Polar Paddle at Down Under

Photo courtesy of Down Under Kayaking. That's me just to the right of the board, having a fairly good hair day.

I went for a New Year's Day paddle at Down Under in Westport, Connecticut today. This was a benefit for Als Angels, which is a charity for children with cancer and their families. Eleven of us brave souls gathered in the late morning to paddle the freezing Saugatuck River.

Here's the launch site by the Down Under shop, which you can barely see on the left. Several paddlers are already in the water. That red slab on the dock is Big Red.

I always obsess about what board to bring. Since I definitely didn't want to fall and there was a possibility of ice, I decide on taking Big Red with my Larry Allison fin. That meant I would have the slowest, most ungainly board on the river, but what the hell. It's a fun board to paddle, and I don't care about showing off anymore.

We started paddling up the Saugatuck. I had my camera with me but I was hesitant to take too many pictures because II was so damn slow compared to all the other paddlers. I didn't expect to be in the front, but I didn't want to be last by so much either.

The river was bleak and bare. No vegetation anywhere, which wasn't surprising, giving everything a brown color. The day was gorgeous though. It was about freezing but nice and sunny. There were patches of ice floating down river and along the shore.

Less than a mile up the river, we slower folks caught up to the guys in racing boards. They were all stopped at a certain point on the river.

The Saugatuck was completely frozen over here. Those guys didn't want to risk their delicate boards through the ice. I paddled up laughing. “Anybody call for a tugboat?” Now was a moment for a plastic board to shine. I started paddling through the ice (actually on top, then I'd break through and make a channel) and one of the racers followed me. Every stroke meant I had to punch my paddle blade through the ice.

Yeah, it was funny. I was having a blast. After a couple hundreds yards though the ice was getting too  thick. I could do punch through but the I was worried about damaging my paddle blade. So I turned around with John, the only paddler hardy enough to follow. Even going back was a bit of an effort through our own channel.

John making his way through the ice.

I'm happy to say that the paddle was fun with no mishaps. I probably could have brought Kirsten's board, which has the advantage of being much faster than mine. On the other hand, I would not have had so much fun icebreaking.

Best to everybody who shared the adventure with me. Now I need to do my own polar paddles.

Finally GPS Tracked Big Red

I did a Fish Island run on Big Red this afternoon. This was the first time I did a GPS run, so I was interested in my speed.

Name:		Tracking Big Red
Date:		Sep 6, 2013 3:50 pm
Map: (valid until Mar 5, 2014)		View on Map
Distance:		4.42 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:19:19
Avg Speed:		3.3 mph
Max Speed:		5.3 mph
Avg Pace:		17' 56" per mile
Min Altitude:		0 ft
Max Altitude:		0 ft
Start Time:		2013-09-06T19:50:56Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	41º 17' 06" N
	Longitude:	73º 55' 57" W
End Location:
	Latitude:	41º 17' 05" N
	Longitude:	73º 55' 56" W

Actually, a 3.3 mph average isn't too bad. I had some headwinds heading north, and there was a strong current plus tide to fight against for a while. I could do about 30-50% better on my marlin, but that board isn't an option anymore. (Speaking of which, I got it back from repair. Pics soon.)

It was a beautiful late-summer afternoon, by the way. The light is really beautiful this time of year.

On my theme of rocks, I cut my leg while lifting Big Red. I wear an old pair of Tevas to protect my feet, but I slipped sideways as I lifted the board up. I scraped my leg against a rock. It hurt. I could post pictures, but it's kind of gross. Blood and all that. I might need a tetanus shot.

Two more days until the Paddle For A Cure!

Bannerman's Island Paddle

My friend Jim and I did a Labor Day paddle. This day has special significance besides the labor holiday (which I get), which is that it's the last day of summer. Waaah!

The weather was looking lousy with rain and ominous rumbles in the distance. Yet when I checked the satellite imagery, the storm was right over us but due to blow over. So we set out in my CRV with Big Red and Jim's 17 foot kayak on the roof.

