Just curious

squeakyknee · Post by **squeakyknee** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:58 pm

I was wondering how many people out there got started paddling what.Like if you've only paddled C-1,or if you started OC-! then picked up C-1'n?Or maybe you kayaked and then C-1 but have never really paddled an openboat.
I've paddled a canoe since my teens.
Never really been interested in Kayaking,but started running bigger rivers(II-III)in the last 6-7years in old Sawyers and Oldtowns.
Then 4 years ago I picked up an OutrageX and paddled that for a first true WW boat.In the meantime Kayaking started to look fun just for the ability to roll quickly(knew nothing of C-1s at this point.)
Eventually I ran into a couple local C-boaters and got the spark for that.
Now I paddle OC1,C-1,and I have a pretty good kayak roll(though I'm hesitant to double blade down anything of consequence,and dont own a yak.though it is neet to switch up with your kayak buddies and throw them in your boat for awhile)

Drew W. · Post by **Drew W.** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:32 am

I was in an OC1 for the first trip in the whitewater canoe class I took, but moved into a cascade from there and OC1 is just a novelty for me now

Post by **sbroam** » Wed May 17, 2006 1:50 am

I started in OC-2 (MR Explorer, Coleman "Marine 17"), then went OC-1 (MR ME), tried C-1 later, tried out K-1 for a while just cuz. Felt weird in a K-1 - sit too low and can't get a "grip" on things.

Sir Adam · Post by **Sir Adam** » Wed May 17, 2006 2:04 am

I know I shouldn't be TOO surprised at the results, but they are interesting so far. I started out in an open canoe (at 3), and have always hopped in and out of them. 15 years ago or so I purchased a kayak (I didn't know C1's existed, and was tired of bailing the OC2 out), then sold it to purchase 2 C1's (my legs kept falling asleep in the kayak

). I then sold those 2 C1's to a friend to purchase the NEW HOT C1...the Dagger Atom.... I still have that boat, and every boat I've purchased since then, for that matter....

dixie_boater · Post by **dixie_boater** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:42 am

I started paddling in a Blue Hole OCA in 1979. It was my brother's boat, one that he still owns. The first boat I bought was a used Mohawk WW 16' tandem boat. I made a ethafoam saddle for it and paddled it solo on many class II runs before buying a solo boat, a Mohawk Scamp. I own a couple of Whitesells, a Caption and a Old Town Appalachain now. My wife says I need to sell a boat before buying another one. I say we need a house with a bigger basement or large storage barn.

I have only paddled open canoes. I never had a desire to paddle a decked boat. I could always paddle whatever run I wanted to in a open boat. I never felt a need to learn how to paddle with a skirt. One might say that I've missed having a more rounded paddling career by doing so. I don't feel I've missed anything at all.

Michael

Aric · Post by **Aric** » Wed May 17, 2006 4:05 am

my first year raft guiding I bought a used Wave Sport Lazer, but I didn't paddle it in whitewater that year. I had borowed a friend's Genesis, I did the milk run and then brown's canyon the second or third time i paddled it. Not knowing how to roll a kayak, and being used to steering boats with a single blade, "besides swiming out of a canoe is about the same as out of a raft, right?" OC just made sense to me at the time. I never did get a consistent roll in a kayak, that extra blade gets in the way. I ended up getting an occoe, and then traded that for an aftershock as I wanted to play more. Next I moved into C1's after "mystery moving" out of the bottom of Dowd's Chute, I wanted to play and run harder rivers and not have to continually dump water. I've paddled a Mr Clean, Delirious, Rockit, and EZ conversions. I still have the Delicious, Rockit, a MR Explorer and I have an Acrobat on the way. Doing things the hard way has always seemed cool to me, C boats, telemarking and fixed gear bicycles, I guess I'm just a masochist

Aric

Post by **kenneth** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:37 pm

The Boy Scouts got me started in boats, so it should come as no surprise that my first boats were all aluminum OC2-3. My first whitewater craft was a tackle box - i.e. playing in the rapids while my friend and I took breaks from fishing.

nyuk nyuk

My first REAL whitewater craft was a hand-me-down kayak (converted back from a C1) from Adam which to this day still has the training wheels on it (i.e. lots of volume and double blades).

Rumplestiltskin · Post by **Rumplestiltskin** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:31 pm

Paddled in the bow of a 17' Tripper my brother owned. Bought a 16' Shenandoah (one of the first group of ten Royalex hulls outfitted in a Luray, VA campground/canoe livery) that fall.

Bought C-1’s after that from Gertler, Peters, and McKnight.

Switched to plastic K-1’s when I got too old to do any real boating.

