Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Kayak's...check, PFD's...check, Paddles...check!

Great news arrived yesterday when Jordan at Ocean River called Robyn to let her know that our new Delta 15.5 Expeditions have arrived! Yipeee!!!  But since we are so busy with work (thank goodness) this week that we have arranged to pick them up this Saturday at 09:30.  I still can't believe we are doing this!!!

The past 7 weeks have given us a lot of time to research, try on and play with the things that will make our paddling adventures safe and fun. We have acquired our Scotty Paddle Sports Accessory Kit that includes a 21" Hand Pump, Throw Bag and Life Saver Whistle. Our other Scotty items include Sea Lights, Paddle Leash, Paddle Clip, extra whistles and various Snap Hooks. We have used Scotty products while fishing for many years and it is great to be adding their products to our Kayak equipment inventory.

Next up on our list was to check out a number of PFD's and we were very pleased to select the Kokatat OutFIT Tour and MsFit Tour models. We like the fact that they have lots of gadget pockets, are fully adjustable to fit our middle age bodies :-), offer a great range of motion and they look great and feel great as well. We also choose the Kokatat Gore-Tex Deluxe Sea Skirt for a few reasons. As new paddlers rolling our kayaks is pretty much out of the question at this time so if we capsize it will be a wet exit anyway. The Kokatat skirt is light weight, has an antipooling bar, adjustable Smoothskin neoprene waist closure, pile lined hand warmer, zippered mesh deck pocket and other features.

Although not 100% positive yet, we are looking at a Aqua-Bound Sting Ray Hybrid paddle for Robyn and I am leaning towards the Eagle Ray Carbon version. We are both low to mid angle paddlers and I feel that I need a fairly stiff blade. Although a really nice fiberglass or carbon fiber blade would be sweet we need paddles that can get beat up a bit and the higher end price range at this point doesn't make sense.

This past weekend we test fit the Kokatat skirt as well as Delta's cockpit cover and they fit perfect! It's going to be a busy, fun morning this coming Saturday and hopefully the weather Gods will allow us a test run possibly on Elk Lake in the afternoon.

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