Although forecast to be an iffy kind of weather day, sun was bursting through the clouds on this fine spring morning. After five months of below seasonal temperatures, we are finally starting to see some warmer weather. It's still cooler than normal, but at least it's pleasant and sunny as apposed to cloudy and miserable.
Paula wanted to have another group paddle with her Advanced Element kayaks that she was given to test. She, Louise and I headed to Thetis Lake where we met kayak novices Jon and Cat. It was a perfect opportunity to give the kayaks to total rookies and see if they liked them. And if we brought two more over to The Dark Side, so much the better.
Louise got in the small Dragonfly, while I took out the Expedition. We loaded Cat and Jon into the Straitedge2...
...and got them in the water. They were really struggling and had a very difficult time controlling the boat. They seemed to end up mostly going in circles.
Maybe putting two rookies in the same boat wasn't wasn't such a good idea after all. We quickly put in to shore and Jon and I traded places. He took off like a rocket in the Expedition, while Cat and I followed in the Straitedge. It still wanted to turn a lot, far more than when I was in it with Lila a couple of weeks ago. Still, I managed to keep it on a steady course and Cat was finally able to enjoy the ride.
We switched around again, this time giving Cat a solo paddle in the Expedition, and she took off like a rocket, too.
For my part, I tried the Expedition solo, and the Straitedge both as a tandem and solo. I paid more attention to the seat adjustments than I did last time out and that did make for a more comfortable ride. Cat and Jon enjoyed their first kayaking experience as we spent a few hours lazily paddling on a sunny day.
Trip length: 4.51 km
YTD: 36.95 km
My pictures are here.
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