We parked at Cold Spring. Usually on a weekend morning the parking lot by the Cold Spring railway station is a beehive of kayakers and other paddlers. This morning there was only us and two other paddlers (and a few parked cars with empty racks).

This is the launch site. Such gorgeous mountains.

We paddled north to Bannerman's Island and its famous castle, about three miles. The rain had completely disappeared. The water was almost glassy. (You can see that in the picture above.) Very easy and satisfying paddling. Of course Big Red was a turtle compared to Jim's sleek kayak, but I expected that. There's a good history of the island here. You can also take escorted tours.

The island from the south.

An arch. It seems the twisted metal below the arch was set deliberately to prevent paddlers from going underneath. Which was mean.

A very cool Jim. I meant like calm and collected, not at a lower temperature, because that kayak skirt keeps him pretty warm.

We debated going on the island until the third sign warning us to not do that. Okay. So we parked at the dock on the north end of the island (which we were also warned not to do) and ate our Kind bars. Those are good, by the way. I also ate the second of my Hammer Gels (Huckleberry then Vanilla). I'm beginning to like these more and more, even though they still remind me of slurping an oyster.

I'm looking pretty emo here. I think it was the glare.

I can see the Beacon Bridge in the distance. This and that peninsula sticking out from the right was the most southerly I got on my distance paddle.

Then we headed around to the other side and paddled back. A wind had began from the south and was pushing back a little. Not a big deal, but there was chop. Jim's sleek kayak slice through the chop like buttah. Big Red thudded over them for the most part. We talked about books, mostly. Jim and I both love Stephen King and he gave me a few new authors to look up.

A pretty dramatic view. These are the Hudson Highlands from the north.

Tomorrow I go back to school. We begin a new era with the Common Core Curriculum. Joy.

Big Distance on Big Red

The Paddle for a Cure event is coming next Sunday, and it doesn't look like I'll have a board with tie-downs for this trip. But wait, I remind myself, you have Big Red, your BodyGlove Wave/Imagine Surfer. It has tie downs. It even does pretty well with rocks.

Unfortunately what Big Red does poorly is track. The removable fin is cool, but it's also kind of puny. It forces you to paddle about 3-4 times on one side bore the turning nose forces you to paddle on the other. All that shifting gets to be a drag and makes the boar unwieldy for any long distance.

Enter my Larry Allison Gladiator Hybrid fin. I had bought it for my Exocet Marlin, but it had too big a footprint for the tiny fin box on that board. I was going to switch out the fin for an Allison Bat Wing fin, but when the problems with the board came up that seemed silly.

Photo courtesy of Paddleboard Specialists

The Larry Allison fins are specially designed for flatwater performance. These are some of the go-to fins for anybody who wants to improve the tracking ability of their boards. They're well-made and rather handsome looking, a perfect accessory for the serious paddler.

You can figure out what I did next.

I'll get some closeups tomorrow.

Now putting a Larry Allison fin on an Imagine Surfer is like putting a finely-tuned suspension in a Volkswagen Beetle. It doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense unless you really need to paddle that board a long distance. Which I do.

To test it out, I did my standard 7.34 mile bridge run. I didn't have my phone with me, unfortunately, but I timed the run at just over two hours. This was with an outgoing tide. That meant I had some serious current to deal with upstream along with some northerly winds. Taking in account a five-minute stop, I averaged a little over 3.5 mph. To be honest, that isn't bad.

Paddling Big Red was also an improvement. I could get about seven strokes on one side before I had to switch sides. That's a 100% improvement just by changing a fin. Not bad. The secret seemed to be to not push the board very hard. Do a steady, consistent paddle and you'll get the board moving pretty well. It will break no speed records, but that was never the point of this exercise. It was to see if doing any sort of distance on this board was feasible or just stupid. The answer is, it can be done.

Here's a comparison of the two fins. The Allison fin has more surface area and a stronger trailing edge.

A better shot of the board with the fin.

So Big Red it is for my big paddle, and it will make for some pretty amusing posts on StandupZone.