Good Gift for New Yaker?

[Deuce]

A little pal of mine (and future son in law if he has his way ) is getting a Dagger Zydeco for his tenth birthday and I'd like to buy him something special to go with it. He'll probably spend quite a bit of time on our neighborhood lakes and paddling alongside his dad and me on trips to the Buffalo, Current, et al. I'm an open boater so I don't know what to get him. I don't want to get him a paddle or PFD for obvious reasons, but what's something he'll love as he gets into it? His party is Sunday afternoon, so it will have to be something I can get locally. Help me hook him up.

[Tim Eubanks]

Splash top? Water bottle?

[Jim Krueger]

Luke,

A couple of things that come to mind; You could get him a smaller dry bag like many of us use in our kayaks, you could go a step further and put a few of the essentials we all carry along inside. You could look at getting him a smaller-sized throw rope we carry in kayaks.

Best Regards
jim

[Clif]

small dry bag or box. He got any gadgets yet? phone, ipod, etc. Insulated type for cold stuff? Water shoes? Several biners for tying stuff in? neo gloves?

where is local? Go see OOO

[Cowper]

Not sure what price ballpark we're in, but I'm going to Hot Springs this afternoon, so if you need me to pick up something at OOO I can.

OK, 10 years old. If he was doing more moving water and was 12, I'd tell him it was time to MAN UP and help with the rescues, so the throw rope would be the ticket. Kind of like buying a youngster their first pocketknife. (I'll tell the girls to WOMAN UP too, so don't ding me on that.) But at 10, I'd still be hesitant to tell him to go rescue others in a moving water situation. Plus, it sounds like it will be 90% lakes and 10% moving water, at least for now. This has me leaning away from rescue-type stuff in general.

SO, I ilke the ideas given already of caribiners and/or a dry bag, or building on that, maybe a small or medium sized pelican box, big enough to carry some essentials, a candy bar or granola bar for lunch, a knife, a compass, a small LED flashlight...

It's hard to beat an LED headlamp for general utility. Maybe not used on the water so much, but they come in handy when loading after dark and on any campout.

A decent compass is good. At 10, he may not know what to do with it yet, so the real gift is teaching him how to use it. But if he doesn't know what it is all about, that may not have the initial excitement factor that an LED headlamp would probably yield.

Maybe even a small Leatherman??? I'd make sure the blades were locking, but I think these days they all are. With a knife, you've got to figure he'll probably cut himself on it, so again part of the gift is trying to teach him how to NOT hurt himself with it.

Many of you know how much I love my purple strap; you'll rarely see me without it on moving water. Even on lakes I have it in a bag somewhere; I use it to drag the boat across short portages. Several deep water re-entry techniques make use of webbing, although at 10 years old he can probably just climb back into the boat without any special aids. But a length of webbing could be part of a combined "care package".

Or combine the above ideas; a pelican box, with several things in it.

And of course, how could I forget: A case of Red Bull!

[Dan Daniel]

I'd recommend getting his William Nealy library started! Several of the books are out of print, and a few others have been reissued and updated. "Kayak" would be a great stocking stuffer that will teach and entertain for years to come.
I wish I'd gotten my first boat at 10yrs old! Lucky lucky!
Dan

[Deuce]

Great ideas. Thanks everyone. Knew y'all wouldn't let me down.

[Cowper]

I like book idea! It would present information in a fun way, and it if the information takes, he'll understand eddies and more on his next moving water trips. Not to mention showing him the value of reading.

[sig]

Mandy and I have enjoyed the Neely book (bought after Scott H. loaned us his copy) and I still see it on Mandy's desk or nightstand from time to time. So it isn't a one time read.

[Eric Esche]

I THINK I have all the Nealy books and a few of the maps, but I never considered them for kids, because I knew a lot of the stories behind the cartoons, being from back then, and having been in a few of them. I'm not in the acknowledgements in the forwards, but I really did not want to be, having had a "regular job" at the time, but a lot of my friends are. I still remember the man and doubt I will forget him. I paddled with William and he stayed at my house a few times in Clayton, as well as with a friend of mine, James Bruno, and his house in LONG CREEK, SC, back in the 70's. In hindsight, I guess his books are as harmless today as reading MAD magazine. Not sure what he would think about that, but that is his problem. HE commited suicide. I still hold that against him. Bruno died of diabetic shock on Tugaloo lake, after a kick a** day on the river. I do not hold that against him, but I still miss him. Nealey was an artist of his time, but not very politically correct even for his day, given that 50% of the guides on the Chattooga were women, who could each have kicked his a**, and sometimes wanted too. In talking to him once at the mellow end of a day, he did say he planned on doing a "WOMEN's Guide to Paddleing Whitewater" "some day" that would square him with all the women for his past slights, but that never happened. And despite what the books say - I called him Bill when he was on the end of my rope.

What I am saying is that you might want to read each book first, and make some editorial comments relavent to today.

Eric Esche