Travels with Paddles

a sea kayaking journal

Axel Schoevers (Photo: A. de Krook) Name:
Axel Schoevers
Location:
Rijswijk, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Helen Ready !


I needed some (p)repa(i)ring for the Helen Wilson event that Freek with support from Arjen Bloem and Tahé Marine are organizing upcoming weekend.

I tore my latex neck gasket in my dry-suit. Amazingly this is my first gasket replacement ever. My dry-suit is now four years old. I have yet to replace any wrist seals. I have to add that I wear my Kokatat stuff thread-bare. This is a bit different from what I hear that many have to replace their neck gaskets (bi-)annually. Anyway, my guess is that being bald (no fatty hair) has some advantages after all. Furthermore taking very good care of the seals might also have helped!

The Helen Wilson event is generously sponsored by Arjen Bloem and Tahé Marine. I am only to bring my own Greenland paddle. That is, it is one of Freya's and made by Don Beale, and it is black. It goes well with my black dry-suit and a (probably) black Greenland-T kayak that I can try.

Although the Greenland rolling still remains a bit off main-stream sea kayaking, the rolling progressions (body awareness) of Greenland rolling are highly recommended for anyone wanting to learn (and coach !) rolling, regardless of kayaking discipline.


P.S. I opted to remove the complete gasket from the fabric, because the latex had started to go a tiny bit loose from the fabric. Now I understand the Kokatat recommendation not to completely remove the gasket when not needed... It is a lot of work. The gluing was easy with the custom-made wooden (and no-stick Trespa) rings.

No comments: