Yesterday, a buddy and I completed a relatively short 9 mile paddle from the public access on Emerald Isle to Bear Island and back. When we checked Magic Seaweed for Bogue Pier, it was predicting 1 foot seas by around noon, after 2-3 foot seas the previous day/evening. However, this seemed at odds with the … Continue reading Paddling Into the Wind
I was fortunate enough to catch a lowish release at Falls Dam(2400-3000CFS) for new years eve, before they cranked it back up over 4000 CFS.
We paddled around 3.7 miles in a .2 mile section of river, although most of that distance came from the first .07 miles of river.
This weekend, I did a 13 mile paddle near bogue inlet. This will likely be my last surf session of the year, but I am hoping to make it out to the dam before new years.
In 2018, myself and a group of 4 other paddlers headed out to Mendocino California to do some rock gardening and exploring around the coast of Northern California.
After having owned two Werner Cyprus paddles, both of which failed in the same way, and talking with other paddlers, I think Werner’s two piece paddles, specifically their locking ferrule system, are poorly designed.
They do not appear to hold up well to heavy coastal use, despite what I think is a reasonable cleaning regime.
To burp or not to burp, that is the question and I think for most kayakers the answer is to burp, as it is more comfortable when you are swimming.
Recently, while dealing with a failing neck gasket on my drysuit, I discovered another reason why burping is a good idea.
This week, a friend and I completed a short 18.3 Mile Circumnavigation around Holden Beach.
It was a spur of the moment trip, which was made attractive by very calm seas and almost no wind.
A few weeks ago, I was able to break away and spend two days playing at Emerald Isle. Our group, which compromised around 6 other sea kayakers, mostly played in Bouge Inlet, as well as a little by Bear Island. Conditions were not huge, but we were able to find some fun surf both days.
This weekend, I got to do a little playing at Falls Dam as they were tapering off the release from all the water they got from Hurricane Florence. This was the first time in several months that I have been able to catch a release at the Dam. We have had a relatively dry spell … Continue reading Spaghetti Strings: Falls Dam Edition
Last weekend, I did a paddle on Falls Lake and, as would be expected, the water levels were still very high. Even though we are several weeks out from Florence, the US Army Corps of Engineers didn’t start releasing until last week and the lake is still almost 6 Feet above their preferred level. While here in the Triangle area, I don’t think we generally got as much flooding as we did during Hurricane Mathew, we got a bit more rain and still ended up with very high lake levels.
You can see this when you compare two pictures I took, one from yesterday, 09/30/2018, and another from earlier in the year when the lake was at a more normal level.