Kayaking with the Wild Man Kurt Maurer.
Hi all, I went out with Kurt today and got a bit of expert instruction on rolling. We paddled all over the canals at Jamaica Beach on Galveston Island TX. Weather was a bit hot but we had some water and could cool down a bit by dipping ourselves. After a couple hours of cruising around, we found a nice sand bar to play around on and get a stretch. I was flopping over in the shallows and then rolling back up ala Jay Babina’s video. That isolates the roll to the last parts, sweep, hip snap, and sit up. I was getting that pretty good and Kurt helped a lot on explaining what I screwed up when I missed. After watching for a while, he said “are you ready for a complete roll yet?” I said sure, and we headed for deeper water. I had him as my security blanket to give me a bow assist if needed. 1st roll, nailed it same for second and third. As for the 4th roll, lets just say we had an opportunity to do a T rescue and an assisted re-entry. 
All in all, had a great time, came back tired and pumped to try it again. Thanks Kurt!!
We both had a chance to try each other’s boats, my sea ranger and Kurt’s outer island. The OI tracks like a train compared to the sea ranger. It also has more initial stability and I think just a bit more secondary. The sea ranger accelerates a bit quicker and turns better while underway and edging. One thing about the sea ranger is that I have room for me, a bottle of water, and a sponge in the cockpit. I have to paddle it bare footed because of my size 11 feet. I need to put a bit of 1/4 inch padding in the knee brace area and about 1/2 inch at the hips. Also needed is a paddle park and some more deck rigging. The boat seems pretty sensitive to load distribution, I had 3 bottles of water in a small cooler in the front hatch and it slid forward. this bit of weight added out front caused a bit of a bow wake that I hadn’t seen before. As far as paddling, I like this boat a bunch! Great little go getter.
I think I have talked Kurt into writing an entry for the blog, so if you see anything in his that contradicts what I said, he’s probably right. Here’s one of the better pictures of Kurt paddling the boat with a link to more.
Tony
