First K1 Paddling Report!

Posted by Kurt Maurer on Apr 15, 2005

Yes, I finally took the ol' K1 to the water today, and gave 'er a go.

GEEEZ, you wanna talk about TIPPY. I plopped 'er in the water, observed with some relief that it floats upright by itself (hey, I didn't know), so in I got -- butt first, and paddle bracing off the bottom.

I reasoned that, if she floated okay without me in it, then she oughta float okay with me in it too. So I just relaxed and let the boat talk to me. It took a while -- maybe five minnits -- and I was pretty comfortable. Tippy, yes, but unmanageable, no. So I put 'er into forward gear, and son, that thing just FLEW!!!

...But then I woke up...

Heheheh, sorry. What I said was true enough, until I got to that last paragraph. Fact is, I never managed to stay upright much at all, but I sure had fun swimming! Aaaah. I was mostly at the water to practice rolling and such in my Guillemot, getting ready for the Texas Kayak Builders Bash, as I am going to one of the techniques demonstrators there. So the K1 was along just for funsies, to get an idea of what I'm looking at.

Nothing inside my head has changed a bit. The stupid thing was just as I expected, especially considering I had absolutely NO idea what to expect, and I still have no doubt I'll tame her one day... and have a blast doing it.

Oh, I discovered one new thing: I need to learn how to empy the K1 after a spill, since it has no bulkheads, and is built so lightly that it seems a careless person could damage the boat trying to horse it around with a load of water inside.

Paging KyleT... Please pick up the white courtesy phone...

Cheers, Kurt

Replies:

• Re: First K1 Paddling Rep by craig on Apr 16, 2005
• Re: First K1 Paddling Rep by Kyle T on Apr 18, 2005
• TK-1 ain't much better by Robert N Pruden on Apr 20, 2005
• Re: First K1 Paddling Rep by Ed, NY on Apr 21, 2005