C-Forum

hi i have a few quick questions for you guru's of c-boats.
I am fairly new to c1ing i had a chance to be taught over the summer by some excellent c-boaters and really fell in love with it. I've been a triping canoer for many year and have some white water experience in tripping boats but none in actual white water boats. So here are my questions 1.)should i start in a c1 or the ,reportedly, easier kayak. 2.) what are good c1 conversion boats i am 6'2 250 so im a fairly big guy 3.) i have seen c1s but am unsure how to go about converting anyone got a good instructional website for me? 4.) can anyone recomend sites other than paddling.net to shop for used boats on?

thanks alot,
Erik

Youv'e come to the right place. Folks here are friendly and we have our own C-only marketplace. (Thanks to Adam!) Everyone kayaks... except a few disturbed folks who linger on this site. Whitewater Open Canoes or bigger C1's (Fink, Cascade....?) would probably fit the bill for you and you will probably want to learn about converting later on. Which part of the country are you in?

Cheers!...... and welcome to the dark side.

Craig

Hey Erik,

Check the boats for sale secton, there is a Dagger Cascade C1 for sale for $200.
http://www.cboats.net/cforum/viewtopic. ... c650654844

I think this would be good first C1 for a bigger guy.

http://www.cboats.net/recboats/cascade.shtml

martin

thanks for the help so far. The cascade you say? 11 feet seems like whole heck of a alot of boat. How well does that size boat roll and play? Also thanks for the link to that boat but i live in texas anyone got advice on how to get a boat from ct to tx?

Thank again,
Erik

oh one more question i also like the feel of oc boats but am concerned that once you go down in them they are too unstable if you roll them back up to do anythign with them. is this the case or am i missing something?

That's pretty much been my experience with them. Once you take on a lot of water it's sort of like trying to paddle a bathtub. Battery powered bilge pumps seem to be helpful there. Check my post from several days ago about deck covers. I got some good info on pumps from some of the people here and a couple of web sites to check.

A $200 Cascade would be a good inexpensive boat to learn in if you can get it across the country.

the cascade is a great boat to start out with (it's what I started with)
it's really forgiving and exceptionally stable, plus it tracks pretty well and has enough cockpit space to be really comfy provided it's outfitted correctly
it's fairly easy to roll, and once you get it about 5/6 of the way up it tends to complete the roll on it's own on account of it's stability
it's not exactly a playboat by today's standards (won't be throwing any loops or cartwheeling with it), but in the right spots it can throw some pretty impressive enders

once they're swamped, oc1's are a good deal more difficult to roll (not to mentional paddle!), but if you have enough experience in them you can learn to keep 'em drier
i wouldn't suggest starting out with an oc1 if for no other reason than it's harder to learn how to roll 'em, i think it's best to get the motion down with a c1 so you start building your confidence sooner (you can push yourself further if you know you can right the boat if it flips) and then move to oc1 later on

good luck and welcome to the community!