Adventure Expo: Earth River Expeditions

by Erik Olsen on

Without question one of the great trips I came across here was organized by
Earth River Expeditions (the site is excellent, by the way…spend some
time here). ERE is run by Eric Hertz, who lives here in upstate New York, but whose trips to Chile are legendary.

He and his wife have four camps down around the Futeleufe River where there is rafting, bouldering, hiking,
whatever. Sounds hard-core, but “anyone and everyone can do these trips” he told me. One of the cool things about Hertz
is that a bunch of the property he has bought down in Chile is set off from development of any kind. He’s one of the
pioneers down there, along with guys like Doug Thompkins who are setting off land from industrial development. He’s
also just a really cool guy.

Adventure Expo: Dr. Olaf Malver and Explorer’s Corner

by Erik Olsen on

So this amiable, burly guy here is Dr. Olaf Malver, the CEO of
Explorer’s Corner. Great dude. I chatted him up
briefly about the trips that his company does and so far this is my favorite trip idea yet. His company does what they
call “invitation only” trips, which is a fancy way, I guess, of saying that they very selectively hand-pick people for
many of their more exotic trips (no more than 10 per expedition). No weaklings allowed is the gist I got from him…and
he means it. Anyway, his expeditions are always featured in Nat
Geo Adventure and he was telling me about his trip for 2005 to Greenland. Apparently they’re going to take folding kayaks up to the far NE quadrant of Greenland and
will paddle the fjords up there for several weeks. Rough travel he said, but about the furthest you can get away from
civilization short of thumbing a ride on the
Huygens.

Kayak – Learning the Tandem Roll

by Erik Olsen on

There are a couple of gems in this online magazine that are worth
a peek. For example, here’s an
excellent article on how to roll a
tandem kayak. Now, if you’ve ever gone over in a tandem kayak, which is probably not very common, then you know how
incredibly difficult this is. It’s hard enough to roll a single river kayak…well, rolling upside down is easy. It’s
getting back up that’s hard. And so I was fascinated by the technique here and thought it worthy of a look for paddle
fans.

The article shows you how to do a tandem roll, which just does not look easy, and I confess I’ve never been over in
a tandem, so I have never tried to roll one. But there is also a nice little lesson in an assisted reenter. My guess is
the average paddler will not learn the first technique, but the second one may come in handy.

Gadling First Podcast: Eric Stiller (1-10-04)

by Erik Olsen on

Ladies and
gentlemen…our first
podcast.

This is something new that we’ll be doing on a fairly regular basis from now on. In
addition to discussions about what’s happening in the world of engaged travel, we’ll be talking to all sorts of folks,
from explorers, travel writers and photographers, as well as travel bloggers everywhere. Suggestions are
welcome.

So let me introduce the guest of the first gadling podcast:

Eric Stiller is a kayaker’s kayaker.
He’s the author of the book Keep Australia
on Your Left, an epic story of his effort, with buddy Tony Brown, to paddle around the continent of Australia. Yes,
you heard that right. Australia. That’s a bit like
saying you’re going to paddle around the United States.

The book was voted one of the ten best paddling yarns of all time by Canoe and
Kayaker Magazine (it was voted #4). Eric also runs the Manhattan Kayak Company, the top kayak outfitter in New York
City. As he says in the interview, kayaking is in his blood. His father, Dieter essentially introduced the Klepper
kayak to the states. Stiller runs the Manhattan kayak Company in
Manhattan.

There’s a whole lot more to say about Stiller, but why not let him say it himself.

Listen to the podcast.

Host: Erik Olsen.
Format: 44 minutes, MP3

Jump to:
01:10- Discussion of father, first Klepper store in NYC

05:00- Working in Klepper shop with dad
and kayaking in NYC

09:11- Klepper’s decline to cheaper boats

13:50- Starting Manhattan Kayak Company

16:52- On the trip, David Lee Roth and
paddling around Australia

22:54- Crossing the Gulf of Carpinteria, and the
nasties: sharks, crocs, etc.

35:00- Writing the book…and help from Paul Theroux

40:01- More about the Manhattan Kayak Company and
tours

 

 

Dive Kayaking

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s a hybrid for you.

I’ve always thought that loading tanks onto a kayak, paddling out somewhere, dropping
anchor and diving from your kayak was an interesting possibility. But I didn’t know that it was a bona-fide activity.
Turns out there are actually kayaks built for
diving, which makes a great deal of sense because storing tanks in the holds of normal touring kayaks has got to be
next to impossible. So I found this article on
dive kayaking that I thought was pretty interesting. The folks here are dive kayaking in the Northwest, a cold
place to dive to be sure (I should know. I got certified in Seattle.), but the dive kayak concept would work just about
anywhere. Keep an eye out here on gadling for more on this topic. I think it’s pretty cool.