You old-schoolers make me laugh...I love it. I too have a hard time with the 15* offset but have gotten used to the 45*...still gotta have a straight shaft though. And the EPR...dang, I haven't heard of that in forever. The mirage is a monster, I remember doing river rescues with those things when I worked as a guide for the boy scouts...dragging a mirage full of water over my superego and draining it, it was hard to keep my head above water. I was sure glad when we got rid of those things.

Few years ago we got my Dad out of his NPK II into a Pirouette now we are trying to upgrade him again

whee wrote:You old-schoolers make me laugh...I love it. I too have a hard time with the 15* offset but have gotten used to the 45*...still gotta have a straight shaft though. And the EPR...dang, I haven't heard of that in forever. The mirage is a monster, I remember doing river rescues with those things when I worked as a guide for the boy scouts...dragging a mirage full of water over my superego and draining it, it was hard to keep my head above water. I was sure glad when we got rid of those things.

Few years ago we got my Dad out of his NPK II into a Pirouette now we are trying to upgrade him again

Friends always give me crap for using terminology that sounds like a different language to them when speaking about flying, or programming, or whatever, but now I know how they feel.

Cool TR!

I guess a patched up truck tube with a six-pack tied to the valve stem with the plastic thingy isn't cutting edge anymore....

Gump

Gump and Whee. I’m not sure what is older then “old school”, but maybe cave school? Back when I started paddling, I had a White Brothers, heavy plastic boat. This was before my fiberglass and Kevlar days even. That WB had a bow, maybe 6 or 7 inches high. It was the volume of two or three mirages, and there were no foot braces or seat.

Now I’d fit right in with Gump. My first white water trip was on the New River, at Fayetteville, West Virginia. This boat was outfitted with two empty herbicide cans jammed into each end for flotation. For helmets, we cut 1 inch holes in hard hats and put chin straps on them. The spray skirts were heavy duty black garage bags duct-taped to our bodies and held on the boat rim with black rubber bungees. For a seat, a car tire tube was jammed in with our buts in the center and that helped our legs brace the top. Roll… hell we had no idea how to begin a roll, just lots of swimming.

After that first trip down the canyon, I felt that I was on top of the world. I was up there with all of histories famous explorers. That is until the locals showed up with their six packs, car tubes. They just jumped in and successfully ran that same big rapid I just did with all that gear and preparation! What a let down.

GumpAir wrote:I guess a patched up truck tube with a six-pack tied to the valve stem with the plastic thingy isn't cutting edge anymore....

Gump

That reminds me of the time when I was 11 or 12 and built a super raft from shipping pallets and air mattresses. The creek running next to our house was just slightly smaller than Johnson Creek, and one winter after a good rain my brother and I decided it was roaring enough to be worthy of a go.

The super raft disintegrated into flotsam on the first rock strike and I did some swimming in some really cold winter water. Those were the days! I'm glad we had a woodstove in that shitty old cabin.