Here Gear, Gear, Gear!

My kingdom for a used whitewater paddle!

I have this sweet little boat, and nobody- and I mean NOBODY will part with a paddle. I guess people fork out good money for one and can use it on any boat, so they don't replace them. Or they break. Bummer.

I have my PDF and spray skirt finally. Both are made for women, so there's room for The Girls in the life vest and the spray skirt sits just under them too. I got them both from Outdoor Divas for 50% off because, sadly, they won't be carrying paddling equipment any more. Not enough demand. Same with REI. No whitewater stuff even at their enormous, we-have-everything-under-the-sun flagship store in Denver. I was shocked.

Fortunately, there's a local place called Confluence Kayaks where they'll outfit my Crossfire with the padding and seat it needs, check out my inflatables,  and fill in the gaps- they have helmets, paddles, wet wear, odds and ends. They know I don't want to spend much, so hopefully we can keep this low.

Confluence also offers classes. I plan on taking a class on paddling technique and another on rolling first thing. I can even rent gear to see what I like before buying something. The evening classes are in a pool, which is nice, but they're Tuesday nights, which is not so great since I have tai chi 5-7. They have all-day clinics coming up too on a reservoir. I'm not sure which I'll do.

I'll post a gear list once I have everything in place, and my scheduled classes too. I'm going to try to rustle up a paddle from a guiding company ($40-60?) before forking out cash for a new one through Confluence ($110-ish). I hope to keep gear down to less than $300. Ideally that would include the boat.