Yakima Big Stack, Roof Rack Review

When I traded in my tried-and-true Silverado pick-up truck for a Tahoe this year I thought for sure gone were the days of quick and easy kayak loading.

Or so I thought.

To lug my large Jackson Karma around I had to install a roof rack. First, I tried just going with Yakima's crossbar set, which mounted directly to the factory roof rails. Just having the cross bars proved cumbersome when it came to securing my boat to the roof because I had few attachment points for securing tie straps.

Plus, what's more fun than paddling with some buddies! After all, who's going to laugh at you when you get beatered in that Class III hole? That means to get the most out of my 66-inch cross bars I had to upgrade to the Big Stack to give me more attachment points and more room for securely carrying more than two kayaks.

Yakima's Big Stack takes full advantage of the wide crossbars that fit on my SUV because the towers make it possible to secure as many boats as will fit standing on their sides on the bars. That means at least 4 boats. And stacking kayaks on the sides and sandwiching them next to each other, using the towers as the attachment point for tie straps, is far more secure than stacking two boats on their hulls side-by-side and then strapping two more boats down on top of the bottom two.

There are a few minor issues that bug me about this rack system.

The towers are advertised as folding down with the push of a button both for better aerodynamics when not in use and so you can fit your car in your garage without removing the towers. However, to get the the towers to fold I have to use a rubber mallet and whack the button several times to break them free so they'll fold down.

The mounts for cross bars also feature a fold-up end guard that is designed to "hide" the mechanism that clamps the mounts to the factory roof rails. These guards are floppy and tend to flip down easily.

The positive is that the method for using the super-long tie straps that come with the Big Stack is super easy to get your boat secure in a matter of minutes with just two straps. And the straps are so long that they can be used to secure multiple boats. Plus, Yakima also sends extra stern and bow tie straps that can be used to tie these end points to a rear vehicle hitch or front bumper/recovery hooks.

And the towers provide a great place to bungee a few paddles securely to the roof, thereby freeing up all the internal cab space for gear bags, gadgets and the like.

Lastly, installation was fairly painless. Overall, Yakima's Big Stack is a great option for getting the most out of your roof space for shuttling boats.

Club Boaters

It's 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below in many parts of the country. Rivers are too frozen to flow in other parts, and only the hardiest (read: most desperate?) of paddlers are actually hitting the rivers.

Where does that leave the rest of us? In the pool.

It's warm in here! The Meyers Lake YMCA pool in Canton, Ohio, offers some rough, but fun, games of kayak soccer Sunday mornings during winter months.

Kayak and canoe clubs around the country are organizing winter pool sessions and kayak soccer games to keep us happy and in our boats when the river is a less appealing place to dip our paddles.

These clubs are also providing a great opportunity for newer paddlers to sharpen their skills, and pool sessions help introduce would-be paddlers to the sport by giving them a chance to test the waters of a whitewater boat instead of the beat up old rental rec boat from the local flat water livery.

Here in Northeast Ohio, the Keelhaulers Canoe Club organizes a plethora of pool sessions during winter months. Don't let the name fool you. The club's more active members are mostly kayakers. They also have an incredible variety of river trips scheduled year-round that offer a fun time for the most advanced paddlers to the most square of noobs.

Have you taken advantage of a pool session lately? If so, did you reward the club who arranged it by becoming a member and supporting their local paddlesports efforts?

If you haven't, what are you waiting for? Make some new friends, sharpen your skills and get in your boat in winter without getting a case of the nose icicles!

Kokatat: the Only Drysuit You'll Ever Need

That's a bold claim, but it's not just a click-bait headline.

Here's the patch Kokatat put on my Hydrus 3L to repair 

a tear in the sleeve.

It's been a year since I bought Kokatat's economy drysuit, the Meridian Hydrus 3L.

I've tested it now on a cold March day in Ohio (air temperature below 50 degrees Fahrenheit and water just above freezing), a warm-ish spring day, a fall flat-water outdoor roll session and a bitter-cold October run on a dam release stretch of Stonycreek River.

And the suit sustained its first river-running injury: a rip in the sleeve.

Yet I can still say with confidence that a Kokatat drysuit is the last drysuit you ever need to buy.

I've talked performance already, and it's incredible. The issues I encountered--mainly getting a good closure and seal on the zipper--were user error. I've since lubricated the entry and relief zippers with parafin wax and added a touch of petroleum jelly to the closures, and the zippers seal tight with ease.

The comfort is superb, although it did take a few wears (and some overnight stretching) to fully break in the neck gasket.

But what's really sold me on this suit is Kokatat's customer service and repair process.

On the repair, it cost me less than $50, including shipping costs, to send it back to California to have the factory repair the tear, which was located in an awkward location on the sleeve near the cuff and several seams. Everyone I interacted with at Kokatat couldn't have been more friendly, I was updated on the suit's status throughout the repair (which they did during the Christmas and New Year's holidays) and the suit was pressure-tested for any other pinhole leaks.

What's the kicker? I tweeted about the initial zipper issues (which were completely user error) and got an email response from the tweet from Kokatat customer service with advice and tips on addressing the issues.

Within the paddlesports industry, you're hard-pressed to find a company with a better product and customer service to match.

Bottom line, when it comes time for a drysuit or drytop, go with Kokatat. You won't regret it.

You could argue that the Hydrus material isn't tough enough, as evidenced by the tear in the sleeve. I still don't know where the tear happened. I found the hole when I was putting the gear away after my last river trip.

If that's your argument, shell out the extra few hundred dollars and get one of Kokatat's Gore-Tex suits. The material is tougher and won't damage so easily.