical special blend of shredded dryer sheets sprinkled with it out. As long as it takes 30 seconds or so—about a
cocktail—both substances worked for more than 240 crushed mosquito coil. He hasn’t been bitten by insect, half mile at propeller cruising speeds—there’s plenty of
minutes. “They have a really good evaporative kinetic,” nor raccoon, in several years. room. A standard takeoff is about 12 seconds, says
explains Hansen. Pardon? “It evaporates slowly from Lee, and you want to leave some safety margin. With a
your skin,” he says. Also quite repellent was Avon WHAT SIZE LAKE DOES A FLOAT PLANE canoe strapped to the pontoon that’s doubly important
Skin So Soft, and in a surprise, the Victoria’s Secret REQUIRE FOR TAKEOFF AND LANDING? Before in case things don’t feel right and the pilot needs to
Bombshell perfume, the eau du choice of one of the NAFTA, Eddy made a few bucks smuggling planeloads shut ‘er down, or say, a stow-away raccoon goes
researchers, who threw it in as a convenient control. of ketchup flavored potato chips from Canada. His pilot berserk in the cockpit.

22 | canoekayak.com GOT A QUESTION FOR EDDY? Email it to [email protected] Illustration by Aaron McKinney
 PUT IN DISPATCH

MIDNI GHT
EXPRESS
For more than three decades, the fastest descent of the Grand
Canyon stood at 36 hours and 38 minutes, a record set by
three legendary boatmen on the back of a historic flood. Many
thought the record was unassailable, but in January it was
bested twice in three days. C&K’s Zak Podmore has the story of
two extraordinary speed runs.

24 | canoekayak.com
Illustration: Martin Simpson
canoekayak.com | 25
 PUT IN DISPATCH

G
eorge Mallory’s famous quip regard-
ing his motivation for climbing Everest
-- “Because it’s there” -- could be ap-
plied just as easily to racing a boat down
the Grand Canyon at top speed. Why not?
But since making a nonstop descent of the
277-mile run requires running rapids such
as Lava Falls in the dark after more than 20
hours of continuous paddling, only a handful
of boaters have taken up the challenge. The
Riggs brothers made what could be consid-
ered the first speed run in 1951 when they
rowed a cataract-style wooden boat through
the canyon in 53 hours; Fletcher Anderson,
a pioneering Southwestern boater, made
a 49-hour solo kayak descent in the late
1970s; and in 1983 Kenton Grua, Rudi
Petschek, and Steve Reynolds completed a
now-legendary run on a flood of 70,000 cfs
in a wooden dory named the Emerald Mile.
Their record of 36 hours and 38 minutes
was the time to beat.
In early 2015, Ben Orkin and his pad-
dling partner Harrison Rea proved that
breaking that record in a kayak was pos-
sible, even without a flood. They missed the
Emerald Mile’s record by just 70 minutes,
despite being forced to stop and repair
one of their kayaks at Crystal Rapid. They’d
done it on relatively low flows (the river was
Ryan Casey’s hands at
the Pearce Ferry takeout. cycling between 10,000 and 18,000 cfs),
Ben Luck and they’d launched at night in the dead of
winter, running most of the river in the dark.
Fit and restless after a 90-day canoe trip

O
ne Tuesday in January, Ben Luck stopped in northern Canada last summer, Orkin was
by my house in southern Utah with a yel- itching to give it another shot. He pulled a
low Perception Wavehopper strapped to permit to launch January 23,
his car. Luck, an old college friend, was on his 2016.
way to Lee’s Ferry, where he and three other Luck, 27, had been dis-
kayakers would start their assault on an obscure
AS HE DROPPED cussing a potential speed

INTO LAVA FALLS

record that had circulated among the paddling bid with two of his closest
community for three decades: the fastest river paddling friends, broth-

UNDER A NEARLY
descent of the Grand Canyon. ers Matt and Nate Klema,
A few hours after Luck drove off, I received since hearing about Har-
an email from Ben Orkin. I’d interviewed him a
year before, when he’d tried to set the same re- FULL MOON, lan Taney’s 2012 attempt.
Taney’s run had ended in
cord.
“Just wanted to give you a heads up,” his
ORKIN FLIPPED injury and a hike out from
Phantom Ranch, but he’d
email read. “I’m launching Saturday for a solo at- IN THE SURGING been on pace to shatter the

V-WAVE.
tempt at the Grand Canyon speed run.” record. Luck’s interest had
Neither party knew of the other’s plans. I been piqued, and when he
thought, This is going to get interesting. pulled a January river per-

26 | canoekayak.com
mit last fall he quickly began laying plans with swoop,” he says. “One of the coolest river experi- came the fastest person to traverse the length
the Klemas. Both brothers were veteran Grand ences I ever had was paddling the stretch above of the canyon, beating both the Emerald Mile’s
Canyon guides. The elder brother Matt, though Lava at night. I didn’t turn my light on once. The time and a motorized record set in 1993. The
only 31 years old, had over 80 Grand trips un- moonlight was just incredible.” others all arrived shortly thereafter.
der his belt and Nate, 27, wasn’t far behind. An But it wasn’t all easy. Around River Mile 140, As Team Beer was floating down to the
experienced Idaho paddler named Ryan Casey they hit a low point. “It was dark, and it was hard Pearce Ferry takeout Thursday afternoon—ex-
rounded out the group. The 38-year-old was knowing we’d only gone halfway,” Luck says. hausted, blistered and chafed after almost 36
champion of the first North Fork Championships Eddylines toyed with the boats and the night hours of nonstop paddling—Orkin was driving to
on the Payette River in 2012, which many con- dragged on. Lava provided a boost, but just the put-in at Lee’s Ferry, still unaware that the
sider to be the most challenging event in white- before dawn on the second morning, some 26 record had just fallen. “I had no idea there was
water kayaking. hours into the run, Casey’s stomach started act- even another attempt in the works,” he said later.
Together the paddlers sometimes refer to ing up. Not wanting to slow the others down, he Orkin planned to launch at 2 a.m. on the
themselves as Team Beer, a name they took on told them to paddle ahead. Most of the rapids morning of Saturday, Jan. 23. It would be his
a largely under-the-radar mission to paddle the were behind them and each of the crew had ninth trip down the canyon. Driving to the boat
last unrun tributary of the Amazon River, Peru’s their own emergency supplies, so the Klemas ramp shortly after midnight, the 25-year-old
Rio Huallaga. The remote, Class V canyon had and Luck forged ahead into the day. CPA checked his email one last time. Among
already repelled two high-profile groups of kay- Team Beer had barely paused since set- the well-wishes from family and friends was a
akers, but it would be the unsponsored Team ting out. They’d eaten a three-pound bag of message from Luck:
Beer—a six-man crew consisting of the four
Wanted to let you know that a

“IT WAS
speed paddlers along with Matt Wilson and
group of four of us put on Thurs-
Evan Ross—that would notch the first de-
day and completed the river in 35
scent in 2010. In the years since, Luck and
the Klemas have crisscrossed the globe AMAZING JUST hours. Just felt like you should
know. Best of luck out there.
with different incarnations of Team Beer,
making remote, exploratory runs from Si-
TO EXPERIENCE Orkin was stunned, both by the news
beria to Chile. All four paddlers were well
THE WHOLE and by Luck’s willingness to compromise his

CANYON IN
qualified to take on the Grand Canyon’s team’s record by sharing his time. “It was in-
Class III/IV whitewater, even under the credible of [Luck] to let me know there was

ONE FELL
demanding circumstances of a speed run. a new time to beat,” Orkin remarked. “There
“We wanted to challenge our abilities as a wouldn’t have been anything worse than fin-
team on an aesthetic river, which is what we
love to do,” Luck said. They borrowed plastic SWOOP,” ishing in 35 hours and 30 minutes, thinking I’d
got the record but actually being 25 minutes
downriver boats, three Pyranha Speeders — MATT KLEMA, WHO HAS GUIDED 12 too slow. So I’m very grateful he did that, even
and Luck’s Wavehopper, and mapped out SEASONS IN THE GRAND CANYON. if it was hard for him.”
their plan. At 4:30 a.m. on January 20, they Knowing about the new record helped Or-
launched. kin concentrate at the daunting task ahead of
The Klema brothers’ guiding experience fried chicken between strokes (a culinary pro- him, made even more difficult by the fact that he
proved to be a major asset for the crew. “There tip Luck received from whitewater legend Tom- knew exactly how hard the next 277 miles were
wasn’t any point in the run—even in the middle my Hilleke) and scooped their drinking water going to be. The email “got me in the mindset to
of the night—that Matt didn’t know exactly what straight from the river. Despite their fatigue, they push myself,” he said. “Once I heard somebody
river mile we were at,” recalls Luck. “Matt would all continued to nail their lines into the canyon’s else had set a record, I knew it was game on.”
tell me the mile and I’d calculate how fast we lower whitewater; none of the team would roll As dawn broke on Saturday morning, Orkin
were going.” Their goal was to average eight during the run. was feeling strong and was somewhat surprised
miles per hour, which would bring them to the A few hours from the finish line, Matt Klema to find that he was averaging around eight and
end of the canyon roughly two hours ahead of broke away from his companions. “I knew I had a half mph, a speed that, if maintained, would
the Emerald Mile’s record. a lot left,” he says. “I definitely dug as deep as I bring him through the whole canyon two hours
The brothers, who knew the river best, af- could for the last two hours of the Lake. I was ahead of Matt Klema’s new record. Orkin was
fixed blinking red lights on the back of their going about as hard as I could paddle.” With paddling a composite Epic 18X sea kayak, a
boats so Luck and Casey could follow them his forearms inflamed with tendonitis, Klema boat much lighter than the models Team Beer
through the rapids they’d run in the dark. One cut open the gaskets on his drysuit to increase had used and with nearly four more feet of wa-
of the highlights for Matt Klema was seeing the blood circulation just as the Grand’s first speed terline. “I let go of my worries and realized I really
canyon he’d guided in for 12 seasons from an kayaker, Fletcher Anderson, had done close to could do this,” Orkin said.
entirely different perspective. “It was amazing 40 years earlier. The push paid off; when Klema That optimism had begun to wane, however,
just to experience the whole canyon in one fell crossed the Grand Wash Cliffs, he officially be- by the end of the day. He had capsized several

canoekayak.com | 27
 SEARCH WITHIN. EXPLORE BEYOND.

It’s hard to believe what began as simple day trip has lasted close to 50 years.
But that’s what happens when you paddle the world’s greatest canoe…you get to
keep going. So, no matter where your journeys take you, from local lakes to faraway
wilderness adventures, we invite you to start each one from the same place – Wenonah.

W E N O N A H . c o m
 PUT IN DISPATCH
Life is short.
Take your Hilleberg
and paddle on!

Orkin at the put-in.

