The spraydecks feature…

Highly tear resistant, stretchy, durable, 3.5 mil Supratex throughout

Double-sewn bungee for added durability

All seams glued, blind stitched and taped

High wear resistant taping on the edges.

All for £40!

Every boat manufacturer has different instructions and ways of moving stuff about. I recommend checking out their website and having a search on YouTube for some official instructions before moving things about.

Usually I do things in this order……

1. Seat Positioning 

Go for a paddle on flat water in the boat and play about with a few different seat positions. A good starting point is having the boat balanced so each end is an even amount of distance out the water. Most people have their seat in the middle setting but personally I like my seat as far forward as possible. See what works for you.

***TOP TIP! – If you can spare the time and effort you can make your boat last longer by filling the gaps between the kayak’s hull and the seat with foam. This reduces the hull flexing and creating weak spots. To do this effectively, usually you will have to remove the seat from the kayak to let you glue all the extra foam in place. ***

2. Seat Height 

By putting extra foam down under the seat you can give yourself more leverage and a more powerful seating position at the expense of a bit of stability. But if you are charging you don’t need to worry about stability. Again, whatever works for you is best.  A starting point for this is having your hips in line with the level of the cockpit rim.

If your seat pad is held down by plastic rivets you may need to go buy some new ones that are longer. These rivets are sold in car shops as rivets for holding on pieces of the car body.

Some brands of boat have flat seats in my opinion so my seat is contoured at the edges using some extra scraps of foam. Best seat I’ve ever had!

The raised areas are shaded

3. Thigh braces and knee padding

As a general rule, the closer the thigh braces are to your body, the better fit they will be. So try sliding them away from your knees and further down your thighs. Obviously don’t sacrifice comfort for this cause you will be aching after 30 mins. I also put a few layers of thin foam between my knees and the boat hull for a bit of comfort and impact protection.

4. Footrest

Move the plastic plate down as far as you can and build up the gap to your feet with foam for more impact protection and extra buoyancy should you take a swim. A flat footrest is bad; an angled one that your feet can sit on in a natural position nicely is good. A layer of foam with gaps is a good idea as it will compress more easily than the rest of the foam; acting like the crumple zone of a car.

My footrest as well as a carry handle made from webbing stitched into a loop.

5. Thigh blocks

To explain them as simply as possible, shaped pieces of foam that holds the underside of your leg. These allow you to edge the boat by lifting one leg AND pushing down with the other leg. This should allow for easier, quicker and less tiring edging. It can be tricky to stick these to the plastic hull, so I’d advise laying down a thin layer of foam that will conform to the round hull first and then stick the main block of foam to that.

I used a piece of sandpaper wrapped round a can to help me get a round shape when I was carving the foam blocks.

6. Hip Pads

Not too tight that they cut off the circulation, but snug, work the best. I’ve heard some hip pads work better for womanly shapes if they are backwards but don’t quote me on that. Remember that your hip pads don’t need to sit flat, I have mine angled for comfort. Having them thicker to the back of the hip pad will allow them to sit better on most leg shapes and seating positions.

7. Backband

You DON’T need to ratchet yourself in stupidly tight to get a good fit. The backband is designed for support only. I find that an overly tight backband restricts my movement and I can’t boof as well because I can’t transfer weight backwards.

8. Airbags

 If you don’t have them you are daft. If you have tonnes of space past your footrest I’d advise an airbag for there too. Tie them in with cord.

An extra attachment point I use for keeping my Peli-Case in the boat.

A bread knife is good for cutting foam. A surform is good for shaping foam. Solvent Contact adhesive is the only way to stick foam (ask behind the counter at D.I.Y. stores).

Patience is needed! Don’t expect to get a perfect fit first time.

I like these links. Plenty of good stuff but none of them will be an exact guide for everyone…

http://nomadickayaking.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html

http://wavesport.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-outfit-your-new-creek

http://www.dagger.com/education_portal/index/learn/outfitting_your_dagger_kayak

http://www.dagger.com/pages/index/customer_service/instructions/bulkhead_adjustment_how_to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqyJDXkUoSI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyU85lXhgR4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFBOKzlHhLw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV8k9czGCTY

on a river…

Timo

I will put more photos on the blog in the next days.

Greets Timo

Every year in Scotland, the SCA (http://canoescotland.org) organises a weekend long paddling festival, the Wet West Paddle Fest. There are 2 dam releases on different rivers scheduled, evening socials, films and talks and a big raffle. All the funds go to maintaining river access in Scotland.

