Marital status? Widower
Family? Two sons, one daughter, eight grandchildren
Occupation?
Electrical Engineer
What other hobbies do you have? Model airplanes, drums
How did you get started canoeing?
Went with a group in college.
How many years of paddling experience do you have?
Started 47 years ago.
What boats do you now own?
16' homebuilt canoe, Hydra Mustang kayak, Hydra Dragonfly II kayak, Hydra Centaur skirted C1, Mad River Tahoe canoe, Necky Jive kayak, Liquid Logic Session+ kayak, Liquid Logic Remix 69 kayak, Alumacraft QT185 CL canoe
What is your favorite place to paddle?
1. Brazos River, because it is close to my house. 2. Freeport beaches, with 4' waves or higher. 3. Week of Rivers, in North Carolina.
Do you prefer a canoe or a kayak?
Kayak
Do you prefer a single blade or double blade paddle?
Either one in a canoe, double-blade in a kayak.
What do you like most about the sport?
Good exercise while getting outdoors to see the scenery and animals. The challenge of learning and improving skills.
What do you like least about the sport?
Getting left in the dust by speed demon trip leaders, or getting caught by a stop light after an hour into the trip, when I don't know the directions.
What is an important safety tip?
If you use gloves, use some thin enough that you can feel the spray skirt grab loop when upside down. Attach a whiffle golf ball, to prevent the grab loop from getting hidden under the edge of the cockpit coaming. Make sure you have a "spotter" who can rescue you, if your roll is tentative, as when practicing hand rolls.
Why do you paddle?
See "What do you like most about the sport?", above. Also, paddling is generally stress-relieving, therapeutic, and social.
If you could do a fantasy tandem paddle with anyone you wish, with whom would it be?
Eric Jackson, in a Dynamic Duo tandem kayak, on class IV-V whitewater.
What was your worst moment ever in a canoe?
Getting stuck upside down in a kayak at a pool session, when wearing gloves too thick to find the grab loop on the spray skirt, and involuntarily taking large gulps of water when I ran out of air while dog-paddling upside down to the pool side. Went to an ER afterwards, for X-rays, to get checked out: was OK.
What was your best moment?
2nd Place, Unlimited Master category, in the 1996 Buffalo Bayou Regatta, with Ed Williams in his Alumacraft QT185 CL. In a kayak it is a toss-up between (1) surfing a 7 foot high wave in the ship channel at Surfside, (2) boofing the left drop at Bull Sluice on the Chattooga, (3) running the sluice at Bull Sluice, and (4) surfing a 4 ft high wave on the San Juan River in downtown Pagosa Springs, Colorado, during snow melt. (The four links go to YouTube videos.)
Anything else you would like to say?
I like the fact that paddlers generally take responsibility for taking care of the environment, rather than trashing it.
The Rendezvous classes and the pool sessions were very helpful in learning this sport. I'm glad to have been able to participate in them.
If anyone wants to learn how to roll a kayak, I can help for free, one or two at a time: no large classes.