“If you smile at me I will understand ‘cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language.” – from “Wooden Ships” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash “Pilgrimage is necessary in some shape or other…We have to come to the end of a long journey and see that the stranger we meet there is […]
Rhode Island – The Ocean State: Personal Reflections of a Sea Kayaker
by Tony Moore Editor’s note: Tony Moore lives in Jamestown, R.I. with his wife Aline. He has been diving and spearfishing for almost 50 years and has been kayaking since 1997. Tony is also a certified Water Safety Instructor (American Red Cross). He coordinates several RICKA (Rhode Island Canoe & Kayaking Association) paddles every year, usually rock garden trips. He is a […]
Freaking Out in a Sea Kayak
Editor’s note: This article is one Eric had sketched out for 2012. “Over the years, I have learned that the biggest hidden threat is mental confusion caused by a combination of the ocean’s cosmic chaos and the mind’s inability to process it all. Symptoms include inability to communicate (listening and expressing) and perception distortion, coupled […]
Kayak Navigation Part 4: Dealing with Tidal Current by Using Eddies and Other Tactics
Editor’s note: Photography credits for this article go to June Legler. Thanks, June! by Tsunami Ranger John Lull Introduction Scroll back about 25 years: I’d paddled out the Golden Gate several times already, but this was my first voyage out on the day of a 6-knot ebb. I paddled across the Gate from Crissy Field […]
Fitness for Kayakers – Shoulders
Editor’s note: Thanks once again to Barbara Kossy for her patience and helpfulness as a model! Here’s another post on kayak fitness, this time for shoulders. Shoulders take a beating when we kayak. These simple exercises will help warm up your shoulders prior to paddling and release tension when you’re done. This stretch stretches the […]
Cold Water Safety – Golden Rule Number Four: Swim-Test Your Gear Every Time You Go Out
by Moulton Avery On January 15th, 2011, a very experienced and skilled whitewater paddler by the name of Ian Walsh drowned while paddling the Ogwen River in Wales, UK. The UK Rivers Guidebook describes the Ogwen as a “true classic Grade 4 trip”, one best undertaken at high water after a heavy rain. Walsh was […]
Who’s Your Sea Kayaking Mentor?
men’tor, n. (from Mentor, the friend and counselor of Odysseus and Telmachus) a wise and faithful counselor (Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary) Everyone needs a mentor, especially when undertaking a new and challenging endeavor. The Tsunami Rangers have mentored many sea kayakers. Tsunami Ranger Eric Soares introduced me to extreme sea kayaking in 1996. […]
Islands – Musings of A Nomad Sea Kayaker
by Tsunami Ranger Captain Jim Kakuk Flying over the blue Pacific coastline of Aotearoa “the land of the long white cloud” the view below is a daisy chain of small islands off the mainland, itself an island. New Zealand is comprised of 33 main islands and many more very small ones. In my life as […]
Fitness for Sea Kayakers – Wrists
Editor’s note: This is the first part of an occasional series on kayak fitness. And thanks to Barbara Kossy for being our model for this post! Fitness for kayakers is a hot topic. As we age it becomes quite important to spend some time keeping our bodies fit and prepared for activity with warm-ups and fitness regimes. As […]
Beach Games: Essential Sea Kayaking Skills Development OFF The Water
by Tsunami Ranger Steve King Forget about The Hunger Games and women’s Olympic beach volleyball! Here we describe the myriad beach games undertaken on most Tsunami Ranger retreats. One can train for these games anywhere and anytime but the true heat of competition and glorious victory only takes place when competing against one’s fellow paddlers […]
Eric Soares 8/1/53 – 2/1/12 RIP
Editor’s note: Eric wrote this poem in November, 1971. The picture of Vishnu was in his computer files. I kept his original punctuation. Adieu, Adieu I’m a success story What are you? I’ve accomplished everything I’ve nothing to do. You’ve got time to live and time to learn You must experience getting burned. Life is […]
Cold Water Safety – Golden Rule Number 3: Field-Test Your Gear
by Moulton Avery Editor’s note: This is the second in a 4 part series on cold water safety by Moulton Avery. Moulton is an expert on heat and cold stress. He gave his first public lecture on hypothermia in 1974. He was executive director of the Center for Environmental Physiology in Washington, DC for ten years, and […]
Lore, Legends, and Magic – Magical Thinking and the Tsunami Ranger Approach to Sea Kayaking
“Let me not hear facts, figures and logic; fain would I hear lore, legends and magic.” (From “Roots of Oak” by Donovan) What is magical thinking? I first encountered this phrase in an article about grief. A man had died of cancer and his 11-year old daughter thought she was responsible for her father’s death […]