Mari Orkin

“ONCE I HEARD
SOMEONE ELSE
HAD BROKEN THE
RECORD, I KNEW IT
WAS GAME ON.”
— BEN ORKIN

times and had difficulty rolling up. “I was having some major issues. I don’t
know what was going on,” Orkin admitted. The biggest challenge was still
to come: Orkin would have to run the canyon’s most formidable rapid, Lava
Falls, in the dark—and alone. “I had a bad feeling about it,” he said. “I thought
I was going to roll or swim.”
At Lava, that intuition came true. As he dropped into the right slot of the saivo
rapid under a nearly full moon, he flipped in the surging V-wave at the top.
Very strong, stable & comfortable
He tried to roll but felt himself being pushed onto the large boulder on river- three person all-season tent in our
right that is infamous to rafters: Cheese Grater rock. By the time his boat black label line. Ideal for demanding
slid back into the current, Orkin was spent. “I had no energy left. I grabbed use in any climate.
onto my boat and pulled my skirt.” Just when it seemed like things couldn’t
get any worse, Orkin felt the 46-degree water soaking into insulating layers
Nathalie Antognelli/phototeam-nature.com
under his drysuit. He’d accidentally left his zipper slightly open and now the
waterlogged suit was dragging him down as he floated through the waves
of Lower Lava Rapid. “My headlamp wasn’t doing much from water level. I
for over 40 years, Hilleberg has been making the
knew I’d have to abandon my boat or leave it try to swim to shore.” About a highest quality tents available. Conceived and developed
quarter-mile downstream, he felt himself wash into an eddy. For 20 minutes in northern Sweden, Hilleberg tents offer the ideal balance
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of low weight, strength, and comfort. Order our catalog for
almost certainly require him to call for a helicopter evacuation after a long, more information!
cold night on the riverbank. He decided to make one final push. “I gave it
everything I got,” he stated flatly. Soon, he felt sand beneath his feet.
Orkin looked at his watch. He realized he could still beat the record, but
there was little time to waste. Barely pausing to catch his breath, he slid
back into his kayak, and with water still sloshing in the legs of his drysuit, he
pushed on. It was close to midnight. He’d been on the water for 21 hours.
“I think I lost an hour from the swim. I wasted so much energy getting
Order a FREE catalog online at
to shore, and I was sitting in a pool of cold water for the rest of the trip,” he
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 PUT IN DISPATCH

STAY DRY
STAY WARM
BE SAFE
The Agony of Victory:
Orkin at the takeout.

Pam Wolfson

Nonetheless, Orkin didn’t want to take

any chances on missing the record and hav-
ing to decide whether to make a third attempt.
He ground out the next hundred miles with a
steadfast determination, breaking his stride
only to down some of the 36 energy bars he’d
brought along for fuel. “My dad told me I’d have
to be my own cheerleader, and he was right,”
Orkin laughed. At mid-day on Sunday, Jan. 24,
he passed the Grand Wash Cliffs with a time 34
hours and 2 minutes.
The Emerald Mile’s record, which had stood
for over three decades, had been broken twice
in three days.
Team Beer was following Orkin’s progress
online as he crossed Lake Mead. Watching his
GPS tracker move downriver, they knew their
efforts had been bested.
“It’s good for everyone, I think,” Matt Klema
said after hearing the news that his time had
already been beaten. “Orkin gets the fastest
time and we got to break the Emerald Mile’s
record. And more importantly, we got to have
this amazing river experience.”
Luck concurred. “We knew that somebody
was going to be faster eventually, so what’s the
difference if our record lasted three decades or
P
three days? We crushed what we went down
there to do in borrowed plastic boats with our
best friends—and we did it straight off the

A M P D RYS U I T couch in true Team Beer style. That’s what mat-

ters to me.”
The weatherproof protection, mobility, and comfort you For Orkin’s part, he’s just glad he came out
need for whitewater, sea touring, or SUP paddling.
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A L I F E T I M E O F I N N OVAT I O N ™ | W W W. STO H LQ U I ST. C O M

30 | canoekayak.com
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 BORN TO
LIFE AND LESSONS FROM CHILDHOOD ON

Black-Schmidt

32 | canoekayak.com
O PADDLE
ADD
T H E WAT E R

WHAT’S THE SECRET TO RAISING A PADDLER?

THERE’S NO SECRET. YOU JUST POINT THEM TO

WATER, KEEP THEM SAFE, AND LET THEM DISCOVER

THE JOY OF PADDLING FOR THEMSELVES. THEY’LL

LEARN AS THEY GROW, AND SO WILL YOU.

canoekayak.com | 33
 BORN TO PADDLE
On the far side of the
memory, she led me
off the glowing trail
and we climbed down
to the river to watch
my dad’s run.

Henry Georgi

SNAGGLETOOTH
Zak Podmore // Dolores River

If first memories are a kind of birth back into the blankness. My mom and I had been growing up, a photograph of Steve, Mountain and
to those who carry them, then I was walking around Snaggletooth Rapid, the crux of me reenacting the wrap sat on our family’s mantle.
born on the banks of the Dolores a 28-mile wilderness stretch of the Dolores River I’ve heard many times how I worked through the
River at the age of four. in southwestern Colorado. On the far side of the traumatic scene, recreating it on a stage that was
The place I landed was red and dusty. I was memory, she led me off the glowing trail and we closer to my scale and entertaining the group in the
walking down a rocky path, holding my mom’s hand. climbed down to the river to watch my dad’s run. His process. That day must have left some mark on me,
I knew she’d been with me for a long time, that boat slid sideways onto a rock, folded and wrapped. but what I remember now is the light.
there was a river nearby, that we were safe. Mostly There was yelling, ropes. –Zak Podmore is C&K’s online editor.
what I remember is the sunlight. It arced through the That evening around the campfire I asked a
boughs of pinyon and ponderosa, almost palpable in family friend, Steve Arrowsmith, to lie down on
the dancing air, and sent radiant spangles out across the ground. He played the role of the river. My
the dirt. I stepped on them cautiously, not knowing if trusted stuffed animal, a white snow leopard named
they’d spring to life. The trunk of long-dead juniper Mountain, became the rock. Gathering other props, I
tree twisted out of the earth like a grey, frozen flame. recreated the day’s excitement: the wrap, the rescue,
It’s funny, but that’s where the memory fades. the rest of the run.
All the action that followed has since slipped I know all this now because when I was
Courtesy the Podmore family

34 | canoekayak.com
 AWAKENING
Alan Kesselheim // Yellowstone River

It sounds cliché to say my appreciation for the wonders of nature came alive through my children. But like most clichés,
it persists because it happens to be true. As when we pulled over at a small tributary stream along the lower Yellowstone
River with Eli, at a barely-walking nine months old. He was mesmerized by the tiny waterfall sheeting over a ledge
of sandstone. He crawled over and parked in front of it, cherubic and pink, putting his hand slowly and
deliberately into the curtain of clear water and pulling it back out, trying to make sense of this new element,
this new awareness, as he had repeatedly over our month-long journey down the river, exploring everything
Alan Kesselheim from the marvel of warm sand to the taste of goose poop. So yeah, cliché. Also totally true.

Culley Thomas

still in diapers, my husband and I took them on

short paddling trips and riverside campouts. Last
summer, when the boys were three and six, we
took them on their first multi-day canoe trip in
northern Maine. A friend told us everything we
needed to know: “Don’t try to do too much,” she
said. “Allow yourself time to just enjoy it.”
We started our five-day canoe trip at
Lobster Lake, a magical place with narrow sand
a collision course with my life of nonstop kayaking beaches, mountain views and wide-open sky.
TIME TO EXPLORE and adventure. Even though my husband and I had For the first two days we stayed right there,
Karrie Thomas // Lobster Lake
wanted to start a family, the thought of giving up swimming, messing about in the canoe, catching
those freewheeling ways was far scarier than the crawdads and frogs. We spent the last three days
I ran Upper Cherry Creek when I was four months stair-stepping waterfalls of California’s most-famous paddling all of 23 miles down the West Branch
pregnant, simply because I didn’t know if I’d ever Class V. of the Penobscot River. We camped early and
get another chance. Parenthood was coming fast, on I needn’t have worried. When our boys were spent afternoons jumping off rocks, riding the
currents into broad eddys, jumping again. Our
last campsite was nestled in the trees just above
Chesuncook Lake. We explored a nearby island
where we found an abandoned duck’s nest and
animal prints in the sand. The kids were inspired
adventurers carefully studying their discoveries,
eager for the next treasure. At our take-out the
next day, the boys blinked back tears. They didn’t
want the trip to end.
–Karrie Thomas is Executive Director of the
Culley Thomas Northern Forest Canoe Trail.

canoekayak.com | 35
 Doug Woodward

HOMECOMING
Canyon Woodward // Gates of Lodore

I float through the Gates of Lodore, oars at rest. I gawk at the

deep red and black sandstone cliffs rising up from the water and
towering above. I feel as small as an infant. Something stirs in me,
like water breaking free of a dam and reacquainting itself with its
familiar course. Waves of memories break over me. Holding Mom’s hand as we
walk around Hell’s Half Mile. Catching lizards under the careful tutelage of my
sister. Running Hell’s Half Mile for the first time, water crashing above my head.
Running my little fingers over the pictographs left by those who first knew these
canyons. Chasing the sparks of a campfire or the shadow of the canyon rim cast by
a rising moon.
Returning for the first time since I was a child, I find the rapids less intimidat-
ing and the beaches less expansive than I remember. But the other things–from the
smell of the groover to the steepness of the canyon walls–ring of familiarity. The
powerful energy of the canyon and the life-giving water that flows through it are as
enchanting as ever. I am reminded that this place is a deep part of me, filled with
stories and ruins, star shine and moonshine, echoes of the past and reminders of the
present. It is here, adrift in the swirls of canyon current, where my soul resonates
with the echoes of water moving through time, full and free as the river wild.
–Canyon Woodward is an instructor at the National Outdoor Leadership
School. He was 7 months old his first time through Lodore.

too far away to give him a grip on my bow when he needed it. We ease through the eddy to the
DOUBT NO MORE rocks below Nantahala Falls. I hate to think what’s going on in his head.
Doug Woodward // Nantahala Falls I know what’s going on in mine. Soul-searching questions. Too far, too soon? Have I been
a pushy parent, believing that Forest’s paddling skills were further along than they really are?
We’ve worked together on kayak strokes, wet exits, rolls. But he’s never done a combat roll.
Just follow my line, I told him. You can do this. Except for that last move.
I never asked him if he really wanted to run the falls. Have I set his paddling back a
decade? A lifetime? Back off, Dad.
But Forest is tough. His whitewater enthusiasm was dampened for a while, but returned in
spades. His older brother, David, picked up where I eased off, eventually leading him down the
steep creeks of the Southern Appalachians, waters where I had never ventured.
When Forest was 27, he returned the confidence I had shown in his paddling skills by
Doug Woodward
inviting me, at age 77, to run the Colorado River with him. Together, the two of us piloted a
Oh shit, he’s over. Not rolling up. Or coming out. What were you 16-foot oar rig through the Grand Canyon. Later, my son made an award-winning film about
thinking, Dad? the adventure we shared and the bond between us.
Then, suddenly, Forest’s small face breaks the surface, with that “I I no longer question those early years.
wasn’t sure I was going to make it” look spread across his 6-year-old –Doug Woodward and his wife Trish have raised six children, river-runners all. He is the
countenance. I’m beside him now, but a moment ago I was a stroke author of Wherever Waters Flow: A Lifelong Love Affair With Wild Rivers (Headwaters).

