Looking Back Adventure Kayak ’s Fi r s t 10 Year s in Sea Kayaking
Sit back to take a look at all that has changed in the world of sea kayaking in the past 10 (okay, nine) years and you’ll soon find out—well, it’s not a hell of a lot. But in a world where everything else is morphing at the pace of Silicon Valley, isn’t that kind of nice? Here’s a look back at some of the highlights, gaffs and refreshing constants that have graced the pages of Adventure Kayak since 2001.
Always, Always
c l a s s i c l i n e s
Eat Well Unlike backpackers and canoe- ists who have to carry their food, kayakers are the ultimate culinary adventurers. “I hope to convince you that a paddling trip is really just an excuse to eat great food,” wrote Tarmo Poldmaa in our premiere issue, setting the table for a decade of decadence in our longest-running column, Paddling Gourmet. We tried canning it (pun intended) in 2006 but faced revolt from hungry readers who’d swallowed Poldmaa’s credo: “Eat better when camping than you do at home!”
Prints
to Pixels “The last and most important item is film,” wrote pro photographer Rick Matthews in “The Bare Essentials Camera Kit” in our first issue. That was only nine years ago and every real pro was still sending us slides. In 2003 Matthews confessed he’d bought his first digital SLR camera and we’ve since gone from peering through a loupe at transparencies on a light table to cataloging digital files
on terabyte hard drives. We just found an old sheet of slides in our files from the last photographer to send us any. We returned them by mail and the same day received DVD of new digital images from the same guy.
Plus Ça
According to the website this kayak almost builds itself. Got up Saturday morning and was surprised to find kayak had NOT built itself. This is going to be more work than I
thought. Dale Swain, “Kayak Kit Boats, Reality Magazine Episode 1,” issue 4
Trusty sea kayak, let me point you in the direction where the destination is unknown. Take me out of my predictable everyday life and make
me whole. Frank Wolf, “Bird Nests & Bang, Bang”, issue 4
2002
Change Unlike whitewater kayaking, downhill skiing and other sports whose tools have changed shape every couple years, the only trends in sea kayaking seem to bring it closer to its origins. The Current Designs Gulfstream had already been around a while when we reviewed it in ’03, but it’s still popular today. In 2008 we reviewed the plastic version of the Valley Nordkapp’s decades-old design. We like being in a sport where Greenland rolls with homemade paddles is a hot trend, and not a year goes by that you can’t buy a brand new drysuit in mango. The only danger is reviewing the same gear twice, like the North Water Expedition Deck Bag (2001, 2004), the Lendal Kinetik Touring Paddle (2001, 2008) and the Chota Quicklace Mukluk (2001, 2009)—oops. You’ll have to look it up to see if our opinions changed.
If I had to choose between an old bearded local with a wishbone- shaped piece of alder witching around like some Gregorian- chanting Ray Charles and a 12- year-old in flip-flops dragging a recreational kayak, I’d be drilling my well wherever she said there was
water. Scott MacGregor, “No Batteries Required,” issue 3
A dependable roll is the ultimate self-rescue technique, period. End of story. If that’s not enough, knowing that you won’t have to exit your boat unexpectedly means that you can
paddle nude. Alex Matthews, “Rolling…Evil Exercise or Reliable Rescue?” issue 3
2001
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