Storing your kayaking equipment at the end of the Season.

It is the end of the kayaking season and now it is about either flying to countries like Chile if you are living here in the mountains of Austria to continue kayaking or it is time to pack away your kayaking kit and maybe wax the skis!?
Kayaks, paddles and apparel are not getting any cheaper and so with just a few steps you can prolong the life of your equipment.

So, here are a few tips to store your kayaking kit at the end of the season…

Kayaks

You will be amazed just how much sand and dirt accumulates in a white water kayak.  With all the sand, dirt and small stones spending a lot  of time in your kayak, they will start to rub and wear out the plastic from the inside, especially under your seat.

So what we do is wash out our white water kayaks making sure all the sand, dirt and little stones are no longer inside.  We check all our screws as these also start to become lose over time.  A visual inspection of the safety bars and then finally thoroughly dry out the kayak before packing it away.  Here in the Arlberg region it gets cold in the Winter with temperatures sometimes down below -30 degrees.  This is not good for the plastic so we store our white water kayaks inside well away from the extreme cold of Winter.

Paddles

A wipe down with a wet cloth followed by a visual inspection of the blades to see the wear and tear.  If necessary we can repair the blades with an epoxy glue and store away ready for the following season.

Kayaking Apparel

Wash your kayaking kit!  It is as simple as that if you want it to keep working just like you put it on the first day of kayaking.  We use either a quick wash for anything neoprene, dry suit, dry tops or dry pants.  Then afterwards we impregnate all our dry tops, semi dry tops, dry pants and dry suits with Nikwax TX10.  It really brings back the DWR and the next time you go kayaking the water droplets will beed up on the outside of the material.  We also use Seal Saver to prolong the life of our latex seals.  To find out more information about looking after your drysuit then check out one of blogs: how to prolong the life of your dry suit.

Safety Equipment

This is the equipment that will save your or your friends life when something is required on the river.  Whether that is setting up safety on a challenging rapid or drop, to extracting a pinned kayaker, paddle or kayak from the river.

All of our carabiners we wash and get a small brush into the gate hinge and also the screw where you lock the carabiner, we then lightly oil the hinge and screw open them up a few times, screw closed, screw open to really make sure the oil gets right into the threads.  Finally we wipe away the excess oil and store in a clean dry place.

Throw bags would be thrown, washed in a bucket of clean water and then we keep our ropes out of the bag in the off season but we use a daisy chain technique to make the rope neat and tidy.  While we are doing this we are checking the rope for any open threads or wear and tear.

So if you do spend a little time looking after your kayaking equipment it will last longer, keep you drier and when you really need it, such as your safety kit, it will not let you down.