36 | canoekayak.com
 The girls discuss Nsync, THE GIRLS IN THE BOAT
boys at school, irritating Sue Leaf // Boise Brule River

brothers, and Posh Spice. We are daytripping on the Boise Brule River of
northwestern Wisconsin, my husband and I in one canoe,
our youngest daughter and her cousin, our niece, in
another. The two girls, age 10, have just returned from
a week at the Audubon Center of the Northwoods at
Sandstone, Minnesota where, among other activities, they learned how
to paddle a canoe. They learned the whitewater alphabet below Devil’s
Gate on the frothy Kettle River, and they are eager to show us what they
know.
This particular stretch of the Bois Brule is rife with riffles, one set of
Class Is after another. None is especially challenging, but there is a Class
II, the Little Joe, at the end of the trip that offers some excitement.
Tom and I watch the girls push off and work together to avoid being
swept into an outside curve. I can tell they are used to being a team.
There’s minimal chat. Each knows what the other is doing. They thread
through the first riffles. They sense we are watching them, and enjoy, I
think, displaying their skill.
When the river calms down a bit, I can hear normal chatter wafting
from their canoe. The tweens discuss Nsync, boys at school, irritating
brothers, and Posh Spice. They have opinions on all of these.
When they hear the approach of the Little Joe Rapids, I see a new
attentiveness in their posture, in the tilt of their heads. Linnea, the
bowman, gestures to Christina. There’s no hesitation, no apprehension.
Christina positions the canoe and into the whitewater they go.
I think: they’re set for life.
–Sue Leaf is the author of Portage: A Family, a Canoe, and the
Search for the Good Life (University of Minnesota Press).
Peter Mather

THE SAVE bends, stop to scout, talk about strategy, make mistakes. They couldn’t have said what a draw
Alan Kesselheim // Main Salmon stroke was, but by God, when they wanted to get to a sandbar for lunch, they could execute
classic draws to beat the band.
And so, back when Sawyer was 12 years old, wiry and lean, barely 100 lbs., I found
myself partnered with him in Class IV water on the Main Salmon. Crappy day–drizzling,
cold, hypothermic as hell. We scouted. Spotted a line. Everyone peed. Sawyer and I strapped
in, talked it through one more time, and angled into the current. All went according to plan.
We skirted the snarling hole, rode the edge of the biggest waves. Then, near the end, a big,
unexpected diagonal reared up and smacked us sideways. The boat started that gut-tightening
roll. I reached for a low brace but the inevitability of capsize loomed. Then I saw Sawyer
swivel his torso, lean downstream with all his tiny mass, and plant the mother of all saving
Marypat Zitzer
cross-bow draws. It was textbook, magnificent, and absolutely instinctive. The boat paused,
I don’t remember ever conducting a paddling lesson for our kids. teetered on that edge, and started to recover. I heard the spectators on shore cheering. They
How to grip paddles, read water, eddy out, forward ferry, sneak a were not cheering for me. They were roaring approval for Sawyer and the pure, uninstructed
rapid, none of it. They sat in boats and absorbed it. They watched us instincts honed by raw experience and simple observation.
ply our strokes. They noticed tongues of water. They picked up on –Alan Kesselheim is a C&K Editor-at-Large, and author of Let Them Paddle: Coming of
the anxiety caused by a logjam. They saw us hug the insides of tight Age on the Water (Fulcrum).

canoekayak.com | 37
 BORN TO PADDLE

STAY OUT
OF THE WAY
My dad believed Jason Self // California Coast

canoeing, like Within five minutes of launching, I

noticed 12-year-old Nate Ferguson
stickhandling, was standing up in his kayak, paddling

something every boy backwards. My initial reaction was to

‘correct’ this behavior, but I managed
should know. to keep my mouth shut. Nate was
having a blast doing it the ‘wrong’
way, and I quickly realized that if the
kids were having fun, they would want
to paddle more. My job was to provide
the opportunity and make sure things
stayed safe. Nothing more.
–Sea kayak coach Jason Self works
with kids and grownups in Trinidad,
California.

Black–Schmidt

the J-stroke,” he said, levering his paddle off the

THE NEXT GORDIE gunwale to make the canoe track a straight course.
HOWE DOESN’T “The Jagged Wall of Rocks!” he yelled
My initial
theatrically at the first rapid, where we pinballed
PLAY HOCKEY
ANYMORE
down a Class I. Later on, in another rapid, my
paddle broke and I was forced to use the blade like
reaction was to
Conor Mihell // Goulais River a tennis racquet for the rest of the trip—we had correct Nate’s
no spare. “Should’ve brought one of your goalie
I was 13 when my dad sticks,” dad quipped. paddling, but
suggested we go on my first I didn’t realize at the time that the trip would
canoe trip. It was June, the one become a touchstone for me. The memories are
I managed
month of the year that hockey
didn’t dominate my life, a break between spring
still so strong—swimming at our island campsite,
sitting quietly by the fire with my dad, listening
to keep my
tryouts and summer scrimmages. “It’s time we to the sounds of the springtime forest overtake mouth shut.
go down the river,” he said. the river’s chatter at sunset. On the river, there
We picked up a rental canoe, packed tent was no pressure to perform, no fear of choking in
and sleeping bags in a gym bag, filled a cooler a big game. I’d found a new passion, and as my
with pop, beer and hotdogs. I approached the hockey career fizzled I kept Bill Mason films and
weekend trip with the indifference of a newly Cliff Jacobson books on permanent loan from the
minted teenager torn away from the television library, and dreamt of my own canoe. That first trip,
in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs. My I discovered the freedom of paddling. “Tomorrow
dad believed canoeing, like stickhandling, was we hit the long rapids,” my dad said, grinning in
something every boy should know. “This is the firelight. “You’re gonna love it.”

38 | canoekayak.com
 WILD BOYS
Frederick Reimers // The North Woods

At Camp Keewaydin we canoe tripped the hard way. We

cooked over fire, fueled by trees we cut down and sawed up.
On portages, we lashed leather tumplines to awkward wooden
wannagin boxes full of flour, beans and bacon. We paddled and
carried 70-pound wood-canvas canoes. We could have gone with
stoves that ignite with a flick, with lightweight, indestructible
plastic canoes, and even packs with shoulder straps, but we wanted to do it the
old way.
Teenagers showed up soft in June and went home lean and strapping in
August. That was one reason for the heavy gear and wood chopping, but not the
main one. Camp leaders wanted us to understand that kids had been using these
same techniques at Keewaydin for more than 100 years. Campers had plied the
same bedrock-lined waters, trudged the same root-crossed portages, and fallen
asleep to the same eerie loon calls for more than a century. Furthermore, those
techniques, portage trails and campsites had been used by the Ojibway and
Cree people for thousands of years. It was canoe tripping as ritual.
Like all rituals, it’s there to instruct. As a teenager trapped in a confusing,
churning, adolescence, it was a comfort to understand that I was slotting into
a practice much larger than myself. I understood, gliding across lakes with
Courtesy the Reimers Family all my gear stowed between the gunwales, that humans had evolved this way,
traversing the landscape in hunting parties, war
parties, migrations. But camp also broke me out of
my routine at home. I got away from my rigid, if
well-meaning parents, and spent time with adults
who weren’t judging me the way my teachers and
coaches did. I hung out with kids who weren’t
bristling in cliques. I got to evolve into myself
away from those codified relationships back
home. My cabin-mates became a new family, one
united in the journey, and I was a better member
of that family. We weren’t going anywhere unless
we all pulled together. That prime, sun-splashed
campsite would be waiting there across the water,
until the last kid stumbled over the portage with
the big, heavy, gorgeous, cedar-strip canoe on his
shoulders.
–Frederick Reimers is a former editor of Canoe
& Kayak magazine.

Jason Self

canoekayak.com | 39
 BORN TO PADDLE

Kayaks and paddles

were strewn across
the beach. “I thought
I was going to die,”
sobbed the seasick lady.

Aaron Peterson

TAKING CHARGE
Conor Mihell // Lake Superior

I was 18 when I guided my first coast), and cheap satellite communication devices had a woman said. Never before and never since have I
season on Lake Superior. I never yet to be invented. I was on my own. landed a group in such waves. There were multiple
thought twice about the wealth We enjoyed three days of sunshine and calm capsizes, kayaks and paddles strewn across the beach.
and influence of the people I was guiding, or how water. On the final day, I woke at sunrise to the sound “I thought I was going to die,” sobbed the seasick
they may have perceived the relative maturity of of waves pummeling the beach. I’d been guiding long lady.
their guide. I was just happy to be paddling the enough to know the prudent decision was to wait out She didn’t, but for the next week I imagined
coastline of my dreams, making $60 per day. the storm, but I was still a kid. The clients were my the various ways in which she could have. I blamed
That first year I worked as an assistant to a parent’s age. I asked them, “What do you think we myself and vowed never to guide again. But I longed
more experienced leader, until somebody made should do?” for Superior’s big horizons, and as I turned the
a scheduling mistake and I had to guide a trip That was my big mistake. No one—especially not episode over in my mind, I realized that I’d known
by myself—five guests on a four-day journey doctors and lawyers—wants to be delayed on the last what to do all along. I just hadn’t trusted myself. So
along the wilderness coastline of Lake Superior day. They were oblivious to the hazards of wind, surf I pledged always to trust my gut, and when the call
Provincial Park. The company was short on safety and reflection waves, but they all had schedules to came to guide another trip, I jumped at it.
equipment, and I was travelling without a weather keep. I launched them one by one and sprinted out to –Conor Mihell is a C&K Editor-at-Large and
radio. Cell phones were rare in those days (and join them in a six-foot swell. author of The Greatest Lake: Stories from Lake
even now there’s no service on this stretch of We made it barely a mile. “I’m feeling seasick,” Superior’s North Shore (Natural Heritage Press).

40 | canoekayak.com
 A sense of awe came over us as quickly
as the air filled our lungs.
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LAKE FORMERLY KNOWN

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S T O R Y B Y B R E N D A N L E O N A R D

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42 | canoekayak.com
Morning Glory: Hilary
Oliver enjoys a calm, bright
morning on Lake Powell.

canoekayak.com | 43
W We all stop speaking as our kayaks slip
between sheer sandstone walls 200 feet high
and across the inky slackwater covering
what used to be Clear Creek. Clear Creek is
a tributary of the Escalante River, which is a
tributary of the Colorado River, which started
to become a lake in 1963, which is why we’re
here now: to see what’s still left of Glen
Canyon, a place conservationists and desert
rats have mourned since the Glen Canyon
to 3,555 feet, which it briefly did in 2004 and
2005. If we’re lucky (or unlucky, depending
on who you ask), I will be able to see the floor
of the Cathedral again in my lifetime. Which
might be the next time I see my sunglasses,
as I’m about to lose them in a surprising,
and kind of expensive, metaphor here in the
Cathedral.
“Can you paddle around a bit?” Forest
calls over to me from his boat. I don’t get
IF WE’RE
LUCKY—OR
UNLUCKY,
Dam created a reservoir on top of it.
We’ve paddled in here to look for the
a lot of action sports modeling gigs, but
paddling a 17-foot sea kayak is definitely in
DEPENDING
most famous place in Glen Canyon, the my wheelhouse. So I paddle in a few circles. ON WHO YOU
Cathedral in the Desert, perhaps the most-
lamented of all the buried features. It’s Day
Along the north wall. Along the south wall.
And then to ham it up a bit for the camera, I ASK—I WILL BE
3 of our eight-day trip from Hall’s Crossing, figure I’ll crane my neck back to look up at
ABLE TO SEE
THE FLOOR OF
River Mile 93, to Antelope Marina, River the sandstone walls, all the way to where they
Mile 6. I am near the front of the group, with almost come together at the top, leaving a
my friend Sinjin, the river activist; Kalen,
the pro skier who’s been falling in love with
polygon-shaped hole filled with blue sky.
And that’s when my sunglasses slip
THE CATHEDRAL
the desert for the past year; my girlfriend, off my head, glance off my boat and plunk IN THE DESERT
Hilary, who’s been in love with the desert for
a decade now; and Forest, the photographer
into the water. They don’t even float for a
second. They’re gone, replacement value AGAIN IN MY
who grew up whitewater kayaking in
North Carolina. The trip was Sinjin’s idea,
$240. Now I have five more days of paddling
under a desert sun glaring off the lake, with
LIFETIME.
and I don’t know it at the moment we’re nothing more than squinting to protect me
paddling into the Cathedral, but he’s got tears from macular degeneration. As I mentally
streaming down his face right now. catalogue the locations of the two pairs of
The walls climb to a parabolic ceiling Chums I have at home and chastise myself
about 150 feet above my head. What used for not bringing them on a flatwater kayak
to be the floor of the Cathedral is about 50 trip, I don’t know Lake Powell will deliver a
feet below the hull of my kayak, by my best strikingly appropriate metaphor in a couple
guess. Lake Powell is at almost exactly 50 days. So I’m just a little mad at myself, and
percent capacity the week of our trip in early further confused by this place that, as a river-
December, with a water level 3,605 feet runner and conservationist, I’m supposed to
above sea level. The floor of the Cathedral is passionately dislike.
exposed when the lake’s water level recedes

