C-Forum

Hi fellow boaters! For May 21. to 24. this year, we're holding our annual informal-as-ever gathering of the in-C-lined at River Salza, in the beautiful Styria Region of Austria, on usually crystal clear and drinkable water in a beautiful mountainous area with many different stretches of River Salza ...

Hej y'all, Cool build! Here's an idea though: next time you build over a positive plug, just use a solvent to get the plug out. Acetone works with a bunch of foams.. and leaves the epoxy unharmed. Try before, of course.. and catch the runoff, it'll be nasty large steaming pile of dog doo. You don't ...

Btw. I watched the videos again and it looks like a typical Slalom technique, e.g. no catch, big blades to make up for the loss, a lot of splashing water around on entry. Really, you can determine an efficient stroke by the sound of it.. remember slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

Interesting how the british videos emphasize back pulling in the pull stroke initiation phase and twist/arms only later in the pull phase, which is kind of contrary to what I'd suggest for a good catch and less rocking: - slice blade in extended forward - initiate catch by applying power from body r...

The heavy water clearly is the problem. Maybe instead of paddling deuterium oxide, you should look for rivers containing mostly hydrogen oxide, which are usually what is enjoyed most by paddlers.

Good luck!

J.

Works like a charm. Actually, the real hazmat suits worn by quarantine room personnel often use the same material, construction and zips as our drysuits. I hope that their servicable life is a bit longer though ;D

Another great method for the detection of tiny holes is to blow up the bag good and lick the surface of the bag! You will feel even the slightest air bubbles on your tongue immediately. Of course, try to find the general area of holes before licking, or you could run dry. I keep a glass of water han...

A piece of advice I found most helpful in addition to all the others above was to keep my shaft hand on the forehead - this way, you really press down on your paddle only with an upper body motion, but you don't focus on pressing down with your arms. Saves shoulders and your roll. Don't even take th...

Ian, owning an Option and having an Octane 85 to paddle, I think I can add some points as well. I am about 200 pounds fully dressed, so in your weight range. I feel very good in the Octane 85. I would even go so far to call it nimble - I can throw the bow around just like I want, despite the Edges o...

I definitely agree on the different head game and it's similar to free soloing a climb for sure, in terms of focus, determination, gravity of mistakes and all that. Enticing, to say the least. Now as you rightly said, if someone wants to do it depends on personal risk threshold (I normally won't, bu...

Btw. Just get an Octane 85, you'll be rid of all the repairs and its so much fun.. ;D

GFLex is the way to go. I've also successfully re-foamed squished cores using gorilla glue, then covered that with a filled GFlex Layer. It's holding up better than expected, really..

Hey Kaz, no worries - we understand. Keep in mind (and not just you, but anyone here really) that we'll be willing to help when you come over, whenever there is time and water in the rivers ;D One day, that trip will happen, I am sure :D. We'll see now who beats whom to visiting each other I guess ;...

Just to repeat what I said earlier.. you'll be fine. Yeah, we'd also have a bed in our apartment (no floor space covering needed) that's not any more expensive than the camp really, and within walking distance from camp even for healthily inebriated individuals. So yeah, I hope you didn't spend all ...

Oh, the big boy.. I've only paddled it as a tandem but would figure it's a fun boat on the grand.
I've heard several people liked their Sparks down it, as well. Fast enough to escape some of the bigger stuff, somewhat round chines (in some places). Should be fun.

Good luck finding a boat!

Jan