John Coraor · Post by **John Coraor** » Wed May 17, 2006 4:09 pm

Started tandem in a Grumman aluminum 17' (with lake keel no less!). Added occasional experience in other large open canoes (ABS). Moved to paddling kayak. Met my wife and built a Gemini III C-2. Moved to grad school at Penn State, and started training/racing slalom with PSOC under John Sweet, moving to a Paramax II, Torrent (as one of the design team), & Torrent XL (again, on design team). Simultaneously picked up C-1 as an adjunct to C-2M, progressing from a Hahn, through an Ultramax, to a Batmax.

INSERT 11-year hiatus due to job pressures & 4 kids.

Re-emerged in paddling three years ago when oldest became interested. Hallelujah!! Too old and fat for my Batmax, so I now paddle a Zealot and sometimes haul out the old Torrent XL for some runs with my kids.

John

kaz · Post by **kaz** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:27 pm

I too, got started via the Boy Scouts, on the Delaware River. Having saved my money from working at a fast food "restaurant", I bought my first canoe in 1976 at age 16. It was one of the first plastic canoes ever made, a Keewaydin KT-17. Yes it was 17' long. I paddled it solo and tandem. For flotation I used garbage bags packed with styrofoam peanuts, until one fateful day day on the upper Delaware when the bags burst after flipping. Then I switched to a truck inner tube. My next boat was a Perception HD1 which I actually enjoyed, near as I can remember. After that a MRC "ME". Then one day I bought a Batmax C-1 off of Charlie Harris, or was it John? My first composite boat was a Millbrook Flashback built by John Berry in 1980 I think. OK that's enough nostalgia. I still enjoy both, open and decked.
JKaz

David Good · Post by **David Good** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:47 pm

I started kayaking about 8yrs ago and fell in love with playboating. I got pretty good at it in a kayak and being from Indiana wanted more of a challenge while playing around in the pool. Around the same time I saw some video a couple of my friend took of Barry Kennon in CO, and thought C1 looked allot more dynamic. Later that year, I ended up paddling the Upper Gauley at low water with a C1 paddler in a MrClean and got really curious. (I had not had previous personal exposure to cboating...). A couple of weeks later at a pool session someone brought an Atom and I was able to roll it on my first attempt. Within a few weeks of that I converted a Prozone 225 and proceeded to learn Cboating the hard way. Three years later I was able to run rivers like the upper yough again (note, my son is also 3yrs old).

Now, I occasionally jump into a kayak in the pool, but it just feels too weird. They just sit too low and cartwheel too slow...

Take It Easy,

David

sdbrassfield · Post by **sdbrassfield** » Fri May 19, 2006 2:28 am

It was an old 16' Marine Corps surplus issue aluminum canoe made by Browning. Darn thing stuck to (and hit) every rock down every ww river I paddled. I eventually wrapped it around a rock on frigid December day on the upper tar river (NC) so bad, it could not be removed. I left it in the river and walked out. I wish I had removed it as I probably could get more for it today (with the price of aluminum) than I paid for it...

yarnellboat · Post by **yarnellboat** » Fri May 19, 2006 5:35 pm

Summer camp - 17 and 18' tripping canoes, Alumacraft and Grummans, and then OT Discoveries.

I've only been in a ww kayak maybe twice, once in a pool, and never on real whitewater, and in sea kayaks just a few times too. I think my hamstrings are too tight to sit with my legs out in front of me. As painful as my C-1 is turning out to be, I've found kayaks too uncomfortable.

P.

bearboater · Post by **bearboater** » Sat May 20, 2006 7:57 pm

i started whitewater tripping fashion in a 18 foot Nova Craft Tripper, or something close to that. with 3 inches of freeboard, on a 100000+ CFS river in Northern Canada called the Back. and then i got a solo boat.
and i am doing a trip on the kazan this summer with my father, which will most likely be one of my last big trips with him.
cheers
-isaac

jscottl67 · Post by **jscottl67** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:57 am

I started out paddling in the Boy Scouts, with tandem OCs. A few overnighters and a couple of 3 day trips had me hooked. Of course, my dad wouldn't buy me a boat, so I did without for a while.

I would rent a canoe if there was an outfitter nearby, and did a few runs in rafts (about 8 trips between the Nanty, and the New in WV) so I had a little bit of a taste for the white stuff. Just didn't get to be on the water enough to justify a boat for a long time.

Bought my first canoe (16' figerglass tandem) about 6 years ago, and beat is up on everything from day trips, a 4-day trip, a bunch of overnighters. I got a few friends hooked, and now our tastes have turned more towards whitewater. On an Ocoee now

Jeff

C-Forum

Just curious

what was the first boat you paddle in WW?

Just curious

Wow.

First WW boat

well actually it was a raft...

Kayak