44 | canoekayak.com
 T
he week before we drove from Denver
to Page, Arizona, to start our trip, Hilary
and I met with a mortgage advisor in an
office park in the suburbs. We felt out of
place in the meeting, two dirtbag writers who had only
recently moved into an apartment after a couple years
living full-time in our van, now trying to get a house
loan. In discussing the home loan and the timeline for
our first house purchase, Lou asked about our trip and
how long we’d be out of cell phone range. He had been
on a houseboat trip on Lake Powell once, and he asked,
“Have you ever just laid on your back out there in the
desert and looked up at all those stars?” I remembered
nights sleeping out on a Paco Pad in the Grand Canyon,
the air outside my sleeping bag a chilly 40 degrees, the
Colorado River rushing by. I smiled and said yes, and
assumed his experience out there was pretty different.
Most people who have experienced the Colorado
River in Glen Canyon in the past three and a half
decades have done it in a motorized boat, and called
the river “Lake Powell,” as it is on the maps for Glen
Canyon National Recreation Area. The Glen Canyon
Dam was completed in 1963, and the lake reached
what’s called “full pool” in 1980. Prior to our trip, I had
never considered Lake Powell as a venue for any sort
of recreation, because I usually spend my time in the
outdoors doing human-powered activities, and when
you bury a river under a reservoir, it becomes a haven
for motorized boats. On the downriver side of the Glen
Canyon Dam is the granddaddy of all raft trips in the

Church: Sinjin Eberle and

Kalen Thorien share a quiet
moment at the Cathedral in
the Desert.

canoekayak.com | 45
 PRO TIP: IF YOU
WANT A HUGE LAKE
ALL TO YOURSELF,
KAYAK ACROSS IT IN
DECEMBER.

eight days. We crossed our fingers that we wouldn’t run into any headwinds.
The first day we paddled 10 miles, stopping just before sunset in a small
cove. My hands hurt, my shoulders ached and my back was stiff from a
full day in the kayak. Since putting in, we hadn’t seen a single other human
being, which wasn’t surprising given the temperature. A few minutes after
pulling my boat onto the shore, the sun dipped below the horizon and I put
on all the layers of clothing I had in my boat, including a down jacket. It
was cold. No one made it long after dinner before retiring to their sleeping
bags for almost 12 hours.
We fell into a rhythm: Wake at first light and stay in our sleeping bags
until the sun was nearly on us, then eat, pack boats, paddle 10 or more
miles, and pull into camp at 4 p.m. for the last hour of daylight before dusk.
Unpack boats, set up camp, filter water, cook dinner, eat, and get back into
sleeping bags by 8 or 8:30 p.m.
United States, the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. On this side, it’s Each day of the trip, we saw one boat. We only talked to two other
a lake, more famous for spring break trips, jet skis, and two-story houseboats human beings the entire trip, on our seventh day. On Day 5 we tried to
with built-in waterslides. I don’t think it’s too bold to hypothesize that if you paddle to Dangling Rope Marina in hopes the store there would be open
prefer to paddle your boats, you very likely don’t believe in Lake Powell as a and have ice cream sandwiches—I had checked their website and didn’t see
vacation destination—but if you own a houseboat, you probably think it’s the any notice that they’d be closed. We paddled into the wind to get there, only
greatest place ever. to find it closed up for the season. Room to dock dozens of boats, several
On our first day, we crammed our gear and food for eight days into gas pumps, a ranger station, a store, and no road access, save a short, steep,
drybags, stuffed them into the hatches of our kayaks and pushed the boats in narrow track of asphalt that apparently led to an airstrip above the marina.
off the 80-foot-wide boat launch ramp at Hall’s Crossing. We paddled across It was perhaps a bit foolish to hope the marina would be open, with the rest
night-black water, glassy and gently lapping against steep sandstone walls and of Lake Powell a ghost town. Pro tip: If you want a huge lake to yourself,
the bottom of the “bathtub ring,” the veneer of bleached algae and calcium kayak across it in December.
carbonate covering the bottom 20 to 40 feet of the walls everywhere we looked. Paddling next to Sinjin, I finally admitted that although every grain
We headed down what we assumed was the middle, passing the buoys marking of my Ed Abbey-informed sense of ethics despised it, the trip was kind of
each river mile, alternating red and green. Our plan was to paddle 87 miles in cool, in some sort of post-environmental-apocalypse sort of way. Every
day, we paddled a ton of miles, past beautiful (albeit half-submerged) desert
terrain, and camped where we wanted. Even Forest said the trip had turned
Sinjin carries a load of driftwood to out to be way more fun than he expected. Was it OK for us to actually enjoy
camp. Fires were a blessing during this place, I wondered, even though it was a shadow of its former, wild self?
the long December nights.
“I think the problem is a lot of river people are never going to come
here,” Sinjin said. “Because that would be admitting that this place has
something to offer—including being an example of something we should
never do again.”
Sinjin is the third generation in his family to fight to keep the Colorado
River wild, before and after the Glen Canyon Dam. He works for American
Rivers, an organization that opposes the dam, but doesn’t advocate for
its immediate removal. The reservoir and dam are so integrated in the
complicated plan of how water is managed in the Southwest that blowing it

46 | canoekayak.com
The author stops for a
moment of reflection
at the Cathedral in the
Desert.

canoekayak.com | 47
 FLOATING IN THE
MIDDLE OF IT ALL,
I WONDER HOW
MANY CANYONLANDS
NATIONAL PARKS LIE
UNSEEN 250 FEET
BELOW MY KAYAK.

up (as plenty of environmentalists and river-runners Program, says. “It produces hydropower for millions gallons that evaporate off the surface of the lake
have no doubt fantasized about) would explode of people, which pays for important conservation annually. Balken says they don’t necessarily want
the entire region’s water policy. Long before the programs to restore endangered fish species or need to remove the dam, although they wouldn’t
Glen Canyon Dam was built, in 1922, seven states and improve water quality for fish, wildlife and complain if that went away too. They just want Glen
(Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, agriculture, and remains an important recreational Canyon back.
Nevada, and California) created the water policy for resource for millions of Americans.” “Our mission is to fill Lake Mead first,” Balken
the Southwest, not realizing the data they were using Rice says strategic conservation measures could says, referring to the Colorado’s other massive
to divide up the waters of the Colorado River came make decommissioning the Glen Canyon Dam in reservoir some 290 miles downstream. “The amount
from an unusually wet period in the river’s history. So a decade or two possible—or climate change could of water that’s lost to seepage in Lake Powell is so
they overestimated how much water the river could deplete the reservoir to the point where it won’t be great that just by storing water in Lake Mead instead,
provide, and over-promised it. The Glen Canyon Dam able to generate hydropower. Sinjin, sitting in the you’d have a savings of 300,000 acre-feet—which
now divides the “upper basin” of the Colorado from middle of the lake, has a more succinct, impassioned is the same amount of water that the entire state of
the “lower basin.” And American Rivers says that answer: “At the first opportunity we have to take it Nevada gets from the river each year,” Balken says,
although a wild Colorado River flowing through Glen out sustainably, [expletive deleted] blow it up.” citing a 2013 study.
Canyon would be wonderful, getting rid of the dam is Eric Balken of the Lake Powell Institute The lake is a paradise of rock, both above the
not a sustainable option right now. represents the other side of the conservation water and no doubt below. I sat in the middle of
“Powell plays an important role in the basin—it movement, which wants to restore Glen Canyon by an almost mile-wide spot in the lake one morning,
stores water for upstream states to ensure compact eliminating what’s seen as a wasteful reservoir that slowly spinning my boat around the 360 degrees
compliance and lower basin deliveries,” Matt Rice, loses 123 million gallons to seepage into the porous of desert view: rounded burnt-red sandstone walls
Director of American Rivers’ Colorado Basin rock underneath each year, and another 168 million dripping with dark streaks of desert varnish; black

48 | canoekayak.com
 patches and ghost-white sections where a chunk of
sandstone cleaved off a thousand years ago or last week;
some fallen blocks the size of cars, some the size of
buses, one the size of a tennis court; alcoves just starting
to form by erosion or large enough to hold Ancient
Pueblo ruins, plates of sandstone that have peeled off
their ever-eroding ceilings piled broken on the floor, a
ring of bushes and green vegetation 60 feet above the
water line, a 50-foot tall bathtub ring below that, and,
finally me, floating in the middle of it all, wondering
how many Canyonlands National Parks lie unseen 250
feet below my kayak.
The next morning, the sun poked out behind a hazy
cloud and illuminated the water around Hilary and me
just deep enough to see a school-bus-sized boulder
appear under the water between us and a rock wall.
We were paddling hard, and as I warned Hilary about
the rock, imagining it sneaking up underneath her
boat with just enough angle to flip her into the water.
Nobody wants to have to climb back into a kayak out
of 45-degree water and try to dry off in partly cloudy
45-degree air. Later we’d paddle over the tops of barely
submerged pinnacles in the middle of the water, with
maybe only a foot and a half of lake water covering
them. How did people drive houseboats through here
and not tear them open on these things?
I start to make peace with the reservoir. It’s not
going away anytime soon, so I might as well enjoy it in
some way. How many lakes in the U.S. can you paddle
From top: Hilary jury-rigs Forest’s paddle, while Kalen across for eight days and hardly see another human? I
bids farewell to Carl the dead carp and signals her tried to make a sort of emotional truce with the place,
message to Glen Canyon Dam.

The author collects water

to filter at the group’s Day
4 campsite, near Mile 51.

canoekayak.com | 49
 Room and a View:
The group’s Day 3
campsite, near Mile 66.

