Elbow pads are that piece of gear that you never really think you need until you smack the crap out of your elbow. For me, it’s usually my boat that I hit my elbows on and more when I’m playboating than anything else. I started wearing elbow pads when I started creek boating. It seemed like a good idea. Honestly, I wore them mostly to try and prevent putting holes in my dry suit. For a couple years I tried a couple different pads that never stayed where I wanted them. I managed to put three holes in the elbows of my dry suit all while wearing elbow pads, so they weren’t protecting me or my suit. Eventually I just gave up on them all together. Sometimes people would ask me why I wasn’t wearing elbow pads or they would offer me their spares, assuming I had just forgotten mine. I took a few hits over time that had made me fearful I could have really damaged something and certainly made me rethink my no elbow pad philosophy. I just didn’t see the point though. Even if I had pads on they wouldn’t have been on my elbow where I got hit at the moment when I needed them. They never stay in place.

Well, I think I have finally found the solution. G Form elbow pads. I just got some and so far they are the pads elbow pads I’ve ever worn. I put them on against my bare skin under whatever other layers I might be wearing. They are stretchy and comfortable. They have a grippy rubber around the inside of the arm opening that helps keep them from sliding down (similar to the leg openings on bike shorts). They are super comfortable. The first time I wore them on the river I completely forgot I was wearing them. When I took my gear off at the end of the day I was actually surprised to find them on my arms. They are that unrestrictive. I haven’t taken a hard hit with them yet, but I did run around elbowing rocks and trees. I think they are going to do great when I need them. I can at least be sure that they will be on my elbows and not my wrists when I need them. If you’re tired of elbow pads that don’t stay put I’d recommend checking them out.

The title might sound confusing. That’s ok. I meant it to. In this article I want to talk a little about competitive mindset and how I measure success in competition. Last weekend was the Feather River Festival and the Tobin Down River Race. This festival and this race have been a favorite event of mine for several years now. This year was the biggest and best yet and only slightly different for me in the race. This year was the first year that I decided that I was not only going to race but I was going to win the race. I decided this months ago really. I spent the summer getting into the best paddling shape I’ve been in for several years. I know the race course as well as anybody, and better than most. I have the fastest boat under 9ft that exists today. I went into this race with all the right parts to win it and I felt confident that I could. Well, I didn’t win, but I’ve never been so excited to lose.

I took off out of the start and from the first stroke until the last I paddled as hard as I could. I took the fastest lines I knew all the way down and made only a couple minor mistakes. I finished with a time of 15:19. About 40 seconds off the winner. You might be wondering why I’m so excited about my performance even though I didn’t win. Here’s why. Even though I didn’t win I did put down the fastest time I’ve ever had in this race. I had the best race run I’ve ever had in this race. I went 100% all out for the entire race and placed higher than I ever have before. I put it all on the water and I have no regrets. For me, competing is about beating myself. When it matters can I put down a the best run I know I can?  If I do that then I can go home super stoked with my results. It doesn’t matter if I’m first or last. If ran my very best race then I am stoked to do that. I love racing and I’d like to see more people getting into it at all levels. Sometimes though I think people shy away because they think, “I’m not going to win.” It doesn’t have to be about beating the other racers. It can just be about showing yourself that you can make it to the finish. It can just be about being there as one part of the whole. I think competition adds to our camaraderie and sense of community, as long as we can all not let ourselves take it too seriously. Don’t get so hung up on the rankings at the end that you forget how fun it was to be out there on your own paddling as fast as you could down that race course. Get out there and do the best you can and be proud of that.  This time my best wasn’t enough to claim the victory but that’s ok. I’ll be faster next time. Till then, see you on the river.

Pete

This is a short highlight reel of some runs on the NF Feather at last weekends festival. I’m working on a write up with photos that will be up soon. In the meantime check out some funs lines on the river.

A few days ago while perched on my photo rock at Hospital Bar on the South Fork American river, I had an encounter with a paddler stuck in the catcher’s mitt that got me thinking a little about how we react when things go less than ideal on the river.

If you’re not familiar with the south fork, the catcher’s mitt is comprised of an undercut rock and a couple other rocks that are strategically placed to create a less than ideal place to go. Rafts get stuck here frequently and kayakers from time to time as well. It is less than ideal and sometimes results in scrapes and bruises but under normal circumstances I wouldn’t consider it life threatening.

It was close to the end of the day for me when two paddlers came through the rapid and both flipped in the hole. They both rolled up but one of them took a little too long and wound up in the mitt. She was under the undercut with the point of the rock more or less over her spray skirt. Definitely less than an ideal place to be, but her head was above water and she was stable. I climbed down to the water from my perch to lend her a hand. When I got down to her she seemed a little freaked out. (Understandable. I don’t like being stuck when kayaking either.) “What do I do,” she asked me. “Take a deep breath and try to relax. You’re going to be ok,” was my first instruction. I then talked her through how I was going to pull her free and line her up with the exit and send her on her way. That went just fine and I hope she had an enjoyable rest of her day on the river.

Things don’t always go to plan on the river, but most of the time there is a simple remedy. I guess the moral of the story I’m trying to tell here is this, if your head is above water and you’re stable, you’re ok. I know it is hard to remember in that moment but if you can, take a few deep breaths, relax, and evaluate your options. Often times you’ll find your situation is less dire than you may have thought at first and you can avoid making it worse.

Remember, it takes experience to get good at handling things when they go wrong. If they never go wrong you can’t get that experience. Breath, relax, and have fun out there.

