Sea kayaking on blue Mesa reservoir. It was calm as a millpond for the first 3 hours but when the wind picked up it created a bit of a swell to spice things up. The kayaks a had rudders, which I'd never used before – essentially you control the rudder with your feet and steering becomes trivial. That said, I'm not a fan of them for these reasons:
they work great in calm water, less well in a swell because the rudder ends up out of the water too much, where it is useless.
The paddling technique I'd been taught involves starting the stroke in your legs, so you push against the foot rests and develop a kind of peddling action. This isn't possible when your footplates control the rudder because as soon as you push against them you change direction. Thus, you're forced to use a paddling style that i think is weaker and less efficient.
It makes things dull, there's no technique to learn/practise/use/master.
If your rudder breaks you're stuffed because you haven't learnt 'proper' technique.
So there it is, just say 'no way!' to rudders.
We headed up to Crested Butte after that and did an early evening ride up upper lower loop and back on lower loop and woods walk trail to finish up in town for beer and pizza at the Brick Oven. Had 2 lovely pints of New Belgium Mothership Wheat Beer and rode back up the track o the RV by the light of a headtorch, talking loudly to scare off the mountain lions that had been recently spotted in the area. It seems that Mountain Lions are wary of people who talk too loud – sensible creatures.
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