Mardi Gras beads, the occasional busted flip-flop

I
taking photos and having fun with my friends, even if woke up at 3 a.m. to the dreaded reality
I was scratching my head at the whole thing. down there as well, the detritus of a river made into a that I had to pee, and I’d have to leave my
On Day 6, I got the idea that it would be cool to lake, which thusly loses its self-cleaning mechanism. warm sleeping bag to stand outside in the
see Grotto Canyon, the site of a famous photo of river Oh, and my $240 sunglasses. 35-degree air for a minute or so before
activist and musician Katie Lee—the one where she’s With two days left I pull my kayak onto the beach crawling back in. Hilary and I had cozied our bivy
wearing a bikini, not the one where she climbed up at our campsite. I turn to my left, and six feet past sacks into a niche in the top of a sandstone dome, and
into a slot canyon naked (which Hilary hung in our the bow is a pair of sunglasses, sitting in the sand, I was only halfway through the night with another
apartment). Maybe we’d just be able to see that spot? with dirt crusted over the lenses. I pick them up, rinse five cold hours to go before the sun came up. The
I paddled into the canyon between a 30-foot- them in the lake, and give them a look: black with moon had just popped up over the eastern horizon,
wide slot in the sweeping walls. The canyon closed scratched neon yellow lenses, the logo from a casino, barely peeking out. If I bent my knees and squatted
down to where I could scarcely take a stroke without The Reserve at Star Pass, on the temple. Crappy, slightly, I could make it disappear behind the curve of
scraping my paddle on the walls, and the water gaudy, easy, one of those things you get “for free” but the earth. Sometime in the night, the lake had begun
beneath me cleared to where I could see the shallow really you paid hundreds or thousands of dollars to lapping at the steep walls of the cove beneath us,
bottom. One, two, three 16-inch-long carp appeared someone before you got them for free. loudly swishing around our campsite, surrounded by
out of the back of the canyon and swam underneath The whole trip, I have been searching for water 50 feet below down the sloping rock walls.
me so close I could have tapped one with my paddle metaphors for the Glen Canyon turned Lake Powell: I slithered back into my bivy sack, a slight breeze
if I’d been quicker. It was like a Yankee Stadium buried and replaced wafting cold air into my sleeping bag through the
“I think we’re on top of your Grotto,” Sinjin says with a new Yankee Stadium (to which Hilary said, opening at my face. I laid there on my back on that
from behind me. I think we are too, as I see the back, “Yeah, a smaller, shittier Yankee Stadium”). It was big rock and looked up at the stars just like Lou,
where the walls narrow to a point, and a curving like driving around your dad’s hometown with our mortgage advisor, had done from the deck of a
waterfall streaks down the notch during rainy days. him and listening to him tell stories about a pool houseboat sometime when it was warmer and much
I can’t turn my boat around—if I hold my paddle hall where he’d spent his formative years and then busier here. Between when I went to sleep and now,
perpendicular to the walls, both ends touch rock. A finding a KFC where the pool hall used to be. It was Orion had rolled from the eastern horizon over my
tiny stream of bubbles rolls out of an invisible hole in like those things, yes, but it was probably most like left shoulder all the way to the western horizon, over
the flat floor six feet below my boat. I take my paddle losing a really nice pair of $240 sunglasses with my feet, and a shooting star tracked across the dark
and push it down, the blade hitting the bottom. Silt. pristine (and polarized!) lenses, and a couple days bowl of sky. I don’t know about this place.
Soft. This canyon and dozens like it are covered in later, finding some scratched, old, semi-nasty casino
water and entombed in the silt that’s gathered above sunglasses in the dirt, putting them on your face, and
the dam. I imagine beer cans, boat parts, deck chairs, saying, “Well, they’ll have to do for now.”

50 | canoekayak.com
 Celebrate Clean Rivers
We’re proud to join American Rivers in working for the places that matter most. Together we’re kicking off a
yearlong celebration of the 25th anniversary of the National River Cleanup®. Our goal? To organize 25,000
people to collect 25,000 pounds of trash from America’s streams. Can we count on your help?
Learn how you can help clean up America’s rivers and waterways at nrs.com/cleanup
 COMPACT
GEAR
REVIEW

TOURING
KAYAKS
Not too long, not too short. These six
touring kayaks are just right

B Y D A R R E N B U S H

52 | canoekayak.com
 versatile /vɜːrsətl sin. adj.
1. capable of or adapted for turning easily from one
to another of various tasks or fields of endeavor.
2. being capable of many uses.

for day-trips and weekend outings. These boats grew in

B
ack in the 1980s, there were really three
kinds of kayaks: whitewater kayaks for run- popularity as that trend continued. The average wilderness
ning rivers, sea kayaks for extended touring, and trip now lasts four days, compared to 10 days in the 1970s.
recreational kayaks for goofing off in the pond behind the Kayak designers and manufacturers followed the trend
cabin. Each type was well suited to its intended task, but with boats that are suitable for shorter trips. Today’s rec-
wasn’t very versatile. touring kayaks typically have two hatches and bulkheads
Around 1990, so-called recreational touring kayaks be- and full perimeter deck lines. They’re more like compact
gan to appear. Boats such as the Aquaterra Spectrum, the sea kayaks than stretched-out recreational kayaks–boats
Perception Carolina and the Dagger Vesper quite sensibly that are built to perform without sacrificing comfort and
split the difference between tiny rec boats and sea kayaks. stability on the altar of performance. There are dozens of
This new class of kayak was a sign of the times, arriving on kayaks in this category. We chose six to put through their
the scene as Americans traded long wilderness adventures paces.

PHOTO BY: BLACK-SCHMIDT

canoekayak.com | 53
 GEAR
REVIEW

STELLAR 14
The Stellar 14 is a pretty boat. the cable feeds in. I called Stellar and they said they had heard of this hap-
It has an unpretentious, clean pening on a few boats that were made in Spring of 2015 but that it wasn’t
BY STELLAR KAYAKS look, and the two-tone gel coat universal. It was quickly and easily repaired with some marine caulking. I
is an elegant touch. The hull we would have been more concerned about the leak if the rest of the kayak
reviewed was the Advantage lay-up, exceedingly stiff and light; I bet I could were not so meticulously constructed. Stellar will stand behind it.
stand on the deck. The finish inside is smooth and clean and the quality of If you want a rudder, Stellar has you covered there too. The 14 is pre-
the finish was top-notch. Clearly the builders have done their homework on fitted with tubes for cables so adding a rudder would take about half an
composite construction. hour. The Smart Track foot pegs are rudder-ready. It’s a slick system.
The hatches are both oval with Tupperware-style covers. They snap on Designed by a group of people who have been designing rowing shells
easily if you line them up properly, so just pay attention to the centerline of for over 15 years, the 14 felt like it could be the quickest of the bunch due
the boat and the centerline of the hatch. to its design and long waterline. I felt like I was paddling a boat that was
I didn’t roll the 14 but with spray and waves there were no leaks in the longer. The stiffness made me feel that 100 percent of the power I was
bow compartment. I loaded it down with enough gear for a three-day trip generating went right to the water.
and there was room for more. Because of the satiny finish, the dry bags slid I was paddling the standard 14 and it felt just right. The 14LV is there
in and out and there were no sharp edges to catch fabric. for smaller folks. I really like that the hull is the same but with a lower deck.
When I cracked the stern hatch to unload my gear, there were a few Sometimes lower volume boats are scaled down in length as well as deck
tablespoons of water in the rear compartment. After some investigative height, which gives smaller paddlers a disadvantage when paddling with
prodding and poking, I found a small leak at the top of the skeg box where longer boats. Thanks for not doing this, Stellar.
Other than the small problem with the skeg housing, the Stellar 14 had
no bad habits. It’s a nice hull and worthy of consideration in this category,
L: 14’3”; W: 23.6”; 36.6 LBS;
COMPOSITE (ADVANTAGE LAYUP), $2,220 especially if you like to go straight and (relatively) fast.
STELLARKAYAKSUSA.COM

54 | canoekayak.com
 STRATOS
BY DAGGER KAYAKS

PHOTO BY:
This was the only kayak I reviewed when there was snow it is constructed with polyethylene is not relevant except
BLACK-SCHMIDT
on the ground. The staff at Dagger want their molds for weight. That said, if Dagger made one in composite
perfect, and as a result they re-did the Stratos forms three construction, I’d be okay with that. Very okay with that.
times until they were satisfied. Instead of a September de- The hull has a lot of rocker, making the Stratos incred-
livery, it came in December. But nil desperandum, readers. ibly maneuverable, even without edging. But when I lifted
In Wisconsin we don’t stop paddling until the water is hard, an inside knee and added a sweep stroke, the Stratos
and it was worth the wait. skidded into a turn so quickly I nearly got whiplash. This is
The Stratos is a lovely kayak. The colors were bright a whitewater boat disguised as a small sea kayak. With
and appealing, the outfitting was clean and the cockpit that said, no one will accuse the Stratos of being a speed
clearly showed its whitewater roots. It was well appointed demon. I wasn’t looking for speed from this kayak, I was
and comfortable, with outfitting straight out of a downriver looking for playfulness. Your Stellar would be a pair of
kayak, with a back band instead of a seat back. I flipped downhill speed skis; the Stratos, a pair of slalom skis.
the kayak over and actually laughed out loud when I saw The Stratos will go anywhere. It has less volume than
the hull. The center section of the hull looked remarkably the rest of the fleet, but will carry everything you need
(well, exactly) like a whitewater kayak with a planing hull if you pack with care. I can imagine the fun I could have
and a distinctive, hard chine, while the bow and stern sec- with a Stratos in a sea cave or some big surf. I would love
tions looked like a sea kayak that was slightly rounded to to take it on a multi-day trip down a big Western river like
remove some of the hard edges that would inhibit maneu- the San Juan or the Green. Or, if the stars aligned, the
verability. My hat is off to the exceedingly clever designer. Colorado, through the Grand Canyon. That sounds like a
It’s one of two polyethylene kayaks in the review. “Seri- perfect use for this kayak.
ous” paddlers often discount polyethylene as unworthy
of “serious” consideration. I suggest you ignore “serious” L: 14’6”; W: 25”; 56 LBS;
kayakers. The Stratos is a high-performance sea kayak ROTOMOLDED POLYETHYLENE. $1,199
DAGGER.COM
that just happens to be shorter than most. The fact that

PHOTO BY: GARETH TATE

canoekayak.com | 55
 GEAR
REVIEW

PHOTO BY: ROBERT ZALESKI

VISION 140
BY CURRENT DESIGNS KAYAKS

The Vision 140 has a clean, angular style. It’s well crafted, and the The backrest is highly adjustable. I had mine all the way down so as to not
Kevlar Hybrid proprietary lay-up is light and stiff. The skeg is well interfere with the sprayskirt, and found the back support to be adequate. The back-
integrated and clean, and the slider is easily accessed and set back a rest is not adjustable from inside the boat, which I don’t consider a big deal. If you
little so it won’t get in the way of a paddler’s knuckles. want to set it on high-back setting, do it before you get in, but in the high position I
The Current Design weighs in at a svelte 43 pounds, in part could not for the life of me put on a sprayskirt. Just keep it low and you’ll be happy.
because of the builder’s light hand with the gel coat. Under very hard Because of the rotating seat pan, you may find you need less back support.
use you might have to fill in some chips and scratches now and then; The hatches are very large, and make it easy to load and unload. Both hatches
the tradeoff is a light and lively hull. are rubber Tupperware-style hatches, but the front hatch of the Vision 140 is cov-
The seating system is unique. While most seats have adjustable ered with a composite shield that adds to the aesthetics of the Vision. It’s another
pads and lifts under the thighs to make the seat pan more comfort- barrier against splashes and protects the hatch cover from UV, the number one
able, the Vision seat pan pivots at the hips and locks via a simple yet killer of rubber hatches.
strong lever positioned conveniently between your legs. I found it very I like how the Vision paddles. It accelerates quickly and has a nice, lively feel.
comfortable. I like the large cockpit, and it was easy for me to lift my The initial stability is somewhat less than the more stable boats in the fleet, but it
legs up and stretch a little without barking my shins on the cockpit. has bombproof secondary stability. Personally, I like that feeling as it does make it
My size-10 feet had gobs of room. My guess is Sasquatch would like easier to edge the kayak without fighting the hull. If you’re concerned about initial
this kayak. stability, just paddle it for another half an hour and you’ll get used to it. Load it down
The cockpit is recessed below the deck, which keeps the profile and you can tap dance in it.
low. I like that detail, but the downside is that if you ever paddle with- The long waterline makes for a quick boat. It tracks well and is a pleasant
out a sprayskirt, water will run into the cockpit. kayak, with a predictability that would work for almost any paddler.

