Ya Never Know

One of my favorite things about teaching and guiding kayak adventures is "Ya Never Know" what you might see or encounter.

Last week I was guiding a family from the bay area on a Noyo Meander Kayak Tour.  The trip was fun with a positive energetic group.

We encountered some of the usual characters - harbor seals

But then we came around the corner and encountered a man playing guitar on the bank of the Noyo River.

He was quite good and strumming a tune about evolution - "Ya Never Know" what you might encounter.

The Noyo River is definitely a "Ya Never Know" spot.  Earlier this month, we had a couple of mute swan sightings.

And now, this mute swan seems to have decided to hang out - perhaps for the summer but "Ya Never Know".

On the wilder side of things, "Ya Never Know" who is going to be the star on a Whitewater of the Sea Adventure.  It is not uncommon for the ladies to show up the guys.  However on one of our trips this spring; we had a first time kayaker get the ride of the day.

Stay tuned for more adventures - "Ya Never Know"  . . .

Action Jackson

Jeff and I are excited to have been invited to join Jackson Kayak's Exploration Team.  Last fall, we pulled the trigger on some brand new Jackson Kayak Zen's to use for Liquid Fusion Kayaking's rock gardening and whitewater kayaking classes.  Of course we had to paddle them to get a feel for them.

We were really stoked with the boats and Jackson Kayak Company.  We like that Jackson makes kayaks for all ages, sizes, and kayaking abilities.  Their line of boats is constantly evolving and continuing to meet the needs of competition creeking and playboating but also the needs of a recreational kayaker who wants a comfortable and quality boat.  For school boats, we love Jackson's outfitting that can quickly and easily be adjusted to fit different paddlers - and is even adjustable while on the water.  Our students rave about the customer service as well as the quality of the boats which are made in the USA and using all materials made in the USA.  We were honored to be asked to join the Jackson Kayak Exploration Team and are looking forward to paddling Jackson Kayaks for our whitewater river and whitewater of the sea (rock gardening) classes and adventures.  We will be sharing our adventures and doing some educational videos and blogs for the Jackson Kayak Community.

Our first project was helping with the filming of the new Karma RG promo video.

Here is my first blog post for Jackson Kayak - Karma and Zen in the Redwoods.  My next project for JK is a going to be a video on outfitting a Jackson Kayak for a smaller paddler.  I will be continuing to write here on my woman on water blog as well.  Stay tuned.

Rumors of a New Rock Garden Kayak

The rumors that Jackson Kayak has a new rock garden kayak are true.  Last week, we got to take the first ones out for a 3 day demo and video shoot on the waters of Mendocino County.  The boat is called the Karma Unlimited RG.  We ended up calling it RG for short.  RG stands for Rock Garden and River Guide.  It is based on the design of Jackson's Karma whitewater creek race boat.

Jackson Karma Unlimited RG on Mendocino's Eel River photo by Sean Morley

Here's a video about the creek boat version.

Basically the RG has all the features of the Unlimited and also has a rear bulkhead and hatch, decklines, and a drop down skeg to make for a versatile ocean play boat or whitewater river expedition boat.  More details and a promo video about the RG will be coming out soon.

The Karma RG has all the features necessary on an ocean rock garden play boat.

We got to paddle the RG in the rock gardens and surf of the Mendocino Coast and on a class III whitewater stretch of the Eel River.  I was prepared to put my game face on and just paddle the boat for the promo video; however, I fell in love with the boat and am excited about its possibilities for both rock gardening and ocean play as well as multi-day river trips.

The Karma RG is a blast on the river!!! Photo by Sean Morley

Stay tuned for more videos, photos and a full review.

Working at Play and Playing at Work

"Working at Play and Playing at Work" was the title of my presentation last week at Fort Bragg and Mendocino High Schools' career day.  The lines of work are often blurred in the kayaking business.

Riding a fat pour-over.  Photo by Matt Nelson

Our friend Paul Kuthe describes it well in his blog post "Strictly Business."  I highly encourage you to read Paul's post - it tells the tale of our adventures after the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium.

I have to admit though that this week the kayaking business feels like work as I get all of our accounting together for taxes and work on catching up on office work from when I was out "Playing at Work."  I definitely need to schedule some time to PLAY!

The quiver is ready to PLAY!!!