I'll admit I'm a gear nut. I have four kayaks, multiple backpacks, more hiking boots than dress shoes, three GPS units, a full rack of rock climbing gear, and more kayak clothes than work clothes. So the last thing I need is more gear. But I couldn't resist my most recent purchase ... the Spot Satellite Personal Tracker and Messenger.

Because along with all the gear comes the potential for danger. It's hard to be active and adventurous without occasionally putting your life at risk. We've become accustomed to the immediacy of 911 in emergencies. But what happens when you don't have a land line and you're out of cell phone coverage? In the backcountry. Out at sea. At the top of a mountain. Spot works where cell phones don't. And of particular interest to kayakers ... it's waterproof.

Back in July when I did the Blackburn Challenge, a 22 mile open water race around Cape Ann, I remember the race organizers giving us a cell phone number to call in an emergency. There are waterproof bags for cell phones which allow communication but all I had was a standard drybag. Not very useful if I was capsized in the ocean. I would have had to remove the cell phone from the drybag and make a call while hanging on to my kayak and paddle and keeping the cell phone out of the water.

So for $149 I bought my SPOT at REI. It came in this bright orange box. And the first thing that greeted me upon opening the box was a side flap that said, "Welcome. Opening this box is the first step to making sure you don't come home in one." Good advertising!

The unit itself is useless unless you sign up for the Spot messaging service. The basic package costs $99 and includes unlimited messages using the OK/Check, Help and 911 buttons. They also offer another service called Spotcasting which will mark your location and send a message every 10 minutes. That costs an additional $49. And for an additional $7.95/yr you can get the GEOS search and rescue benefit (SAR) which provides up to $100,000 of additional search and rescue resources, including helicopter extraction around the world and reimbursement benefits – underwritten by Lloyd’s of London – for any emergency service expenses incurred.



I got it all. Why not? Now I can go and do all the foolish things I've always wanted to do but didn't because I was afraid it might be too, uh ... dangerous. Just kidding. Although if I'd had SAR at my fingertips when I was working in Nicaragua back in the 90's, I might not have spent so much time in the hotel.

So this was my first week using and testing SPOT. My first test was to send a simple OK/Check signal from the patio of my house. The button blinked every 3 seconds for about 2 minutes before holding steady for 3-5 seconds. Just like the manual said it would. When the indicator holds steady green that indicates that the message is being uploaded to the satellite. A minute later I received a text message confirmation of the message on my cell phone. Good enough. I did a few more tests and got essentially the same result. One added benefit is the email message you receive includes a link to google maps with the exact GPS coordinates of the unit. So your "team" can see in real time exactly where you're located. I would include an example of the google map but then everyone would know exactly where I am.

My only complaint is that it's only capable of one-way communication. There's no way for you to know if the message was actually sent and more importantly if anyone received it. But that's a limitation of the technology they're using and not likely to change any time soon. SPOT did add a safeguard to minimize the risk of unsent messages. The unit will send the OK message three times to the satellite. Then the duplicates are deleted before the messages are forwarded to your team by email or text message. That made me feel a little better.

I also tested the SPOT on SPOTCasting or tracking. This is where the SPOT sends a message with your exact location every 10 minutes. I didn't have anywhere to walk so I tested it while I drove down to the Anacostia boathouse for evening Erg practice. I placed it on the dashboard of the car while I drove. No problem. It sent a message from the house and 10 minutes later it sent a message with my GPS coordinates from North Capitol Street in DC amidst all the tall buildings. It sent the final message from the Anacostia boathouse. I've read in other reviews that not all messages are completed which is understandable. SPOT requires a clear unobstructed view of the sky and sometimes trees, mountains, buildings ... just get in the way.

Next week we'll be using SPOT as we kayak through the Exumas Islands in the Bahamas. I've been assured by SPOT that we will have coverage in that area. I'll report again when we get back. Until then ....

-Susanita

Above is a short video showing how the canoe adaptor works on the Concept 2 rower. Dawn (aka Sandybottomkayaker) commented after the Feb 3rd post that she'd like to modify her Concept 2 for a canoe stroke but didn't want to spend a lot of money. Well, I checked into it. The canoe adaptors we have on the rowers at the boathouse were made by Vermont Waterways. At $385 it's not cheap, especially considering I paid around $850 for my Model D Concept 2 with PM3 monitor.