L: 14’; W: 24”; 43 LBS.; COMPOSITE

$2,399, WITH SKEG OR OPTIONAL RUDDER; $2,199 WITHOUT EITHER
CDKAYAK.COM

56 | canoekayak.com
 LOOKSHA 14
BY NECKY KAYAKS

The Looksha series has been around for quite a few years, start- cause the stern to broach in following wind and waves. Dropping the rudder solved the
ing as a full-on 17-foot sea kayak with a ton of storage room for problem. It’s easy to deploy and easy to stow.
coastal trips. It made sense to create a scaled down version for The Looksha moves along nicely too. I don’t do the whole GPS thing to see which
shorter jaunts and day trips, and the Looksha 14 was born. boat is technically faster. I just paddle at a speed where the boat is comfortable and isn’t
I think most kayaks are beautiful, but even accounting pushing up against its hull speed. Paddling along the shore of a local lake, I looked over at
for my prejudice, the Looksha is a pretty little boat, true to the the bike path and I was keeping up with folks walking at a brisk pace. Plenty fast for the
aesthetics of the original. The outfitting fits the sea kayak para- intended use.
digm, with perimeter deck lines and bungees. The hatches are I maintain that if the seat is uncomfortable in a boat, the rest of the boat doesn’t matter.
overbuilt and bone dry, and are very easy to open and close. The I thought the seat pan was very comfortable and adjustable with a simple lever between
hatch closures are not particularly aesthetic, but I can overlook a your legs. Pull up and a positive ratchet holds the seat against your thighs. The cockpit is
little clunkiness for dry storage and ease of use. The polyethyl- long, but narrow enough that you can engage comfortable thigh bracing. Barcalounger
ene hull is a little heavier than its composite companions, but it comfortable, it is.
took a beating when the shipper was careless. What would have The seat back was comfortable, but with one caveat. Even in the lowest position, the
severely damaged a composite boat only put a few scratches in seat back interfered with fitting a spray skirt easily. Whereas the kayaks with back bands
the hull. presented no problem fitting a skirt to the rim behind the seat, I struggled longer than I
The Looksha is a very straight-tracking boat by design. The should have as the backrest would pop the skirt off the coaming. If I were to purchase this
rear section of the hull features a very predominant built-in skeg. boat I would order it with the optional back band.
Add the rudder and you have a boat that tracks like a train. With I like this kayak. It would be a good choice for beginners who want a little more com-
the rudder up and a lean and sweep, the Looksha does respond, fort and stability.
but not nearly as quickly as some of the other boats. That’s
neither good nor bad; just another factor in choosing a kayak.
L: 14’1.5”; W: 24.5”; 57 LBS
The strength of the Looksha is tracking. ROTOMOLDED POLYETHYLENE, $1,599
The built-in skeg has one disadvantage, and that is it can NECKYKAYAKS.COM

PHOTO BY: BLACK-SCHMIDT

canoekayak.com | 57
 GEAR
REVIEW

PHOTO BY: BLACK-SCHMIDT

SOJOURN 146 LV
BY HURRICANE AQUASPORTS

Hurricane’s offerings have matured nicely over the past five years. At their simplicity, because more parts means more parts to break. All things equal, a
inception, Hurricane featured a collection of lightweight and stable but fairly simpler solution is always better.
pedestrian recreational kayaks. It’s a different world now, and the folks at The Sojourn is the longest boat of the group and had a nice glide to it.
Hurricane have designed some lovely new mid-sized kayaks in the Sojourn The hull design features a hard chine that makes the boat carve edged turns
series. The Sojourn 146 replaced the Expedition 140 and it’s a wonderful with aplomb. That said, I found that if you edged the boat too aggressively, the
upgrade. Cosmetic updates aside, the new design is sleeker and has a more lip of the deck where the hull is attached catches the water a little and can ac-
refined hull design. Also available in the series are a smaller 135 and 126. tually slow down the turn. You don’t need much edge to turn it, so easy does it.
The hull material is an ABS plastic that is lighter and stiffer than poly- It was stable enough for a beginner but a more advanced paddler wasn’t
ethylene. It’s shinier and stiffer and looks a lot like fiberglass, a nice cosmetic bored with it. At 6’1” and 200 pounds I fit easily enough into the LV. The thigh
side benefit. The hatches are the popular Tupperware style, and are nice and braces were a little off for my long legs, but I suspect if I were 5’7” they would
dry, and easy to load. The Sojourn was in the middle of the pack for storage have been fine.
volume, but still seemed to swallow up dry bags with ease. One small complaint we had was with the foot braces; the Twist Loc
Because it’s a lower volume boat, I wanted a low-volume paddler to try it foot braces are easily adjustable from the seated position, but Stephanie had
out; my wife Stephanie. She is fussy about her seats and sometimes struggles trouble with the foot pedals slipping. This was a demo boat that had seen
to find one that won’t put her posterior to sleep, and she was very happy some time on the beach, so I cleaned out some sand that had built up around
with the seat comfort. The Sojourn features a large, articulated seat pan the foot pegs, and after playing with them a little I got them to hold. Word to
that’s super-easy to adjust under the thighs. With a little flexibility, the back is the wise: keep the pegs free of sand. They require a little finesse to get them
adjustable from the seated position, but you probably won’t need to. The seat to engage, but after they’re locked down, they don’t move.
back is nicely ventilated for hot days, and it keeps the weight down. I liked the The Sojourn I tested did not have a rudder. Like many kayaks, when the
wind started to come up a little, the Sojourn wanted to weathercock into the
wind, so I would recommend the optional rudder for touring.
L: 14’6”; W: 24”; 47 LBS;
THERMOFORMED ABS PLASTIC All in all, a really nice boat and a very good value. The Hurricanes are all
$1,799 WITH RUDDER; $1,499 WITHOUT priced very competitively, giving you a lot of boat for your buck.
HURRICANEAQUASPORTS.COM

58 | canoekayak.com
Over 1,000 Canoes, Kayaks
& Paddleboards in Stock!
Shipping Available • Expert Help & Advice
(315) 369-6672
BIC SUPs • Boardworks • Current Designs • Dagger
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www.MountainmanOutdoors.com • (315) 369-6672

k aya k p r o . c o m

PADDLE 2YOUR
HEART’S CONTENT
with the KayakPro SpeedStroke Ergometer.

CANOEKAYAK.COM | 59
 PHOTO BY: BLACK-SCHMIDT

GEAR
REVIEW

LTA14
DE
Delta is known for building beautiful Prepare yourself for a massive amount of capacity; over 200 liters. If you
and well-finished kayaks from ther- are interested in carrying a little more gear for longer tours, or you just want to
S
Y
K
A
T
L
E
D
BY moformed plastic, and the 14 is no take more luxury items, you’ll have plenty of room for the wine and crackers,
exception. Thermoforming is simple with a large wheel of brie. Don’t mind if I do.
in theory, but heating a 20-foot sheet of ABS plastic (think football helmets) Loading it up for an overnighter, I was amazed at its capacity. Stuff just kept
and shaping it into the deck and hull of a kayak and fastening them together is disappearing. We put a roll-top table and a full-sized umbrella chair into the
no simple procedure. Delta specializes in thermoforming, and does it as well as rear hatch, and there was room for more. I lost count of the number of ten and
any thermoform manufacturer, in or out of the kayaking world. The company twenty-liter dry bags that disappeared into the hull. The large hatches made it
got its start building kayaks for outfitters who run multi-day trips on Canada’s easy. If any water seeped in, it was not enough to concern me. Dry bags are
west coast. That heritage has instilled some typical design characteristics in there for a reason.
Delta kayaks—chiefly that they are comfortable for beginning paddlers, and The seat is simple and comfortable, though I’d like a little more structure
capable of hauling massive quantities of gear. Delta manages to pull it off in the seat pan. My guess is that this seat fits a lot of people, and that’s good. I
without making the 14 look stubby. It is certainly not sleek, but it is (dare I really like the simplicity of the seat trim, just a tab that fits into a slot on the seat
say?) cute. If the Vision reminds me of a BMW and the Stellar a Porsche, the front. No knobs to lose, and easily adjusted while in the cockpit. My derrière
Delta 14 is a Volkswagen van from the mid-60’s. And just like the van, it has isn’t small, and I had room to spare.
storage. What it lacks in speed it makes up for in comfort. Some people confuse
The 14 is the only kayak reviewed with a day hatch directly in the front of speed with efficiency. Speed refers to how fast the boat can go; efficiency is
the cockpit, which is quite convenient for your smalls: nutrition bars, first aid about the amount of effort it takes to move at a satisfying clip. This hull is ef-
kit, and easy-access meds (insulin or an Epi-pen). I like the efficient use of ficient, but it’s not designed for speed. It reaches its hull speed quickly, but once
otherwise wasted space between your kneecaps. you reach that speed that’ll be all she gives. Which is fine, because the last one
off the water wins and paddling all day in an efficient boat is a pleasure.
L: 14’; W: 23.75”; 45 LBS; The Delta 14 is available with an optional rudder. If you’re going to use this
THERMOFORMED ABS PLASTIC kayak for longer trips over open water, I’d recommend it. All in all, a fine choice
$2,130 WITH RUDDER; $1,995 WITHOUT
in this category, and at 45 pounds, fairly easy to move around.
DELTAKAYAKS.COM

60 | canoekayak.com
'0
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88
 2016 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORY GUIDE

63 CASCADE CREEK
64 NRS
65 EDDYLINE
66 KOKATAT
68 LEVEL SIX
70 STOHLQUIST

62 | canoekayak.com S P E C I A L A D V E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N PHOTO: BENJAMIN HJORT

 2016 ACCESSORY GUIDE
CASCADE CREEK
CAS CA D E C R E E K. C O M | 6 3 1 -27 1 -2 1 0 0 | N O RTH P O RT, NY

01 | YAKGRIPS

PRICE: $14.95

Comfort Paddle Grips. The ultimate in comfort for paddling. Prevents

rubs and blisters. More efficient paddling and better hand placement.

SUP: New for SUP’s

02 | YAKUZZI

PRICE: $16.95

Clip-on drink holder for kayaks and canoes. Two second

installation. No holes to drill, no tools needed. Adjustable/
removable. Keep your drink secure and nearby. Holds up to
20oz bottle. Net bag also attaches to the clip to hold snacks
or stuff. Available in Black, Orange and Light Blue.

03 | YAKPADS

PRICE: $19.95

Gel-Filled seats and accessories for kayaks and Canoes. Soft Lycra™
laminated to neoprene seating surface. Non-skid backing on seat
bottom. Gel-filled inner core with permanent memory. Benefits: Re-
duced pressure point on kayaker’s seat. Insulates paddler from cold
seat. Gel filling distributes pressure evenly. Added comfort improves
kayaking experience and increases endurance.

04 | YAKCLIPS

PRICE: $29.95

Clip on paddle clip. Two second installation, No holes to

drill, no tools needed. Adjustable/removable. Two acces-
sory clips built in for holding fishing poles, dry bags, etc.

05 | YAKCATCHER

PRICE: $29.95

Clip-on fishing rod holder for kayaks and canoes. Quick installation.
Adjustable/removable. No tools needed, no holes to drill.

63
 2016 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORY GUIDE
NRS
N R S . C O M | 877.677.4 3 27 | M O S C OW, I D

AT H L E T E P R O F I L E FA V O R I T E F E AT U R E S

RAFA ORTIZ CRUX

WHITEWATER ATHLETE | MEXICO CITY, MEXICO PRICE: $989

F1 | FABRIC

“The material, made from Eclipse™

fabric, is the bomb. It’s the highest
point in a long evolution, combining
complete dryness with breathability
and toughness.”

