C-Squirt stuff - New vid and I'm DONE

[Smurfwarrior]

I can't picture thigh braces and imagine being able to eject from the boat if needed. Think I'll beef up the knee support and attempt the lap belt tomorrow at the pool. My boat has glassed in rope as attachment points for the thigh straps. Not sure how I would move the thigh strap attachment point closer to the crotch as is without reglassing the ropes.

[golder]

man that looks like fun. even in a pool, without current or gnar gnar.

i want one!

gotta get last winter's renovations paid off before i'm buying any new toys. but i am hoping to make it out to csquirt this year and take ya'll up on those offers to try some boats out...

[Mike W.]

Ditto to everything Adam said.

Lap-belts will kill you. With my last Acro I kept slipping back. I ended up w/ a lap belt & a death block. PAC promptly removed it when he bought the boat (he's a lot smarter than I am). I now paddle the Woodie w/ a lap-belt. It takes a LONG TIME to swim out of the boat. Know that when you use a lap-belt in a small, tight boat it will be difficult to get out.

The cut looks good for a cruisable cquirter. It will take skill & a powerful arrena to get it to mystery, but I recomend starting in a cquirt that's cut about like that one is for your weight. You'll learn the way of the wing w/o having to stay on a brace.

When your book comes in, look @ the diagram comparing the boat to an inverted airplane wing. Then ride around w/ your hand out the window of the truck playing w/ angles to see how different angles effect lift & drop. Subtlety is your freind.

Once you get this one dialed in & are ready to roam you can call Adam for a Mentor, Jimi for a Ceamweaver or PS Composites for an Oxygen or a new, custom chopped Acrobat

[Larry Horne]

...and dude....

get a new helmet already!

[Aric]

Jeff,
I'd love to paddle with another c squirt boater, there are a couple of us who show up at the Rincon Rendezvous every year. You would be welcome to join us, its usually the first weekend in Aug. just downstream of Salida, CO. If I make it out to Moab next spring, I'll be sure to let you know, I'm sure we could find a fun eddyline on the daily. It looks like your boat is cut similar to mine, fun boat to cartwheel, not the best for downtime.

Aric
Summit County, CO

[Smurfwarrior]

Hey Aric!
Glad to know there are some people to paddle with over this way. I hit the Moab and Green River Daily run quite often throughout the year, good eddylines on both! I'll plan on making Rincon in Aug, sounds like a great time. Just got out of the pool for day two in the squirt, working on stern screws tonight. Vid is uploading, need tips!

[Smurfwarrior]

Ok, day two in the squirt... in a warm pool this time. Dinkin around trying to stern screw.

http://www.vimeo.com/17587579

Then... played two hours of 'kayak' polo in the thing. Scared the c rap out of everyone with those ends

[Mike W.]

Notice @ 1:36 the bow comes down & you slice it through the water. You stopped it w/ a brace. If you had not stopped it there was just the right angle for the bow to slice down to the left. If you had then tilted the same amount up to the left it would've come back up to the surface. Getting a handle on that will prevent a whole bunch of flips. Just think of slicing a little bit of water w/ the bow.

For day 2 in a cquirt you're doing very well.

[TheKrikkitWars]

Ditto to everything Adam said.

Lap-belts will kill you. With my last Acro I kept slipping back. I ended up w/ a lap belt & a death block. PAC promptly removed it when he bought the boat (he's a lot smarter than I am). I now paddle the Woodie w/ a lap-belt. It takes a LONG TIME to swim out of the boat. Know that when you use a lap-belt in a small, tight boat it will be difficult to get out.

Piffle! A well set up lap belt doesn't make it appreciably harder to swim from than thigh straps, and both are easier to escape than a buttboater squirtboat. The shape of the back of your saddle and the height of the rear deck seems to have a greater effect on the time to escape than the rest of the outfitting put together.

[Sir Adam]

I'm open to new ideas - if you can please post an image of your setup, and how it works.

My experience has been that the lap belt rides "up" under the skirt, and makes it more difficult to get the the buckle... which you MUST release to exit.

This contrasts to my thigh-strap boats that hold me in tightly (on dry land I once challenged a few folks to pull me out of my Viper - they couldn't), yet if needed I can get out without releasing the straps.

[Mike W.]

Piffle! A well set up lap belt doesn't make it appreciably harder to swim from than thigh straps, and both are easier to escape than a buttboater squirtboat. The shape of the back of your saddle and the height of the rear deck seems to have a greater effect on the time to escape than the rest of the outfitting put together.

OK, I stand corrected. I was a little over dramatic w/ that comment. A lap belt won't kill you. Extended time w/o oxygen will kill you. I already know how to paddle, so I've never tried a buttboater squirtboat, so I can't compare anything to that.

I currently paddle the Woodie. The turret & cockpit design makes it the most comfortable cquirt I've tried. That same design makes it very difficult to pop more than the dipped down section of the front of the skirt. You have to work it off little by little till you get it back behind your hips. Once that is free, you have to work a hand up under the skirt to the buckle on the lap-belt (which is pretty much in the tunnel of the skirt after water presure has removed a certain percentage of air from the boat) to release it. Once you've done all that you pop right out. With people standing in the water beside me, I swam out of this boat once just to see if I could. It took a LONG time to get out. I hope I never have to swim out of it. Ask the guy who swam out of it at the '09 Cquirt. I don't think he wants to get back in my boat.

I had a lap belt on my last Acrobat. Same deal on the buckle ending up in the tunnel of the skirt.

My Viper C-1 just has thigh-straps. I also use a block of foam wedged between my thighs to keep me tighter in the boat. I pulled the skirt on that once & popped right out of it.

So, yeah, with my boats it is appreciably harder to get out of the lap-belt than the thigh straps. I guess that means mine isn't "well set up". Could you let me know how to improve my set up? It's a pretty cool boat & I'd be more open to letting folks w/ marginal rolls try it if it were easier to escape.

[Aric]

Think about edges and energy and buoyancy. If you edge the boat to your onside, your paddle stroke is pulling that edge down, as that energy comes to an end, level the boats edges. If you then edge to your offside, the stern will resurface and you have done a pivot turn. If you continue with those sweep strokes, edge the boat to your onside each time and level the boat off as you finish the stroke. That will keep you spinning towards your offside and keep trapping the buoyancy (potential energy) of your stern. I found it easier to learn stern squirts, moving into screws, by actually looking back over my right shoulder as I edged to my offside and stern pryed. You can watch your stern drop, and it sets up your torso rotation nicely, engaging your core muscles. I really recommend you get a copy of Jim Snyders Squirt Boating and Beyond. It explains how your boat works and the illustrations really help you to visualize the movements. [/url]http://www.amazon.com/Squirt-Boating-Be ... 323734[url]


Aric[/url]

[Smurfwarrior]

Aric,
Funny you should mention that book, it came in the mail today! So much info... thanks for the tips, I'll give that a shot!

[sbroam]

I learned to sink the stern in a boat that was too buoyant to squirt on a forward sweep/stern draw. A stern pry w/offside edge while turning back to look at the stern works wonderfully - if you need more "boost", reset the paddle and go again, otherwise slice your paddle forward and keep it spinning with sculling bow draws. Odds are, though, with that boat you will go past vertical on one stroke easily.

Then start playing with sinking the bow...

[TheKrikkitWars]

Could you let me know how to improve my set up? It's a pretty cool boat & I'd be more open to letting folks w/ marginal rolls try it if it were easier to escape.

My Buckle is about 2 inches from the left hand cockpit rim, so it's actually sat on my left thigh and nowhere near my deck tunnel... Hence it never occured to me that that would be an issue.