Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view

Tag: custom (Page 2 of 2)

What’s On The End Of The Stick, Vic?

A couple of weeks ago I got in touch with Stu Morris from Vertical Element (VE) paddles as I wanted some custom carbon work done for an upcoming project.

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I have been using a set of VE paddles for years and love the design, feel and robustness of the setup. So Stu seemed to be the ideal man to contact. After a few emails and quick telephone conversation Stu confirmed that he was able to come up with a solution pretty quickly.

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Fall Line Canoes – Welding Magic

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Take a Dagger Nomad hull, a Pyranha Burn’s side walls and a Zet Director deck and mix in some welding magic and you get something like this.

Fall Line Canoes have created this superb OC1 using a Nomad, Burn and Director. Simply awesome.

If you haven’t heard of Fall Line Canoes please check them out, they make the best canoe airbags available.

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Kayak Outfitting Guide

From the very first moment you sit in a boat you start to get “a feel for it”, how it fits and possibly even how it may perform. As beginners we start off in boats that may be used by many different size paddlers, which results in cockpits being kept clutter free. Loose, comfortable boats feel good on flat water, but they can make leaning and bracing difficult. Once the boat is padded to provide a close, body-hugging fit that still allows for quick and easy water exits, performance can dramatically improve. This same rule applies to all levels of kayakers, whether they’re paddling easy whitewater, big water runs or creeks. Customised outfitting helps transfer every trace in the river’s current through the kayak’s hull to your body, helping you sense your surroundings, make critical maneuvers and maintain your balance, thus staying upright!

Kayak Outfitting Guide

Since paddlers press against their boat’s inner hull with the small of their backs, butts, hips, thighs, knees and feet, it is these key areas that should be customised to match the shape and size of the paddler. To make this as easy as possible I am going to break the cockpit into a handful of sections and tailor each one to help you get the best control possible from your boat. Many boat manufacturers have really stepped up their game and are providing some excellent outfitting as standard in their kayaks. However these systems still need adapting in some way to ensure that they fit YOU correctly.

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Big Pond Kayaks

Big Pond Sea Kayaks are a new kayak manufacturing company based in the Isle of Man.

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Big Pond Kayaks is owned and run by Stephen Marsh.

I haven’t paddled any of Stephen’s designs as yet but they do look pretty good. Well worth finding out more.

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Yak – Wrapz

A little bit of work from the UK team behind Yak – Wrapz can be seen here. I reckon this Jackson boat wrapped in the Union flag looks pretty good.

Yak - Wrapz

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Peak UK Custom Drysuit – Review

I have now been using a Peak UK Custom drysuit for about 6 months on rivers and for playboating and I have been very pleased with it. Not only is the drysuit really good quality but the ability to have your own customised design incorporated really well into it makes for a winning combination.

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One of the key features about this drysuit is that it is made out of their X3 material not the X4 that some of Peak’s other kit is made out of. Now this comes with a selection of pros and cons that will depend really on what the individual paddler would want from their suit. Trying on the Peak whitewater one piece in the shop, the X4 material felt quite heavy to wear although I don’t imagine this would greatly affect movement on the water too much. The custom suit with the X3 however feels much lighter.

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Craftsmanship At Its Best – Unsponsored T Shirts By Dewerstone

Unsponsored HQ received a number of deliveries including the new line of Unsponsored T Shirts hand printed here in the UK by Dewerstone.

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Buff Obsession

It would be fair to say I have a problem with Buffs. To put it simply I think they are great and I own loads!

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Kokatat GoreTex Meridian Drysuit – Review

Nick Pearce gives us his views on the Kokatat Meridian Drysuit (Goretex).

So, for the last 6 months I have been using the very well tried-and-tested Kokatat GoreTeX Meridian drysuit. Before this suit I used an array of dry suits from the likes of Palm and Level 6.

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Custom Drysuit?

Kokatat make some of the best kayaking kit – period. Kokatat’s reputation for well fitting and bomber kit is well deserved.

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As yet I haven’t been fortunate to try out any Kokatat kit, but I am blown away at the fact I could have a custom drysuit direct from the factory. This is well worth checking out.

Here is my custom Gore Tex Meridian.

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Double Glueing

In some respects the birth of uber flexible outfitting in kayaks has killed off the need for the many hours spent shaping and glueing foam together to get that perfect fit. However if you are not using a bean bag footrest or want some outfitting that is a little bit more bespoke then you do need to rely upon cutting/shaping and glueing foam.

Double Glueing
Double Glueing
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Outfitting 101

From the very first moment you sit in a boat you start to get “a feel for it”, how it fits and possibly even how it may perform. As beginners we start off in boats that may be used by many different size paddlers, which results in cockpits being kept clutter free. Loose, comfortable boats feel good on flat water, but they can make leaning and bracing difficult. Once the boat is padded to provide a close, body-hugging fit that still allows for quick and easy water exits, performance can dramatically improve. This same rule applies to all levels of kayakers, whether they’re paddling easy whitewater, big water runs or creeks. Customised outfitting helps transfer every trace in the river’s current through the kayak’s hull to your body, helping you sense your surroundings, make critical maneuvers and maintain your balance, thus staying upright!

Jnr Jackson tweaking his Jackson Kayak!
Outfitting 101

Since paddlers press against their boat’s inner hull with the small of their backs, butts, hips, thighs, knees and feet, it is these key areas that should be customised to match the shape and size of the paddler. To make this as easy as possible I am going to break the cockpit into a handful of sections and tailor each one to help you get the best control possible from your boat.

Continue reading
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