Opinion on pumps....

[old and in the way]

Well, having sold my OC-1, perhaps i am not qualified to respond, but i will anyway. The long and short of it is, this is still America (for now), and people can have whatever they want in their boats.

That being said, i would *never* have a pump. Never.

but then I am generally an old school throwback on things. It took me 3 years to accept the fact that slalom boats did not have to be 4m anymore, so if ever i find myself in an open boat again, you can expect to see an old milk jug riding along.

[laughing water]

When I first started paddling whitewater, the boats had a lot more space for bailing. I had enough space in my Mad River ME, Perception HD1, Dagger Prophet to bail the water out with my paddle. Used a shorter paddle then, but could get most the water out by leaning to my on side and swushing the water out Nolan style. Then I started seeing these fancy new plastic hand held buildge pumps on the river. Thought that was pretty cool. Got one but didn't empty the boat fast enough, and it took two hands to work it. Sometimes in a micro eddy above a rapid, I like keeping my paddle in my hand. This was awkward, so I went back to paddle bailing. Now with these new boats there's no room for that. I'm paddling a Zepher with 60" bags. Bailing with a scoop or a paddle is out of the question. I keep the hand pump stuffed under the bag, and use it occasionally, but usually just dump. I guess I just can't except the GADGETness of the electric pump. There have been some great improvements in boats over the years with the introduction of aluminum, fiberglass and plastic that I have embraced completely. But when It comes to batterys and elec. motors that's where I draw the line.

[Craig Smerda]

Phil... you didn't... did you? http://www.boatertalk.com/polls.php?for ... pollid=145

[PAC]

Posting on BT is evil! But maybe that will put an end to this tread.

[ohioboater]

Posting on BT is evil! But maybe that will put an end to this tread.

This thread had deteriorated to kiddy pool status pretty early on - it's only fitting to move it over there for real .

[Louie]

Is effectin all of us, but hey if your bored at work

[bald1]

When I first started paddling whitewater, the boats had a lot more space for bailing. .

There is no room to bail in my Rodeo with the bags in. In fact there isn't really room for anything, even getting a spare paddle in is a hassel.

[OC1_SURFER]

I wasn't going to weigh in on this topic until I read laughing water's post. Although I don't agree with him about "drawing the line...", I feel that he made the best point of this whole thread.

Whenever you paddle an open boat, there is always going to be the issue of taking on water. I don't care how good you are, or how hard you try to to take the dry line, sooner or later you are going to need to get rid of the H2O that has somehow found its way into your canoe. If you have room behind the front air bag, you can sweep most of it out with your paddle or bail it out. If your canoe is packed with flotation, you will need to pump or dump. In my Ocoees, I used to use a manual pump until I decided to hit the EASY button and install an electric. Why waste precious river minutes doing it the hard way? Why use up your much needed energy pulling over, getting out and dumping when you can just flip a switch? Whenever you head to the river, are you going to load up your boat & gear on a wagon and hook up your team of mules or are you going to make it easy and zoom to the put-in in your nice shiny new SUV? Hey man, we're in the 21st century! Take advantage of it.

So, I say: If you paddle an open canoe, it doesn't make any difference how you get the water out of it, as long as you get it out. But you might as well make easy on yourself.

T.P.

[Helly]

saying is.....PADDLE SMARTER, NOT HARDER!