How To Care For & Maintain Your Kayak
One of the questions we are often asked after a customer has made an investment in a shiny new kayak is, “Is there anything special I need to do to protect my new baby?” Depending on the material your kayak is made from, the answers are pretty simple: Keep it clean. Keep it out of the sun. Keep it properly supported. That’s about it. But in more detail, keep these things in mind: Salt water and sun is the enemy of everything.Saltwater can be very damaging to kayaks and will eat deck cord, bungee rigging, seat material, handles, lifejackets, wetsuits you name it. Therefore rinse everything off with fresh water after every use. We can’t stress this enough. If you do nothing else, at least do this step. Once you’ve rinsed everything off, use a mild detergent for stubborn grime and...
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Paddling The Petaluma River
Paddling the Petaluma River By: Jeff Kellogg – Here at Clavey we’re open every day except on Tuesdays & Wednesdays. Those are our days to paddle! It’s pretty cool to be able to hit our favorite paddling spots and not have to worry about crowds, because everyone else is working! Most mid-week breaks finds us paddling at different areas, usually within 30 minutes of driving time from our store in Petaluma. Over this last Fall and Winter we’ve been able to paddle on Tomales Bay, Walker Creek, Drakes Estero, and the Estero Americano. These outings also provide us the opportunity to paddle the boats that we sell and offer in our demo program such as Necky, Eddyline and Delta. With such great paddling within a close distance, it’s easy to forget that the Petaluma River is right here in our...
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Sit On Top vs. Sit Inside Kayaks
This article appeared in paddling.net which is a great resource for info on all things kayaking! Kayaks come in two basic styles. You got Sit-on-Top (SOT) kayaks and you’ve got Sit-Insides and both are available as singles or doubles. They also come as hard shells or as inflatables. Although there are some major differences between sit-inside and sit-on-top kayaks, they share many of the same parts. The top of the kayak is called the deck. The bottom is the hull. The front is the bow and the back is the stern. On top of the deck you’ll often have deck lines or bungees. At the stern of the kayak, you should find some grab loops and some kayaks have rudders. Rudders swivel side-to-side in the horizontal plane and are controlled by foot pedals. Skegs simple drops straight in the...
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Halibut Fishing in the North Bay
It’s an honest fact that Halibut are one of my favorite fish to catch (and not just because they taste so good). Halibut are solid fighters and when you finally get them to the kayak, well, that’s when the real fun starts. They have a real nice set of chompers and they love to snap at you sometimes when you’re trying to make the transition from the net or gaff to the game clip. And then, just when you think all is well on the home front, they can go ballistic out of nowhere and scare the bejesus out of you. Halibut meat is light and flaky and tends to cook fast. Keeping a close eye on the cooking process will enable you to make sure that you don’t overcook this delicate flesh. If you do, it’s still not...
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SUPing the Petaluma River
Written by Ronnie Ayres The historic town of Petaluma sits on the banks of the same named “river” which is actually a tidal slough as most resident paddlers are quick to point out. Either way sounded good to me as the warm sun had me pushing aside my heavily used neoprene booties, still wet from the 40 degree water of Lake Tahoe, 3 hours up the hill. The Petaluma River once was a major thoroughfare, supplying the agricultural bounty, poultry and dairy products to booming city of San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Beautifully preserved, the downtown is a quintessential Main Street USA and is on the National Register of Historic Places. There a few very easy spots to put in along the river, like at the turnaround off D street with public floating docks which once...
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“Quality Hanging Out Time” on Fish Creek
The entire time frame of an adventure can be broken into bits and pieces and, in particular, dots that mark significant turning points. There is always a first dot, the starting point, and a final dot, which marks the end of your journey. Each decision you make (another dot) often has a profound effect upon the remaining dots yet to be made. If your adventure involves kayaking or rafting, your journey normally ends as expected, at the final dot, someplace known as a “take-out” or access point along the bank of a river. In a small clearing we rested. “How far above the creek do you think we are?” I asked Garret. The answer was maybe 100 feet or so. Not much, but it was steep and rocky, with a small cliff to start out, and we didn’t have...
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