PADDLING SEASON is HERE!
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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP
CHRIS GRAGTMANS: Downtime for Gragt- mans, a full-time paddlesports professional and member of Team Dagger, means moun- tain biking, hitting the gym and planning the next paddling trip. Writing about paddling slides (Kayak Technique, page 20) “reminded me of my first time down the Toxaway River in North Carolina,” says Gragtmans. “It is an unreal place filled with some of the smooth- est, largest slides on the continent.”
MARILYN SCRIVER: When she isn’t stand up paddling or pounding nails into her log cabin, Scriver is shooting breathtaking photos of her family’s outdoor adventures, from canoe- ing the Nahanni to kayaking in Baja. Sons Ian and Paul are frequent muses. “It’s fun watching Paul surfing…He inherited that silly grin from his father!” she says of the image in this issue’s Watercolors (page 12).
MICHAEL MECHAN: Since wrestling the back end of Rapid Media’s first-ever, 156-page Paddling Buyer’s Guide into submission last year, Mechan has become the Rapid editorial team’s go-to man for unruly projects. For the “Best and Worst Boats Chosen by You” beginning on page 27, he distilled the survey results into an immensely readable portrait of whitewater design history and popular opinion.
BETH KENNEDY: Rapid designer and open boat devotee (she says reports of its death are greatly exaggerated), Beth Kennedy, stole time from her production duties to share tips for learning to love your offside (Open Canoe Technique, page 21). She explains, “It’s amazing how many paddlers I run into who are pretty advanced but still don’t feel bomber on their offside.”
IAN MERRINGER: Former longtime editor of sister publication, Canoeroots & Family Camp- ing, Merringer served two heady years at the helm of Rapid in the era of the Orbit Fish, Ben Aylsworth rants, Wave Sport boats with alphabet soup names, a near-fatal brush with litigation after printing an inappropriate photo, the Worlds in Oz and running shuttles in a pre- release 400-horsepower Vette. And that was just 2005. Never one to balk at a challenge, Merringer reports on the death of open boat- ing (Standing Waves, page 16) in this issue.
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PADDLING BUYERS GUIDE
2012 ANNUAL TOP 350+ BOATS & GEAR
The Year’s Best Gear
PADDLEBOARDS • DRYSUITS • PADDLES • PFDS CANOES • KAYAKS • WHITEWATER 2012 ANNUAL • $5.95
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PADDLE BETTER: HERE’S HOW • EXPERT BUYING TIPS • ROYAL CANOES BEST PADDLING FILMS EVER • PEER REVIEW: THE CONTACT TOW THE SOLO TABOO • KEVIN CALLAN’S BUSHCRAFT BLUNDERS p.153
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PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE): ASHLEY WOODRING, MARK SCRIVER, VIRGINIA MARSHALL, MARILYN SCRIVER, SCOTT MACGREGOR
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