Immersion Research Dry Wear

Most companies that make kayaking gear today started out as a group of people making gear in someone’s garage. They were kayakers who wanted a better piece of gear for themselves and their friends to use. They cared deeply about making the best product possible because they were going to entrust not only their own lives to their product but also the lives of their friends. Over the natural course of time those companies grew into the businesses we know and love today. They are the companies that make the tools that allow us to pursue our passion on the water but did they lose something along the way? Sometimes I get the impression that our paddling companies may be forgetting their roots. Sometimes it seems that profits and the bottom line are what is driving decisions and policies at these companies. That may be the norm for other industries but in paddle sports we are just too small. I need a product designed, manufactured, and sold by people who know first hand what I am going to do with it. I want a product that embodies the spirit of the river and embraces the lifestyle that goes along with it. What happened to those companies? Immersion Research is still one of those companies in many ways. In more ways perhaps than any other. They are a small company based in Confluence Pennsylvania. The people who work there are paddlers who are just as stoked to squeeze in an early morning  paddle before work as the rest of us are. They know first hand what our gear needs to be able to do and stand up to. They live the river lifestyle and they still care very much about making the best possible piece of gear, not only for their customers but for themselves and their friends.

IR Double Stitched Outer Gasket

I have been wearing an Immersion Research  dry suit & dry top for a couple months now and there are a few features that really stand out to me. The first is this double stitch thing they do with their neoprene outer gaskets. At first I didn’t know what it was for. I just thought it looked kinda weird, but I soon realized it is very functional. As you probably already know, the sun is one of the biggest killers of latex gaskets. Every other company that sells dry tops & dry suits  uses something to cover the latex gaskets. IR is the first that I have seen to use this approach, and it is the first that I have seen that actually works. The extra stitch ensures that the latex gasket stays covered all day. I have been wearing this gear every day since March (about 5 months now) and I have not once seen my gaskets exposed to the sun. This superior sun protection will ensure that your gaskets last longer and keep you drier.

 Plastic Dry Suit Zipper

If you you’ve had the same dry suit for a few seasons and you have one with a metal zipper you are probably familiar with wrestling your zipper open or closed. For me it was always the relief zipper. Didn’t seem to matter how often I cleaned it or how much of that zipper lube I used. When I really needed to get it open it was almost a two person job. With the plastic zippers on my Immersion Research dry suit I’m finding I don’t have to ask my friends for awkward favors any more. The zippers slide smoothly and are just as water tight as the metal ones. Another bonus is, if you are wearing your suit in salt water, you don’t have to worry about corrosion on the plastic.   IR offers both a front and a rear zip dry suit. Whatever your preference, IR has you covered.

Latex Dry Suit Socks

Prior to getting an Immersion Research dry suit, I had seen latex socks on suits but never worn them. I had some reservations about them since I typically always had to replace my gaskets every year. (I wear my dry gear almost every day.) I was worried that these too would break down at the rate of the other latex components. I haven’t had my IR dry suit long enough to know how that is going to play out but I have found one unexpected plus to these socks over the other style. The are comfortable. Since they are latex they stretch and conform to your foot when you put them on much like any other sock would. They then fit inside your creek shoes without having all the extra material bunched up beside your toes and on the sides of your feet. I definitely prefer these for comfort over the fabric ones. The latex socks come standard on the Arch Rival dry suit but you can custom order either sock on the 7 Figure or Arch Rival suit.

IR Dry Suits and Tops Fit!

I started kayaking in 1997. Coincidentally that is the same year that IR started making kayaking gear. I have worn a lot of different things in that time. I started out in slalom racing and then moved to freestyle kayaking. Most recently I have been moving back toward racing and starting to dabble in sea kayaking. I have not worn any other dry top or dry suit that fit me the way the 7 figure does. It is cut to perfection. It leaves me so free to move that I forget I’m wearing it and yet it doesn’t have all the baggy extra material of other tops I’ve had in the past. I used to get my dry top and dry suit a size up to be sure to have room for layering and movement, but I ended up with a bunch of extra bagginess that felt like a sail when I was swimming. With the 7 Figure I don’t have that problem any more. It doesn’t matter if i’m play boating, creeking, or looking for whales off the coast, the 7 Figure moves with me and never gets in my way.

Customer Service, Repairs, and Warranty

Warranty. Everyone wants to know about warranty. We will spend twenty to thirty thousand dollars on a car that only comes with a 36 month limited warranty, but if we are going to spend $800 on a piece of gear for our recreation time we want to know that it is going to out live us. IR has an industry leading warranty but we don’t seem to know about it. They guarantee their product against defects in the material and the craftsmanship for life. Now lets be fair and dive into the details of what that means a little. If a seam starts to come unstitched, that is a defect in craftsmanship and it will be fixed. If you fall down a hill at the put in and tear your dry top, that is not a defect. Not to worry though, IR will repair this kind of accidental damage at a very reasonable cost. Their customer service is the best I’ve seen anywhere. When you contact them you can rest assured that the person on the other end is a kayaker and knows exactly what you are talking about. They use this same gear themselves. I bought my first Lucky Charm skirt when they first came out. After having it for a couple years and wearing it on the river around 500 times the deck started to get little holes and it wasn’t so dry any more. I got on the instant message service on the Immersion Research web site and told them what was happening and asked what they could do. They had me send in the skirt. They patched the deck with some neoprene and sent it back to me. The whole process took 10-14 days maybe and I think it cost between $20 and $30. I got another 300 – 400 days out of that skirt before finally retiring it. Can you guess what skirt I got next? If you guessed another IR you’re right. I’m now using the new royal and loving it. A few weeks ago I paddled 6 laps on the NF Feather and didn’t have one sponge worth of water in my boat the whole day. I know from experience that I’m gonna get a lot of days out of this skirt and when it finally does wear out IR is going to be there to help me extend its life a little further.

Please leave a comment and share your thoughts about Immersion Research gear. Good, bad, or indifferent we want to know what you think.

Cheers,

Pete