Back on August 4, 2010, I wrote a blog on pumps and paddle floats. One of the pumps I talked about included the Harmony High Volume pump. I purchased two of these pumps at Canoecopia last March and used them in classes throughout the summer. I liked the shorter length, high flow rate, and the [...]
Two pieces of standard safety gear carried by most sea kayakers are the pump and paddlefloat. As many people don’t give these items a lot of thought before purchasing, I’d like to discuss some considerations in choosing a pump and a paddle float.
There isn’t a lot of difference between most of the bilge pumps currently [...]
I had a request from one of my readers to talk about the topic of “outfitting a life jacket”. It has been said in reference to your safety gear, “if it isn’t on your person, then you can’t guarantee it will be there when you need it.” The trick is finding ways to carry all [...]
The paddling season has definitely arrived in the upper midwest. People are buying boats, signing up for lessons and trips, and looking for people to go paddling with. Here are just a few local events coming up in the next few weeks that may be of interest, especially to new or aspiring paddlers. I know [...]
I know that I tend to focus mostly on gear for sea kayakers in many of my posts. Partly that is because I do a lot of sea kayaking myself, and partly because there is a lot of gear used by sea kayakers. Recreational paddlers often get overlooked when it comes to gear discussions. I [...]
While most people immediately think of “flares” when they think about distress signals, there are actually many other devices that can be used to attract help in an emergency. Since I talked about pyrotechnic flares in my last post, “Visual Distress Signals 101″, I want to take some time to discuss some non-pyrotechnic alternatives that [...]
I’m going to attempt to discuss the subject of visual distress signals, primarily “flares”. For some reason I find this a complicated topic to describe in a written format, but here goes. Feel free to e-mail questions to me if something doesn’t seem clear. The links that I have included in this post are not [...]
A recent e-mail from Tim Grant suggested the topic of signaling devices for a future blog. Well Tim, here it is. Unlike the Monty Python skit, “How Not to be Seen” (which I watched last night), signaling devices are all about “How to BE Seen.” This is potentially a very broad topic to cover in [...]