Hudson River Paddler

These super stiff sectional three piece carbon fiber Greenland Paddles have been gaining in popularity here at The River Connection as well as around the world as seen here in this YouTube clip sent to me by Paul (co-founder and designer of Northern Light Paddles)

Lots of rolling obviously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSD_WSwGa7k

Or for a little Northern Light Surfing Action;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k7P6vMC–Q

You can also find pictures of these paddles at our eBay! Storefront;

http://stores.ebay.com/The-River-Connection/Kayak-Paddles-/_i.html?_fsub=5&_sid=160909317&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

See you on the water,

Marshall
The River Connection, Inc.
Hyde Park, NY
www.the-river-connection.com

PS: Coming very soon!  Saltwood Paddles!  www.saltwoodpaddles.com

In part of a 2011 resolution I made for myself, racing was something I wanted to give a try this year.  Of course I picked a super heat wave summer to do it in.

First off, the Blackburn Challenge is a 20 mile open ocean circumnavigation of Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

www.blackburnchallenge.com

Blackburn Challenge Race Course

This year was the 25th year that the race has been run with a record entry of 236 craft ranging from Touring Kayaks, Rowing Shells, Outrigger Canoes, Traditional Dories to Paddleboards.  In short, quite the on-water spectacle.

This is a lot to take in at 6AM as the mandatory Captain’s Meeting at the Gloucester High School is at 7AM.

Each Class of craft got their own separate start times with the fastest going last.

Off go the Paddleboarders

Initially overcast skies and light rain were in order which was a blessing as with no wind or swells to speak of another blast of 100 degree temps would have made the day an endurance march rather than a race.

At about mile 14 my hydration bladder ran dry so I went to my secondary which the P&H Cetus has a handy front deck hatch that if you pop a hole in the hatch cover becomes an integral canteen/bladder holder that works beatifully.  I had ice loaded in with my sports drink but next time will also line the cavity with some 1/4 inch minicell foam so cold condensation doesn’t drip on my legs in the cockpit.

For my first real distance race I finished the day at 3 hours 49 minutes for an average of 10 minute 45 second mile.  Not bad, but I know that the later quarter of the race I let my form go and could feel it in my lats.  Good lesson; Rotate!

Rounding the Dog Bar (breakwater) into Gloucester Harbor NSPN.org cheerleaders were providing encouragement for all the racers.  Very much appreciated as the sun had just come out in full force.

From the confusing shores of the harbor the finish line at the Greasy Pole (there’s more history to this than I’m going to go into) wasn’t hard to pick out.  It was the beach with the party!

The Finish Line

More of the Finish Line

The Prize

Beach fills as the racers come in

And More......

The Cetus MV taking a break

For complete race results for all the classes;

http://blackburnchallenge.com/Downloads/BlackburnChallenge2011PreliminaryResults%20(1).xls

Perhaps next time I’ll bring along more of The River Connection Racers……….    :)

See you on the water,

Marshall – The River Connection, Inc.

www.the-river-connection.com

Still playing catch up from this past weekend 5/14-5/15 so I thought I would take a few moments to give a brief description of all the happenings at this years Symposium.

Friday Night Waterside Workshop of Boat Body & Blade by Brian Day of P&H Kayaks, Ben Lawry and Karen Knight was a fun improv session of teaching that I don’t think enough presenters and instructors get to do. About 20 attendees came out for this sunset workshop and all had fun with the on land and Karens Freestyle Canoe on water portions of the evening.

Saturday was a busy day for Dr. Gel and Mr. Fiberglass (aka Brian Day – intentional play on the Dr. Jeckyl Mr. Hyde bit) as one of Bens students had quite an event happen to his kayak on his drive over to The River Connection Boathouse. Something to do with a flying Cetus which upon landing then was bent 90 degrees at the rear hatch. I’m not exaggerating much as you’ll see in the photos. This provided for a perfect patient for the Dr. and his team to resurrect what I thought was a dead kayak back to a floatable boat.

Towing 101 exposed all the paddlers to gear design, team tows, hooking in and unclipping first on land and then moving out to practice the skills on water.

Forward Stroke Clinic with Ben Lawry was quite full and quite intense but also flat out silly at times. I could hear the on water grunting drill 3/4 of a mile upriver. Cool pic of the crew taking the class out on the water to follow.

Karen Knight had more students in her AM & PM Freestyle Canoe Classes.

3/31. This is a quick update to the post below. The new P&H Cetus HVs are here. From what I’ve been told by P&H HQ is that these three are the first available.

So here’s what came in;
Cetus HV carbon/Kevlar white/black/white with keel strip
Cetus HV carbon/Kevlar canary yellow/black/white with keel strip
Cetus HV fiberglass white/medium green/white with keel strip.

And now on with the rest of the story:

P & H Cetus HV

The newest offshoot of the Cetus has hit US Shores here at The River Connection.

Keeping close to the original design of the Classic Cetus, some subtle changes have been put in place.

• The cockpit has been shifted back two inches rear weighting the kayak making for straighter tracking while keeping much of the original rocker profile.
• One inch of height added to the deck and three quarters of an inch added to the deck height at the thigh braces.
• It appears additional fullness has given to the forward hull ahead of the foot pegs.

Fitting – needless to say my 6′ 185lb frame was easy enough to fit in it and make contact with the interior control surfaces, I could also see it fitting a 6’4″ 220+lb paddler with ease and comfort.

Below are some pictures with the new HV on the Talic stands and the classic Cetus below on blocks. There is some foreshortening in this photo as both kayaks are the same length.

Cetus HV Top / Cetus Classic Bottom

Cetus HV Top / Cetus Classic Bottom

Cetus HV Top / Cetus Classic Bottom

3/28/11

Brian Day of P&H Kayaks took some time to pay a visit today with a production model of the Aries.

Take what’s been established as a new niche of sea kayaking, surf touring, by the P&H Delphin but make the acceleration faster, the fit tighter and with far more agility to the boat from a stiffer composite construction.

I got to take it out for a short spin on the Hudson in some very small 10″ wind driven chop and even on this small stuff I could feel the boat want to accelerate onto the waves. What I didn’t expect was how wind neutral it was crossing abeam to the wind.

Below are some pictures from different angles showing the sharp rails and chines of the hull.

This kayak isn’t stateside yet but here is a profile picture of what’s to come.

The general layout is taken from the Delphin but made sleeker in composite, which according to those have test paddled it in conditions report that the acceleration onto the face of a wave, reaction time and cruising efficiency are all kicked up an order of magnitude from the plastic composition. Keep in mind that for playing amongst rocky features the CoreLite plastic layup is king in it’s forgiveness of bangs and scrapes.

Design similarities are the hard chines in the bow with lots of rocker creating a scalloped hollow between the keel and the chine edges giving wonderful controllability to your drop-in on a wave face, more planing hull-ish under the cockpit with softer edges for forgiveness in a boil and reforming of rails towards the stern. Rear weighting allows for more waterline while cruising and the front deck hatch, like on the Cetus, is extremely handy (I don’t recommend using it while surfing )

All the surf capabilities of this design (and of the Delphin) translate into an extremely capable, friendly performance kayak for the beginner as well as the surf junkie.

For P&H Mfg. Specs and Description:

http://www.phseakayaks.com/kayaks.php?kayak=Aries%20155

More info to come when our Fleet Model comes in. (soon)

See you on the water,
Marshall Seddon
The River Connection, Inc
Hyde Park, NY

P&H Aries