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By Tom Todd

The best piece of advice I can give a new paddler is “don’t buy a boat.” Buying the wrong boat is very expensive as used boats sell for 50% of the new boat price, if you can sell them. New paddlers very often buy the wrong boat, especially if it is a kayak. I’ve heard a hundred sad stories.

The best thing to do is to rent different boats for a while.

As you come on trips, your skills improve. You can also politely ask other paddlers if you can try their boat to see if you fit and you like it.

Boats, especially kayaks, are designed for different purposes, paddler sizes, skill levels, paddler weight, payload, tracking, and performance.

A few trips will get your skill level past that of wanting a beginners boat and if you’ve bought one, you’re stuck. If you buy an advanced boat right off the bat, your learning will be hampered and you may end up not liking the sport because you got frustrated.

You will also find, that as you see other people’s boats, how they handle, and then try them out you will get a much better idea of what you want. If you get the opinions of numerous active paddlers while you are paddling with them, then you will be far better off than using the advice of a salesman, no matter how often she paddles. You just cannot get the feel of a boat and how you are going to use it at a “demo day” no matter how much the saleswoman tries to convince you otherwise. Tell them you will use the sales discount offered “this day only” on another day or will buy a boat from someone else. They’ll agree. If not, that 10 or 20 percent discount is trivial in comparison to the 50 percent loss of trying to sell the boat that you don’t want and that is making you unhappy in the precious little time you get to go paddling.

If you find that renting a boat is impossible or inhibiting your getting to paddle, then buy a used boat from another paddler. You can then sell the boat shortly and not take the loss of selling a boat you bought new.

Lots of used boats are listed on the NHAMC Paddlers Weekly Notice emails, the Northeast Paddlers Message Board, the MVP message board and other on-line resources.

When you do go to buy your new boat, support the local vendors listed on our links page. They are the ones that have demo boats to try, the experience to help you outfit it correctly, and will work to "make it right" to assure your return business.

Surviving Mosquitos & Black Flies

By Alv Elvestad

It is that time of year. We are getting ready to head north to run a river. Really looking forward to it, mostly. If it had not been for all those bugs. Many of you will go to Canada or Alaska. Linda and I are going to the Lappland area of North Norway. Different place, but the selection of bugs is about the same. Since I grew up above the Arctic Circle I have had quite a bit of experience dealing with the bugs up there, and I will tell you what I do to deal with them. Hopefully, this will be helpful for some of you.

Mosquitoes and black flies present different problems, and defending against them requires different methods. Mosquitoes are soft and long legged (yes, I am sure you all know that, but please read on anyway). They will bite through clothes, but will not go inside your clothes to bite. Black flies are small and hard - and they will go inside your clothes to bite. But they do not bite through clothes. You can make use of these facts to protect most of your body. Here is what I do:

I wear windproof long pants tucked into my boots. No denim, ever!! Mosquitos will bite through it, and it is the coldest stuff you can possibly wear - which is not what you need in the Arctic. I really like the 60/40 material (cotton/polyester) that was popular a few years ago. It was lightweight, breathable, windproof, bug proof and quick drying. Unfortunately, it is hard to find. But you can find something similar. Just make sure it has a dense, tight weave.

For my upper body I use a two-part approach. To keep the black flies out I wear tight fitting thermal underwear. I prefer a wool blend, but almost anything will do. For mosquitoes I add a tightly woven shirt. Cotton breaths well and dries quickly. I find synthetics less breathable, but otherwise functional. A hat of some kind is part of the basic package, and most hats will work. Go ahead and wear what you like. Dressed in these basic pieces you will be quite comfortable much of the time on a northern riverbank - at least if the air moves enough to keep the bugs out of your face.

Note: You may have noticed that I recommend cotton even for a potentially cold climate. Since we have all heard that "cotton kills", that does not seem to make sense. Reality is that cotton makes a very functional shell fabric, but I would never use cotton as insulation.

But your face, neck and hands are still exposed. For hand protection my wife likes to wear rubber gloves, and it is very effective. I don't like the feel, and the best option i have found is Deet on the back of my hands. I know there are other repellents out there. Mostly, the difference is that Deet works. When the bugs are bad you will still be miserable if you discourage half of them. So I use Deet. For my head I use a bug jacket. There are two kinds. One is mosquito netting (at least in part). The other is absorbent "fishnet" that you impregnate with Deet. Head nets are only effective if you make sure they are tucked into your shirt or otherwise closed at the bottom. I have seen too many people use head nets and end up with a couple of hundred bug bites around their necks, so I prefer a full jacket. I have both kinds and like them both.

The mosquito netting kind worn over a hat keeps bugs away from you completely - unless you want to eat or enjoy a cup of coffee. The Deet impregnated kind keeps almost all the bugs away even when you eat, and it is an excellent way to minimize the use of Deet on your skin. One Deet treatment will last for a couple of weeks if you keep the jacket sealed in a plastic bag when it is not in use.

On a hot day a bug jacket is nice because you don't need the thermal underwear. The bug jacket does a fine job of keeping the black flies away. But I leave the shirt on to make sure the mosquitoes don't get me. The Canadian "Original Bug Shirt" is mostly mosquito proof fabric with mosquito netting panels where it is least likely to be in contact with your skin. It works well, but we don't have enough hot days in the Arctic to worry much about it. Whichever bug jacket you get, I am pretty sure you will appreciate it.

I hope all this stuff about bugs did not discourage you from going to the Arctic. It is a fantastic place, and the bug problem truly is manageable. You just need to be prepared. I wish you a great trip!

Alv Elvestad is President and Designer of PakBoats who often leads trips to the Scandinavian north as well as paddling with us. This has been republished by permission from Alv’s Pakboats.com very informative email newsletter.

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