Never too Old to Learn

This fall I once again realized that I was never too old to learn a new trick.
I purchased a new 12 foot wilderness kayak this past Spring in Minnesota upgrading from my Old Town blue 8 foot Otter.
Ahhh… this new kayak handled like a dream on the lakes in windy weather.

 

But, as I unloaded her from her summer storage unit and onto the top of my SUV I was shocked to see that there was a huge buckle in the middle of the hull! It wasn’t there when I purchased the kayak. How did that happen? I was sick with the fact that maybe something I did would now cost me hundreds of dollars to fix.

My partner and I strapped her down and he vowed to find a way to repair it before we landed at our next stop point.

“Maybe the answer is on YouTube? ” he mentioned only to find me looking at him like he had just lost his mind.

Sick with the idea that my new kayak was now not even useable I just let his comment go without much thought.

Later that morning while drinking coffee at our local hangout he searched the internet for a solution. I was already putting together a long email to the place where I had purchased the kayak, maybe they had a solution.

“Look at this.” he bent towards me and started to show me a video of a guy who was explaining that if you place a black bag on the buckle and set it in the sun the buckle will pop out.

“You really think that works?” I asked being very skeptical of the whole idea of a simple solution.
“It won’t hurt to try.” was his answer.

When we pulled into our afternoon camping spot we hauled the kayak off the SUV and turned it over, placed the black trash bag over the buckle letting the hot sun do the trick.

 

 

IT WORKED!!! Saved! Within minutes the buckle was gone. I couldn’t even tell where it had been prior to the black bag treatment.
Conclusion – after years of kayaking I can still learn something new!