Skip to main content

Another Maiden Voyage

On my upcoming trip to Maine it is likely that a majority of the kayakers will be paddling Wilderness Systems Tempests - certainly it will be a plurality. It's just a nice, well-balanced do-it-all boat. It's the Honda Accord of kayaks*. Not the fastest, not the most maneuverable, not the roomiest, not the easiest to roll or the most playful in surf, but just a good balance of every characteristic. The other nice thing is that it comes in three sizes, so it can fit just about any paddler: there's a sixteen inch height range among the Tempest paddlers in my circle.

Test Drive at PoG


I own a Tempest 165 (the "Baby Bear" size) in plastic. Great boat, but being plastic it's heavy, slow, and has developed a serious "oil can" dent in the bottom. I always keep my eye out for good deals on fiberglass 165's, but they don't come on the market too often. More often you see the "Mama Bear" 170 size, which is tooooo big for me.

So, when I recently spotted a fiberglass Tempest 165 for sale in New Jersey I pounced on it. After a little head-scratching over how to do the deal without having to drive ten hours I discovered that by serendipity my son David was heading for New Jersey - just 30 minutes away from the seller - to attend an event. I made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and he agreed to go get the boat for me. He got home with it late on a Sunday night. We took it off the car, I put it in the backyard with a cockpit cover on it, and then really didn't look at it for a couple of days. It was only when I opened it up to adjust the thigh braces and seat that I realized that (I'm pretty sure) it's actually the kevlar layup. Certainly the feel when I pick it up seems to say kevlar. So I think I got an even better deal than I was expecting.

Anyway, I took it out for its maiden paddle last night and it was wonderful. Just like my other Tempest, but even more Tempestuous! Rolled it and the hatches stayed dry. All is good.

It is, in addition, the twin of Tall Tom's kayak, except that he has the "Poppa Bear" Tempest 180 size. Same red color. Same layup. So we look like twins when we paddle now. I expected to get some "mini-Me" jokes, but Tom came up with a better one: I am his "Skinny me".

*Reggie calls it the Toyota Camry of kayaks but he is wrong.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Apostle Islands: Gordon Lightfoot Warned Us

This entry is part of my write-up of a September 2024 trip to The Apostle Islands. The story begins  here . Thursday 9/5 Thursday morning we drove the roughly 20 minutes to our launch point at Little Sand Bay in The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Upon our arrival we were met by Ranger Angel (it makes sense that the Apostles have a guardian Angel, right?), who directed us as to where to launch, checked our permits, gave us useful information about the weather, and told us how to describe our location ifwe needed to call 911 (!). She also gave us a once-over and declared that we appeared to be "shipshape". It is not her responsibility to evaluate people's ability to paddle in the open waters of Lake Superior, but by her own admission if she detects that people don't have the appropriate skills or preparation, she'll gently steer them to safer courses of action.   Loading the kayaks at Little Sand Bay Many people are familiar with Gordon Lightfoot's song The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Visiting Charles in Upstate New York

Looking back, growing up I was friends with a lot of the weird kids. It makes me think - maybe I was a weird kid too? Let's table that line of thought for now, but along those lines, let me tell you about my friend Charles, who was a textbook example of ADHD before ADHD was even in the textbook.  For the record, ADHD was added to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM) in 1968. Coincidentally, that's the same year Charles and I met, and yes, he's an ADHD dude. A smart kid, he nonetheless never paid attention in class and typically spent class reading a comic book he had hidden inside whatever book we were supposed to be reading - when he even bothered to sit in his seat and pretend to pay attention. During our college years Charles attended something of a party school, where he focused more on party than school. As a live-at-home commuter student, I loved that I could visit Charles and get a taste of the ov...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Guilty Pleasure

I have to admit that I feel guilty doing it. It's just not something that people like me do. In fact, I have spent years looking down on people who do it. I'm talking about powersports. Activities which involve using a motor to have fun. I have always been a people-powered person. On the water I scowl at jet skiers and water ski boats. On the cross-country ski trails I shake my head at people who ruin the pristine winter wilderness with snowmobiles. Being something of a car guy, I go a little easier on the pleasures of motorized vehicles on land. I don't expect car owner to be a super-miler in a Prius, but I also give a pretty wide berth to ATVs and dirt bikes. But now I'm motorcycling. Over the summer I fulfilled a "bucket list" item by learning to ride a motorcycle (Valerie took the class too). For the last month or so I've been tooling around on a borrowed Kawasaki Vulcan cruiser, and I must say I'm enjoying it. Riding a motorcycle is ridiculous...
Post a Comment
Read more