This was really the first time I had been back in the boat since subluxing my shoulder on the Moneydrop in Norway, so I was taking it relatively easy and not going out of my comfort zone. I did manage to get on some quality whitewater though!
A big part of the festival is seeing all the paddlers from Scotland, England and Wales (and some further flung destinations). Our sport is truely great at bringing lots of people together.
I was even lucky enough to pick up a raffle prize. £540 worth of coaching at Glenmore Lodge! I guess I need all the coaching I can get after breaking myself in Norway…

Thanks to Dr. Peter Murray for photos and Julia Kraut and Cameron Reid for videos!

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Coming from a country where the paddling is so rain dependent, being able to find a grade 4/5 river under every second bridge was amazing! Usually if I got two days in a row of this level of paddling it would be nothing short of a miracle! Days could be as chilled out or as action packed as we liked. I really felt as if my boating came on lots on this trip, especially bigger volume boating (something not really found in the UK much).

Our trip was based around following the glacial melt and 4 of the paddling festivals; Voss, Valldal, Sjoa and the brand new Dagali festival. We were also lucky to find the Telemark region of the country going off near the end of July after a few big storms.

This trip has been by far my favourite so far, not just for the paddling. The paddling festivals give Norwegian paddling trips such a great social scene and I don’t think I’ve ever made so many friends and contacts in such a short space of time. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep in touch with lots of the great people I got to meet.

Close to the end of my trip I managed to dislocate my shoulder after an awkward landing on the Moneydrop of the Strondelvi river near Voss. As dislocations go, it wasn’t that bad, so I consider myself quite lucky. I’m hoping I don’t have too much time out the boat and I’ll be working hard on my physio to ensure I have a speedy recovery. I’ve already managed a bit of easy flatwater paddling so things are looking good!

After my accident I spent my time socializing, driving shuttles, watching movies and generally just relaxing. I couldn’t dream of a better place to do all of this but still obviously not quite as good as paddling.

All my new IR stuff performed great and I can’t say enough good things about it all. The quality of the gear really shows!

Norway is a country full of potential for paddling and there’s no surprise that so many people from all over the world make the annual pilgrimage. I’m 100% sure I’ll be back in Norway. I need to show that Moneydrop who’s boss. For anyone planning a Norway trip that’s wondering about logistics and costs, I’ve got a write up of mine here. I had quite an interesting trip in terms of getting about on freight ferries, trains and planes. I also added some tips and things I would take on board when I go back. I hope it can be of some use to an enthusiastic paddler looking to get out to Norway next year.

Look out for my video of the trip soon!

- Mark

I use the sprayskirt in size XL on a Pyranha Everest and tested it on steep creeks with waterfalls as well as on big water runs.First i can say the material and the construction is pretty tough. The neopren and the elastic rubber are well stiched together. Also the neon yellow grap loop is perfectly visible and easy to reach. So, if neccesary it´s no problem to get out of the boat quickly, which is a fact for me, you always have to consider when paddlng in whitewater. Like every new skirt, the first ten times i used it, it wasn´t so easy to get the Kling-On on the massive cockpit of the Everest. After some time it matches better while doesn´t loose it´s hold.

The dry lip of neopren does it´s job very well and I think my boat really stays dry with it.

But for sure the most important fact about a sprayskirt is, how stable is the hold on the boat. All I can say is that it never explode in the last six month i used it. I ran waterfalls where i really got deep in the pool but the Kling- On stays where it should be. I landed flat boofs which almost broke my back but it was no problem. Even on the big water runs it wasn´t impressed when massive waves chrashed down on my cockpit.

So in my opinion the Kling-On is a really good bungee skirt. My test only deals with pyranha boats, but i think it will work well on other cockpits, too. The guys of IR for sure, will help you to find the best fitting skirt for your boat. Just shoot them an e-mail and you get a perfect advice.

See you on the river,

Timo

This year, i got the chance to come to California, a dream i had for over five years. I was really excited because i heared and read so much about it. All the videos i saw, brought my endorphins to go crazy. Classic and steep rivers, blue sky and sun every day.

My first impressions were a little bit different. The first 10 days it rained all day long and the temperature seemed to gain never more than 10 degrees. I was really happy to have my Drysuit and Union suit Fleece with me. But anyhow sometimes it was hard to be motivated to paddle. In addition the waterlevels are crazy this year. Since there is a weather measure, the land has never seen so much snow. In some regions of California there is still a snowpack of two or three meters. The last two weeks the weather went more then good, with hot temperature and no clouds anymore. But with all the sun the snow begin to melt and most of the clasic rivers we wanted to run, raise apocalyptic high. Anyhow it is not so difficult to find good whitewater in California and so i had some awesome days there.

I think when you see the pictures, you know what i mean…

Now i´m preparing to go to norway for another three week paddle adventure. Life couldn´t be better at the moment.

Cheers Timo