I’m happy to help answer your questions ranging from Greenland-style technique, making Greenland paddles, wing technique, Water Tribe / ultra-distance kayak racing, kayak expeditions, kayak camping, surf kayaking and more.
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A: I have seen some late Garmin GPS units using Bluecharts come configured by default, where oddly, you do not see the names of any islands. For example, you will see the the details and outline of islands on your screen but you will have no clue what they are named. I’ve had a few people ask me about this.
As you say, calls to Garmin Support often result in incorrect information that you need to load additional maps, topo maps, that Bluechart doesn’t support, etc.
Oddly my older Garmin GPSMap units don’t have this issue. Fortunately this is an easy configuration change to fix: (more…)
A: Hello Setsuko,
Many classic British sea kayaks have a strong West Greenland influence. While I like the control afforded by hard chines, the overall shape of the kayak is much more important than just hard-chined or round-bilged, when it comes to tracking, weathercocking and broaching.
Greenland kayaks, even from the same general area, can behave very differently, so it’s impossible to generalize. I have paddled kayaks in West Greenland, built in the same town, that weathercocked viciously and others that tracked strongly. I find that the kayaks that exhibit the most weathercocking often have very low volume and very “pinched” ends (when viewed from above), combined with strong rocker. While this often gives superb maneuverability (and a certain aesthetic appeal), it can make the kayak quick to weathercock/broach. (more…)
A: JP, I have an ONNO carbon foot bar (foot plate) mounted in my NDK Greenlander Pro and love it. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the ONNO foot bar is a very lightweight, wide carbon plate that mounts to your existing Yakima pedals (stock installation is with screws). The hardware is provided to modify your current Yakima aluminum rails so that they are parallel so that the solid foot plate can be adjusted fore/aft without binding. (more…)