I'll be curious to see how you manage to 'pop' a boat going thru the
shallows while poling.

Have you tried standing up in your J200 while getting beam waved by the
kids in their butt-dragging wakeboard boat? I go out and do 'fartlek'
on one of the local lakes here just to play in the ski boat waves, and
have played submarine just from the curl coming up over the wing on my
Jboat. The local hotshots have a wake board specialty boat with a tuna
tower and a ballast tank to make the stern really dig in. It does
generate a significant wave - 2-3 feet before it hits the shallow.

Poling and standup paddling have their place in the swamps and even
going upstream in rapids, but I'd caution trying to make them cure-alls
- rather another tool in the arsenal.

Marsh

Jeff Potter wrote:
Marsh Jones wrote in message news:Io76b.368081$o%2.165655@sccrnsc02...

Why I prefer 'hut-hut-hut'...


But what about poling or standing?

So far to me poling/standing seems as fast as hutting and I can do it
very easily in a race boat and it's not like I have great balance or
anything. It feels like XC skiing, snowboarding or maybe windsurfing
to me.

But then I was asking for science/clear-data on speed variations
anyway...


10. If it's over mild Class 2, I don't want to be there anyway...


I hear that polers do rapids all the time but without entrapment
issues, eh?

[ ]

4. I can see farther down the river than you can


Polers/standers see much much farther than anyone else. It's like
waterwalking. You see down in the water far far better, too. You see
into the woods and trees and bank areas lots lots better, too. It
opens up a whole new world or three.


3. My back hurts too much sitting down in a yak for that long

[ ]

1. My knees would never put up with a high-kneeler anyway.


Poling/standing seems best of all on the bod. And a more varied
workout.

And it makes obstacle clearing a breeze, fun even. I call it
boatocross. Many many times easier than canoe which is many (singular)
times easier than a yak. We have lots of low-water around here these
days. The whole Great Lakes does, riverwise. Poling is simply the best
in the shallows from what I can tell, and I'm a longtime hutter. I
seem to stand-paddle fine in the shallows, too---but not enough data
yet. (Long paddle also seems to make a good pole. I'm interested in
testing 6-7' paddles.)

--JP