F2 | DESIGN

Rafael Ortiz is one of the “I love the colors. NRS has come up
with a super-cool colorway scheme
best extreme kayakers in
for the drysuit—the perfect balance
the world today. The Mexican between radical and smooth.”
phenom is known for his friendly
disposition, world-class whitewater
skills and utter fearlessness, all of
which are portrayed in “Chasing
F3 | COMFORT
Niagara,” a feature-length hom-
age to the whitewater lifestyle “The overcuffs are great. I love when
wrist and neck overcuffs just feel
directed by Rafa’s friend and pad- comfortable and make you somehow
dling accomplice Rush Sturges. even forget the big piece of gear you
have on.”
Rafa didn’t catch Niagara, but
his exhaustive list of pad-
dling exploits includes the two
highest waterfalls ever run in a F4 | ZIPPER TECH
kayak, including the first descent
“Zippers are the most tricky part of a
of Mexico’s 138-foot Big Banana. drysuit, but the Crux’s TZIP® Mas-
He was the second person, after terSeal zippers are simple, rugged
and smooth. They work great when it
his good friend Tyler Bradt, to run matters most.”
Washington’s 189-foot Palouse
Falls. No one has tried since.

F5 | SOCKS

“The socks are shaped just right, and

also made from the same tough yet
comfortable Eclipse™ fabric for a final
touch of full dryness.”

64
 2016 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORY GUIDE
EDDYLINE
E D DY LI N E . C O M | 3 6 0 -757-2 3 0 0 | B U R LI N GTO N, WA

01 | PRO SWIFT

CATEGORY: TOURING | SHAFT: STRAIGHT | WEIGHT: 25-29oz

LENGTH: 205-240cm | AREA: 709cm sq | FEATHER: 45-0-45
MATERIAL: CARBON, COMPOSITE CARBON | PRICE: $249-$299

The Pro Swift is specifically customized to suit the paddler who prefers a high-
angle performance paddle. It retains all the power and thrust and smooth follow
through of the Sea Swift only with a high angle of attack. It combines the most
important elements of a high angle paddle—control, power, and efficiency.

02 | MID SWIFT

CATEGORY: TOURING | SHAFT: STRAIGHT | WEIGHT: 24-28oz

LENGTH: 205-240cm | AREA: 645cm sq | FEATHER: 45-0-45
MATERIAL: CARBON, COMPOSITE CARBON | PRICE: $249-$299

The Mid Swift is our most popular blade size and an excellent choice for
most touring kayakers. It delivers plenty of pull and control in rough water
and windy conditions. The ideal paddle for extended paddling in varied and
changeable conditions and the only paddle many kayakers will ever need.

03 | WIND SWIFT

CATEGORY: TOURING | SHAFT: STRAIGHT | WEIGHT: 23-27oz

LENGTH: 205-240cm | AREA: 484cm sq | FEATHER: 45-0-45
MATERIAL: CARBON, COMPOSITE CARBON | PRICE: $249-$299

The Wind Swift combines Aleut features with some more modern European
concepts to create a paddle that is excellent in high winds and still delivers a
healthy amount of paddle power for all but the most demanding conditions. An-
other major advantage to this style of paddle is kindness to joints and muscles.

04 | MID FISH

CATEGORY: FISHING | SHAFT: STRAIGHT | WEIGHT: 28-33oz

LENGTH: 230-260cm | AREA: 645cm sq | FEATHER: 45-0-45
MATERIAL: CARBON, COMPOSITE CARBON | PRICE: $249-$299

Using the same mid-size blade design as our popular Mid Swift, the Mid Fish
offers an exceptional balance of power and control with a smaller profile for
windier conditions. From glassy ponds to big ocean swells, the extremely
versatile Mid Fish is the only paddle many kayak anglers will ever need.

05 | BIG FISH

CATEGORY: FISHING | SHAFT: STRAIGHT | WEIGHT: 29-34oz

LENGTH: 230-260cm | AREA: 709cm sq | FEATHER: 45-0-45
MATERIAL: CARBON, COMPOSITE CARBON | PRICE: $249-$299

The Big Fish is a full-sized blade design that provides plenty of power to help
larger kayaks get up to speed while maintaining excellent versatility. Suitable
for a variety of stroke styles and paddling conditions, the Big Fish is an ideal
paddle to use with modern fishing kayak designs.

65
 2016 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORY GUIDE
KOKATAT
KO K ATAT.C O M | 8 00 .2 2 5 . 974 9 | A R CATA, CA

AT H L E T E P R O F I L E FA V O R I T E F E AT U R E S

EMILY JACKSON IDOL

WHITEWATER ATHLETE | SPARTA, TN PRICE: $1,175

F1 | DESIGN

“The colors Kokatat has created are

awesome. The new Gore-Tex fabric
really pops. They look great, and
help keep me safe and visible on the
water.”

F2 | PACKABILITY

Two-time World Free- “Packing my dry suit, plus additional

dry top and dry pants, always took
style Kayak Champion
up most of the room in my gear bag.
(2009/2015) Emily Jack- Now, thanks to the Idol’s Switch-Zip
son-Troutman is world- technology, I only have to pack one
piece of gear. It saves a lot of room.”
renowned paddler, proud mother
and one of the best ambassadors
in the sport. The nine-time winner
F3 | ZIPPERS, PART I
of the Teva/Go Pro Mountain
Games and former U.S. Sla- “Putting the zipper by my waist and
under the spray skirt makes it the
lom Team member was also a driest dry suit I’ve tried yet. There’s no
featured speaker at the 2014 place for water to enter.”
Ted Talks where she delivered a
speech called “Uncompromising.”
She’s as accomplished altruisti-
cally as she is on the water, raising F4 | CONVENIENCE
$30,000 for Soft Power Health’s
“For us girls, getting the drop flap just
efforts to fight malaria in Uganda. right to go to the bathroom can be
complicated. With the two-piece Idol
we don’t have to worry about that. It’s
super easy.”

F5 | ZIPPERS, PART II

“The zipper is much more comfortable

as it sits just below your backband
and right above your seat.”

66
FA V O R I T E F E AT U R E S AT H L E T E P R O F I L E
RADIUS PAUL KUTHE
PRICE: $1,295 INSTRUCTOR | PORTLAND, OR

F1 | HOOD/FACE GUARD

“The removable hood and face guard

are both stowable and completely
removable, making this suit great for
almost any conditions. Plus they look
badass...”

F2 | COLLAR

“The super sweet, Elvis-style collar From starring in sea kayak

makes for warm cozy protection from
shoots for National Geo-
cold weather, and also gives you that
King of Rock n’ Roll swag.” graphic to gracing the New York
Times in defense of free-flowing
rivers, Alder Creek Kayak & Canoe
Program Director Paul Kuthe is at
home in a whitewater or sea kayak
F3 | SWITCH-ZIP TECH
as he is in sharing the sport with
“With its new SwitchZip technology others. When not directing the
making it a two-piece, it means I can
finally gear up for paddling in my tent educational realm at one of the top
or living room without dragging the paddling schools in the country,
arms of the suit around before getting
to the water.” the BCU 5 Star Sea Leader and
ACA Level 4 Instructor polishes
his skills in the Pacific Northwest,
F4 | WAIST ENTRY be it dropping a Class V creek or
surfing ocean breakers at sunset.
“The waist-entry zipper doubles as
the relief zipper and allows for the “Paddling has always been an
quickest easiest access to all the escape, a livelihood and a way
important bits. Now guys can pop a
squat with the best of them, which is of life for me,” he says. “I live to
great on on those extra long expedi- paddle, and love sharing that kin-
tion days.”
ship with others.”

F5 | MULTI-POCKET

“Well-placed, fully integrated pockets

on the arms and leg add some real
utility value while staying low profile
and comfortable even when full.”

67
 2016 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORY GUIDE
LEVEL SIX
L E V E LS I X . C O M | 877.2 5 3 .8 3 5 6 | O NTAR I O , CA NA DA

AT H L E T E P R O F I L E FA V O R I T E F E AT U R E S

DEVYN SCOTT EMPEROR

WHITEWATER ATHLETE | ONTARIO, CANADA PRICE: $899

F1 | ARTICULATED SPINE

“Most dry suits tug in the lower back

when you lean forward. Not the
Emperor. Its Articulated Spine is an
accordion of stretchy fabric that has
a Spandex quality. I never feel the tug
through a full range of motion.”

F2 | 3-PLY MATERIAL

“The Exhaust 3.0 3-ply material is

Good luck finding Devyn really versatile. It keeps me warm on
days when it’s well below freezing, but
Scott sitting still. When he’s I can also go pull 10 or 12 tricks and
not twisting and flipping through not worry about getting sweaty.”
the air on a roaring play wave, he’s
polishing off a human kinetics de- F3 | FLEECE POCKETS
gree at Ottawa University, running
“The fleece-lined hand pockets are
his media company Airborn Athlet- one of those little things you learn to
ics or coaching with Liquid Skills love. Sitting in an eddy or filming I’ll
put my hands in and they’ll be warm in
Kayak & SUP School. Oh yeah, 30 seconds.”
he’s also hosting the Level Six Ot-
tawa River Classic, a new contest F4 | DCS TUNNEL SYSTEM
on the Ottawa River. One of the
“I used to sew my spray decks into
world’s top freestyle kayakers (he my dry suit because the Velcro would
placed seventh at the 2015 ICF never stay put. This tunnel system
uses four plastic buckles. I don’t have
Canoe Freestyle World Champion-
to sew any more.”
ships) not even Canadian winters
slow down the lanky six-footer.
F5 | CORDURA PANELS
At Christmas he was out surfing
the Ottawa’s Minibus wave at “The Cordura panels are in all the right
places. I can hike through the bush or
-18° Celsius—that’s 0° Fahren- slide down a rock and not worry. The
heit for those of us in the sunny shoulder panels provide extra padding
for carrying my boat, which is espe-
southland. “Kayaking gives me a cially nice for us skinny folk.”
sense of freedom and unpredict-
ability that I can’t find doing any
F6 | 2-PANEL SOCK DESIGN
other sport,” he says.
“The socks are so lightweight they fit
really well inside a bootie. I’m a size
10 foot in a large drysuit, but I don’t
notice the excess material.”

68
01 | GEORGIAN SEMI-DRY PADDLING PANT

MATERIAL: EXHAUST 3-PLY WATERFROOF BREATHABLE

NYLON, NEOPRENE | PRICE: $179.99

The Georgian is a 4-season, full featured Unisex paddling

pant with a straight leg cut. Constructed from our extremely
rugged 3 Ply fabric, it features a high neoprene waistband
with cinch tabs and fitted neoprene ankle gaskets with
adjustable over cuffs. These pants are made to stand up to
the most extreme expedition and weather conditions.

02 | X-TRACTION KIT

PRICE: $144.99

The Level Six X-Traction Kit was created to provide

all the essential items to set up a Z-Drag to aid in
unpinning a kayak or canoe. The Aluminum pulleys
and carabiners are CE and UIAA Certified. The en-
tire kit comes in a carrying bag with mesh drainage
to allow for proper drying of safety equipment.

03 | CHILKO LONG SLEEVE TOURING TOP

MATERIAL: NYLON, NEOPRENE | PRICE: $259.99

The Unisex Chilko is a full featured 3-season recre-

ational touring jacket. It is very lightweight thanks to our
eXhaust 2.5 ply waterproof breathable nylon and fea-
tures a removeable hood. The double tunnel and waist
cinch system provides a great seal at the waist, while the
adjustable cuffs ensure a watertight seal at the wrists.

04 | ALGONQUIN CANOE TRIPPING PACK

MATERIAL: 840 D NYLON | FEATURES: BALLISTIC

NYLON STRAPS | PRICE: $139.99

This 96 liter pack includes air mesh back padding,

a removable tumpline, a molded hip belt and a
sternum strap for comfort while portaging. The
Algonquin canoe pack is the ultimate pack for
any canoe enthusiast embarking multi-day trips.

