Got my first WW boat.

[tomOzarkVideo]

Went with a creeker. (Habitat 74) Seemed like a good choice for the NWA streams.

At the moment, I'm a rec boater with about 350 river miles spanning the Mull, Upper buff, and many class 1-2 streams.

Once the weather is right... Where do i start? How does one ease into creeking and bigger water. I have good boat control.. And i'm sure to have a library of bad habits.

I'll be bringing it out to some roll sessions and will definitely hit WW school. But, I can't wait until april to float this beast! (unless we don't see any rain... )

I can't wait to put it on the water!

[Regud]

Bring it out to the pool tomorrow to break it in.

[tomOzarkVideo]

Doing layaway in lieu of the evil credit monster.. I'll be several weeks before i pick it up.

We're talking about coming out anyway.. Maybe someone could loan me their boat for a min to get a quick lesson in.

[DMG]

Come on out, Tom. You can bang around in my 4Fun as long as you want to and probably sample several other boats. It's good to try out a whole bunch of boats so you can start thinking about what second, third, and fourth whitewater kayaks you might want to buy. But congrats on the Habitat, that's a great choice!

~Dave

[Mike_P]

Awesome! Definitely sign up for WW school in May &/or Rec school in June to break bad habits. Hope to see you at the pool session tomorrow...there should be plenty of boats to try. Bring your PFD, helmet, etc, though.

[Cowper]

You can't beat Rockport for summer training to get you ready to run some WW. Get your roll on with the folks closer to home, and once you're hitting that 75% of the time, come down to Rockport to play on weekends. There is camping relatively near by at Lake Catherine; things for family to do in Hot Springs if sitting on the rocks and watching you paddle isn't entertainment enough. If your finances support it, there are good motels less than a mile from the ledge.

Rockport will give you a chance to progress your roll from a pool roll to a combat roll in an enviroment where you're in moving water, but with no danger of pinning while stuck in your boat. There are some "baby ferries" and "baby surf" spots, and other places where you can surf and side surf in some holes that demand a higher level of skill. In other words, you can PROGRESS, you don't have to just suck it up and jump in a big hole right off the bat. Any Saturday or Sunday, there will be others you can watch and learn from.

Water doesn't get to the ledge until about 2 now, so you can spend the morning doing stuff with family; it will help disguise the fact that the weekend is really "all about you". :twisted:

Or, you can put in with family members in tubes or Wal Mart rafts at the dam at noon; you'll get to the ledge at 3 and still have all afternoon to play.

[tomOzarkVideo]

Good advise, Cowper.

Fortunately, my family is as water crazy as me.

[RomanLA]

Water doesn't get to the ledge until about 2 now, so you can spend the morning doing stuff with family; it will help disguise the fact that the weekend is really "all about you". :twisted:

Hmmm...I do have a week of vacation coming up soon. Rockport may be easier to disguise than a trip out east. lol

[RiverRatRon]

Cowper,its sounds like you know all of the tricks for being able to get out and paddle.lol Been doing it for a while huh?I once bought a Viper canoe and told my wife that it was for her.The problem was that she actually believed me and I was still stuck in the Caper. :roll: Tom,I love the enthusiastic look on your face in buying your 1st boat.I hope that you really dont wait until April to paddle it though.There should be some good water to paddle a lot sooner than that. Congratulations RON