White water kayaking can be dangerous as hell. You turn over in a fast-moving rapid, and you can die. That’s what
happened to experienced paddler Lucas Turner during a whitewater kayaking trip down the North Fork of Idaho’s Payette
River. He went over and smacked hiis head on a rock. And he died. This
NPR story talks about how Turner’s father
decided to do something about the problem, and invented a new kind of helmet.
The Flying Kayak
Musta missed this one over at Engadget recently, but
it’s pretty cool. The Flyak is a hydroplaning kayak that apparently gets some amazing speed due to the reduction in
friction…which is basically what hydroplanes are all about. It takes some practice to learn, and you need to build up
speed to get the hydrofoil working properly, but dang if this isn’t pretty nifty.
Take It Outside: Blog
Joe Miller, an outdoors writer for the Charlotte Raleigh-Durham (thanks Monty) News-Observer writes
an excellent little blog called Take It Outside that
covers the outdoors in North Carolina. Right now, he’s covering the Cycle
North Carolina (CNC) event, a statewide bike ride, that this year covers some 462 miles between Asheville and
Wilmington. But there are also some posts on
paddling (North Carolina has some epic white
water), camping and, well, pretty much anything dealing with the outdoors. It’s well-written and definitely worth
checking out of you’re from the region…or even if you’re not.
Fishing for Brown Trout
Here’s a cool piece on kayak fishing in Yellowstone National
Park’s Lewis and Shoshone Lakes.
he writer heads out in search of the fattened brown trout that
make for some excellent eating and put up a good fight to boot. The lakes in this part of the country are swarming with
the fish. One guy in the story caught nine trout in about three hours, the biggest being 25 inches long. Very nice.
Paddling the Big Apple
Canoe and Kayak Magazine has got a nice feature on paddling
around New York City. Not only does the piece cover some of the best spots, but it takes the time to explain some of
the hazards of paddling on the river. This is useful information since some paddlers come to the city thinking that
it’s a beginner’s paddle spot, and while this isn’t exactly wrong, you do have to be careful of the Hudson’s powerful
currents and the busy boat traffic.
They mention the Downtown Boathouse, where you can take trips or take
out free kayaks (but only in a very confided little area), but I wish they’d given a bigger nod to the Manhattan Kayak
Company, which runs several fantastic tours around the river and down to the Statue of Liberty. You might remember
we did an early podcast with
Manhattan Kayak Co owner Eric Stiller. Check that out if you want to learn
more about paddling around the greatest city in the world