05 | JERICHO NEOPRENE HOODY

MATERIAL: PETROLEUM-FREE NEOPRENE,

POLYESTER, SPANDEX, NYLON | PRICE: $144.99

The Men’s Jericho Hoody redefines comfort and warmth

by utilizing a revolutionary new fabric containing thou-
sands of tiny channels that allow your skin to breath and
wick the moisture away from your skin. The Jericho feels
as comfortable as a cotton shirt next to your skin but has
the warmth and protection of a neoprene wetsuit.
 2016 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORY GUIDE
STOHLQUIST
STO H LQ U I ST. C O M | 8 0 0 .5 3 5 . 3 5 6 5 | AR L I N GTO N, WA

AT H L E T E P R O F I L E FA V O R I T E F E AT U R E S

SAMANTHA RUPPELT AMP

WHITEWATER ATHLETE AND PRICE: $599
PHOTOGRAPHER | BELLE MEADE, TN

F1 | MATERIALS

“The 4-layer Twin Sensor material is

super breathable so I don’t get too
hot, but it keeps me very warm in the
winter months. I don’t have to layer
too much underneath it, avoiding bulk
and discomfort.”

F2 | ACCESS

“I love the cross-chest front entry

A personal trainer, health with the MasterSeal zipper. That
instructor and whitewater makes my Amp super easy to get
in and out of, without having to ask
photographer based in Belle anyone for help.”
Meade, Tennessee, Samantha
Ruppelt has been kayaking since
she was 16 and can regularly be
found on such favorite runs as Tal- F3 | ZIPPER DETAIL

lulah Gorge and the Green River “The relief zipper is honestly the
Narrows. Also an avid sky diver, easiest I’ve ever found to use, without
being bulky while in my boat.”
she says she’s “adventurous in
everything I do” and loves sharing
that passion with others. “I ab-
solutely love my Women’s Amp
by Stohlquist,” says the Jackson
F4 | DURABILITY
Kayak paddler and photogra-
pher. She considers her drysuit a “The Cordura-reinforced seat and
knees make this suit super tough and
vital a piece of her paddling gear.
durable. That’s important to me, be-
cause I’m always scrambling around
on rocks to get the shot.”

F5 | MADE FOR WOMEN

“The women’s-specific cut and sizing

make it incredibly comfortable. It
leaves enough room in the shoulders
and chest to move freely without
feeling like there’s too much fabric
between me and my PFD. And I love
the soft latex neck and wrist gaskets.”

70
FA V O R I T E F E AT U R E S AT H L E T E P R O F I L E
SHIFT JASON SELF
PRICE: $899 SEA KAYAK INSTRUCTOR | TRINIDAD, CA

F1 | HOOD

“The removable hood is a great

feature. It offers protection from rain
and wind when touring, but you can
take it off so you don’t have a water-
scooping bucket on your head when
playing in the surf.”

F2 | DESIGN

“The styling is great. Its casual look, Jason Self is a 10-year

with the zip-up outer jacket, ‘stand by’
sea kayak coach and
gasket mode, and solid color panels
mean I can pop the gasket and hit guide for Pacific Outfitters in
the local beach pub after a paddle northern California, spending an
without everyone staring at me like
I’m some kind of technicolor dream average of 200 days a year sea
coat kayak clown.” kayaking. The BCU level 3 instruc-
tor has led dozens of multi-day
F3 | SECURE POCKETS
sea kayak tours, and completed
“The neoprene pockets allow me several expeditions with his plastic
to carry my phone, wallet and keys,
eliminating the need for the man pollution awareness group Out of
purse dry bag that I used to bring to Sight, Out of Mind. Those trips,
the pub after paddles.”
chronicled in his new documen-
tary “The Search for the Perfect
F5 | ZIPPER TECH Day,” have brought him from
“The real game changer is the Hawaii’s Napali Coast to the
horseshoe-shaped entry zipper, which Florida Everglades. “Surviving
allows you to take off the neck gasket
without the zipper rubbing the back of repeated saltwater exposure is
your neck raw. Plus, you don’t have to the most important feature I look
take off your PFD and wrist gaskets
for in a drysuit,” Jason says. “I’ve
to cool off; you can vent while pad-
dling when immersion protection is experienced delamination issues in
not paramount.” every drysuit I’ve owned until the
Stohlquist Shift.”
F4 | MATERIALS

“The Rampart 3-layer fabric is tough.

I’ve had 400 days in the Shift over the
last two years and haven’t had any
of the usual problems that typically
accompany that kind of hard use. Its
breathability and durability remain
excellent.”

71
 UNFILTERED

ALEKSANDER DOBA
OCEAN KAYAKER, POLISH NATIONAL HERO
BY JEFF MOAG // TRANSLATION BY PIOTR CHMIELINSKI AND AGNIEZSKA MELLER

If you had to choose one word to describe 69-year-old Polish ocean paddler Aleksander Doba, it would be irrepressible. A compact man with an enormous
beard and boundless enthusiasm, he has twice crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a heavily modified kayak he calls ‘Olo.’ His first crossing from Senegal to Brazil
was the longest ocean kayak journey ever, lasting 99 days. His second, from Lisbon, Portugal, to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, totalled 167 days at sea, with a
short layover in Bermuda to repair a broken rudder. For 47 of those days, he had no communication with the outside world.
Doba is also an avid river paddler and former whitewater slalom champion. In conventional sea kayaks, he has circumnavigated Lake Baikal and the Baltic
Sea, and once paddled 3,336 miles from his home in Poland to central Norway. He is best known, of course, for his Sisyphean ocean crossings, in which
storms and contrary currents pushed his tiny yellow craft backward time and again, until the track of his progress resembled a series of loops drawn by a
child.
Through it all Doba—64 during his first voyage, 66 on his second—just kept paddling. He never doubted himself, never allowed hardship to cloud his
enjoyment of the journey. And though he played coy for a time, never wavered from his original goal of a third Atlantic crossing, this time from New York to
continental Europe. He departs May 16 from Liberty Island.

I think that I am not 69 years old but rather I am It brought me such a close relation to the beauty Not even once did I feel my life threatened. I trusted
nearly 70 years young. of mighty nature. Watching the storms approaching. my kayak. If my kayak could survive it, so could I.
The amazing silence, just before a storm hit. The
I was 34 when I first joined a kayaking powerful energy pulsing, and then struggling with the I paddled between eight and 12 hours, usually at
expedition on the Drawa River. Head over heels, I heart of nature; the isolation. These experiences filled night, and slept in two- to three-hour shifts. And that was
fell in love with kayaks. me to the core with profound emotions. the life cycle of my 24 hours.

In 1991 I paddled the Baltic coast from the town Even before I reached Brazil, while still on the All of my meals were freeze-dried. I would take water
of Police, where I live, to the borders of Soviet Union. ocean, I already craved for another expedition across from the ocean, using manual hydration system, as the
Before that year, paddling kayaks on the Baltic had the Atlantic. It was the same on the second expedition: electric one went down. After a few minutes of chemical
been prohibited. So when they opened the borders, I I wanted a third. reaction my food was ready.
went.
How did I convince my wife to let me go on Sometimes flying fish would land on my kayak. I
I really enjoyed paddling on the sea. In 1999, I the Atlantic a second time? I didn’t. Before both would just catch then and eat them, without any cooking.
made it all the way along the Baltic coastline. In 2000, expeditions, she opposed the whole idea to the very last Very fine! Better than sushi.
I made another wonderful journey, from my home in moment. But then, when I was on the sea, she would
Poland to the Norwegian harbor of Narwik. Then I always support me. The best moment? The welcoming gathering at New
started dwelling on the idea: It must be possible to Smyrna Beach. That was the most wonderful, rewarding
safely paddle across the ocean! You know this gut feeling when you just know, feeling of my journey because it wasn’t only my happiness,
without seeing, that somebody is watching you? it was the mutual happiness of all those people–the
On my first trip, from Africa to Brazil, I was One day, when the waters around me were all clean connection we shared.
supposed to paddle through the doldrums. There and empty to the horizon–no ships, no people–I felt
shouldn’t have been any ocean storms or hurricanes on somebody’s eyes gazing at me. Who could that be? I It was very fantastic, a lot of adrenaline. I hadn’t slept
my route. What I encountered though, were some 50 looked behind my shoulder, and then I saw it: a huge for the previous 30 hours, trying to make it on time.
tropical storms battering me with a powerful capacity. head, sticking out of the ocean. A head of a whale.
From the beginning, my expedition across the
The storms were gathered in family-groups, each Did all those storms, and altogether I Atlantic was supposed to consist of three stages. The
lasting for a few hours. The waves would elevate even encountered eight of them, ever discourage or first from Africa to South America, the second from South
to 7 meters (23 feet) and the wind would blow with the dispirit me to the point I wanted to quit? Never. America to North America. And the third one, from North
ocean’s storm power. Huge fun! America to Europe. That was always my plan.

72 | canoekayak.com
Visit canoekayak.com
to read more of the
interview.

CANOEKAYAK.COM | 73
Photograph by BLACK-SCHMIDT
 TAKEOUT
DIRTBAG
DIARIES

PACKRAFTING
GUYANA
B Y D A V E W E I M E R overlap the nocturnal feeding habits of the black caiman, a larger Amazonian cousin of the alligator. We
strung our hammocks, roasting fresh-caught piranha over hot coals as the jungle came alive with an or-
chestra of bird, frog, and insect calls, all competing to be loudest. The unearthly roar of the howler monkeys
eclipsed them all.
At the confluence of the Rewa River we began a grueling upstream paddle. We eddy-hopped for 10
miles until the freshening current bested our efforts and we took to the jungle. We portaged our lightweight
craft up the rapids to Corona Falls, where the river becomes a torrent of froth and mist as it cascades over a
high plateau. The place is so remote, it’s said the animals there have no fear of man—not necessarily a good
thing considering that 400-pound jaguars are known to prowl the area.
We saw capybara (a rodent of unusual size) and tapir (something like a pig with an elephant trunk), but
“Will the piranha bite my boat?” I asked Am- no jaguars. The trip’s wildlife highlight was coming across a 20-foot anaconda sunning itself on shore. With
brose, the Makushi guide who’d led our 7-hour trek our palms sweating, we paddled as close as we dared. As a kid I used to love to catch snakes. I’d use my
through the jungle of southern Guyana. Ambrose socks as snake bags much to my mother’s horror. Seeing that monster face to face was a thrilling experi-
cocked an eyebrow at the inflatable packraft perched ence. It also made me want a bigger boat.
on the muddy bank of the Kwitaro river. Now back home, I’m still processing everything we saw in Guyana. Those two weeks brought such
“Maybe,” he said. “Don’t dangle things in water.” a barrage of the strange, the primordial, and the unexpected. I can finally take a bath without thinking of
With that he was gone, leaving Paul Smotherman piranha, and Paul no longer dreams of stingrays. Or so he says.
and me to the adventure at hand: Traversing one of
the planet’s last great tracts of unbroken rainforest,
“Piranha and rice again, why?”
a two-week trip on the Kwitaro and Rewa rivers. The
black water flowed lazily through a jungle corridor of The view north
impenetrable vine and vegetation. at Point Sal. v
Along one bend we spotted a giant river otter
devouring a stingray the size of a bicycle tire. I was
thrilled to see such a rare species in its native habitat,
but Paul’s attention was riveted on the stingray. He’d
been wary of rays before, especially when dragging
the boats over sandbars. Now he treated every shallow
section like a hostile minefield.
At the end of each day we made sure we were off
the water by sunset so our paddling activities didn’t

74 | canoekayak.com
 ENGINEERING

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