68 days to the 2010 Missouri River 340 Race and I am still not decided which boat to paddle. In the first four MR340 races I paddled four different solo boats:
2006 – Spencer X-treme canoe (mostly double blade)
2007 – WSBS Thunderbolt-X kayak (double blade)
2008 – Kruger Sea Wind canoe (single blade)
2009 – Surfrigger outrigger canoe (single blade)

Well, I don’t have a new boat for this year race. It also seems that I need to add a new criterium to my boat selection ranking: which boat (or rather paddle) hurts less my shoulder, wrist, elbow, etc. This year the elbow provides a challenge.

Recently, I was mostly paddling the Thunderbolt kayak. It is because I am lazy and this boat is the easiest and quickest one to upload on my car roof. 116 miles on the North Platte River in Wyoming with Sea Wind this incoming weekend will provide some additional data to think (and feel) about. The worst scenario: replacing a paddle by a camera.

Related posts:
2010 Missouri River 340 Race
3 Years of the Missouri River 340 Race series:
Bryan Hopkins, West Hansen, Christina Glauner, Chuck and Di McHenry, Katie Pfefferkorn
My Experience in Three Famous Ultra Marathon Paddling Races

Well, I believe that you really don’t need a GPS to navigate the Missouri River during the race.
Of course, it is good to have a GPS during the race and I am using one. I carried the same device during first three MR340 races – Garmin Etrex Vista. How I am using it?

The 3rd Wyoming Outback Challenge on the North Platte River organized by Jerry Nyre from Canoe Colorado took place on May 24 during Memorial Day weekend. The race started at Hot Springs in Saratoga and run 44 miles down the river across a quite remote area to Fort Steele (I-80 boat ramp).

I am trying to decide which of my boats to paddle this year in ultra marathon races like MR340 or South Dakota Challenge.

Thunderbolt-X kayak goes for upstream / downstream workouts on the South Platte River, but on my local pond I am trying some other boats. It is still more photography than training …

My last paddling photo session on the Beaver Pond was with Surfrigger, my outrigger canoe.

My single blade paddling … It is probably OK with Sea Wind canoe, but it definitely sucks in the case of Surfrigger. I need some inspiration! Let’s look at Danny Ching paddling OC-1 (video by Outpadlin from blib.tv).

I need to visit Rambo’s Locker more often.

How to Choose a Boat for an Ultra Marathon Race? The Case of Missouri River 340

The South Dakota Kayak Challenge, September 11-13, 2009

3 Years of the Missouri River 340 Race

Wesley Echols of Rhode Island, USA announced the launch of a new US surfski website
SurfskiRacing.com.

I am using currently Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS with heart rate monitor for my outdoor exercise. The picture below shows this GPS unit mounted with a suction cup on a deck of my Thunderbolt-X kayak.