pknoerr wrote:
Dan. wrote:
I seem to vaugly remember a trip to the Ottawa where we were going to decide empiricaly if canoe could plane or not....
As I recall i was the only guy that showed up who could cross and eddyline without swimming....
Some dude fell out of his lifejacket because that guy hadn't tested his rescue system before.
.
Not to be too pedantic

, but "flack" was my word

, and I know how to cross eddylines

. So you must mean that you can take a Jab

.
No PK, remember... you weren't there. That was a return jab at me.
We never did test the planing theory. I was in a boat with another WW weenie and we tried to do as instructed. Later on, we went off on our own and did it our own way and we were fine.
But I seem to remember a certain dude counting fish for a very long time while we watched perplexed as we examined the bottom of his Zepher. Seemed not the time or place to try to learn to roll.
As for the PFD, I told the friends/instructors that I was nervous about the poor fit. I don't have what you'd call a typical body plan and am exceedingly hard to fit. They tugged hard on the shoulder straps and said it should be fine. Oh, well...

I've since gotten a vest that can't slip up on me so I'm ready to rock and roll.
As far as technical rope advice, I'd hardly consider what I said to be "technical". I've been handling rope almost on a daily basis for twice as long as the young dude has been alive. You learn something along the way.
Besides, you can practice in a controlled situation until the cows come home. Who cares, really? When you are out in the real world, things happen differently every time. The guy I'd trust is someone who has an ability to instantly see lines and directions of pull and vectors and all that stuff.
Yes, I used a come-along to get my canoe out from underneath a log (why would I bring a knife to a gunfight?), but a lot more went into getting that boat out. Some rope was needed to get the pull at the exact angle, a large underwater branch had to be cut with a bow saw in water so cold I couldn't feel my hands. I had two very inexperienced helpers who seemed helplessly confused about my rigging, but when we cranked on that lever the boat popped out like a molar from an octogenarian's jaw.
I've been solving mechanical problems all my life and I have a high degree of confidence when encountering novel situations of any sort, whether it's raising a two ton machine at a friend's shop, pulling a car out of axle-deep mud (I do that several times each spring) or extracting a boat from behind a rock.
Dan, you ought to come down here in the spring and we can sit around the fire and play with rope. Maybe you can teach me a few things about it.
While you're here, I can introduce you to a few WW places that you will like. The West Branch of the Ausable has some nice rapids, then there's the Hudson River Gorge and a couple of miles on the Indian River. The Indian is kid's stuff, only rated Class III... but when you wipe out on it I'll be there on the sidelines to help you retrieve your boat.