As you can tell from the photo this is not a do-it-yourself adaptor. It's made of solid steel and custom cut to fit the Concept 2 perfectly. The canoe paddle shaft pulls the fly wheel through a series of pulleys. So I think it's worth $385. And my personal experience with the canoe adaptor has been that it does feel a lot like paddling in the outrigger. The tension on the fly wheel of the rower mimics the force of the water. And then you get all the rower statistics that come with the PM3 monitor.



There are other canoe rowing machines. The PaddleOne C looks very similar, but it lacks the stats monitor that comes standard with the Concept 2. And the foot position on the Paddle One looks awkward ... more like the foot position in a competition canoe and not the foot position you would use in an outrigger. So even though the Concept 2 with canoe adaptor is about $400 more ... I'd still go with the Concept 2. Rowing indoors is always boring. Without the stats monitor to keep track of my progress and race myself (through the rerow feature) I doubt I'd use it very often.

I should mention that there are also kayak specific erg units for those that want to work out kayak stroke specific muscles. Both PaddleOne ($1200 Cnd) and Speedstroke ($2000 US) sell models which mimic a kayak stroke. I've never used either but I'd be more interested in a kayak adaptor for the concept 2 than a kayak specific unit. But that's just me.

-Susanita

"Look, the only people for Hillary Clinton are the Democratic establishment and white women. The Democratic establishment -- it would be crazy for the Democratic Party to follow an establishment that's led it to defeat year after year. White women are a problem, that's, you know -- we all live with that."

~ New York Times columnist Bill Kristol on Fox News Sunday.

I'm one of those "problem" people he refers to. As much as I try to get on the Obama bandwagon ... I can't. The whole Obama movement feels too much like a cult. I get the feeling he's not so much running for President as running for Messiah. Maybe he'll get the whole country into chants and smoking weed. It did a lot for the 60's movement, but I'm not sure that's what the country needs right now. Listen to his speeches. It's all about change and change and more change. But he rarely talks specifics. They say that Republicans "get in line" and Democrats "fall in love." So what are we to do when the honeymoon wears off, when the smoke clears from the room and our hero is still chanting change but hasn't done anything substantive. Maybe the plan is to get the country so stoned out that we won't notice that he hasn't done anything. He's still trying to find that important stack of papers he left ... somewhere. A vote for Obama is a vote for style. Style over substance.

So yeah ... I went to a rally today in Annapolis. Hillary was supposed to be there but when I got there I found out she wouldn't be able to make it. But Dorothy Rodham was there, Senator Mikulski, Governor O'Malley as well as the past two Lieutenant Governors, one of which was a Kennedy. And there was a long list of Maryland government officials which had singed statements in support of Hillary.



Maryland Governor O'Malley addresses the rally at Lawyer's Mall in Annapolis. Senator Mikulski is seated ... or just very short.



A view from behind the cameras.



So white women are a "problem?" Well I guess that includes black women and brown women. There was a whole array of faces at the rally. I asked one African American woman why she didn't support Obama. She paused and took a while to think about the question then she responded, "Rock star. He's our Rock Star. Hillary's a doer. She'll get things done."

This weekend is full of real outdoor activity. This is the last of my political posts ... for now.

~ Susanita

Those are Concept 2 rowing machines modified to use a canoe stroke. The club has six and we had over 12 people show up for this Saturday's Erg workout. So we had to take turns doing our reps on the Ergs.



This Saturday we did reps of 5 minutes at different strokes rates sandwiched around a rep of 20 minutes. The workouts are similar to what I do on the Concept 2 at home except I don't take breaks between the reps. I do what's called interval training where you go all out for a few minutes then switch to a resting stroke rate for a few minutes then return back to the high intensity workout. But since we have so many people show up for the workouts at the boathouse we take full rests so we can do our reps in shifts. By taking the pure rests between reps we're doing something more along the lines of anaerobic threshold training.



But the best part about working out at the club house ... it's FUN!



-Susanita