snakey1

I held a firearms certificate for 9 years until i surrendered it after the 1996 firearms ammendment act, an act which incidently was meant to reduce the amount of armed crime by the banning of legally held handguns, Yet the crime rate involving handguns has escalated dramatically. This act was brought in after the dunblane massacre in march 1996 a massacre which may have been prevented had the police done their job correctly in the first place in that after numerous warnings that thomas hamilton had threatened various people with his firearms instead of choosing to investigate into this, suspend or revoke his firearms certificate and confiscate his weapons they chose not to and instead allowed him to renew his certificate and hold onto his firearms. This decision ultimately allowed thomas hamilton to carry out the aforementioned massacre.If the police could not make the correct decision after haveing plenty of time to think about it and act why would anyone think that they will make the correct decision when using a firearm when they may only have a split second to make that decision.At least with tasers and other non-lethal weapons if they make an incorrect call it is not going to cost an innocent person his life and these weapons will disable an armed attacker in some cases safer and more efficiently than a firearm will. Had the police been armed in the case of thomas hamilton it would have made no difference to the outcome only dealing with the cause would have. persecuting legitimate firearms holders has done nothing to lower the armed crime rate in this country. making the innocent pay for the actions of the guilty is an easy way to appease certain papers and their selfrighteous editors and is a copout ,criminals commit crimes with such impunity because they know the general public will not stop them for fear of being prosecuted for infringing their human rights.You are not allowed to defend yourself or your property and criminals know this they also know that if you do call the police for something like a burglary chances are they probably wont even turn up for 24 hours armed or not and they also know that in the remote chance that they do get caught that a clever lawyer will get them off by saying they came from abroken home and even if found guilty they will spend a couple of years at most in a comfortable cell with most of the luxuries of home (TV's videos etc). There are more armed police in this country than ever, less legally held firearms than ever and yet a higher armed crime rate than ever.Punishments for breaking the law need to be made harsher and also to have an effect upon the criminals not on the legitimate law abiding person.If you catch someone breaking into your house and you give them a good hiding you should not then have to fear being arrested for infringing the criminals rights, in my opinion as soon as they infringe yours by breaking into your property they lose any rights they may have.The attitude of this country that its always somebody elses fault needs to be addressed, people need to be made to take responsiblity for their actions and not given get out clauses.Arming all police as i've said before will not reduce armed crime, taking those guilty of these crimes off the streets for a very long time and making them spend that long time doing hard labour will.Make the punishment suit the crime and make sure it is the guilty ones who pay it not the innocent.Sorry for the diatribe but it is something i fell very strongly about.

Arming the police enmass is not the solution to the problem of armed crime as it does nothing to deal with the root cause of crime which seems to me to be a total lack of respect for anyone and anything. Tougher sentences need to be introduced where life means life not 6 years, where hard labour in prisons is brought back no more videos & tv's in cells, make the punishments something to be feared make prison a harsh regime not a holiday camp.The return of compulsary national service would also be a massive benefit and would aid in reducing firearms crime by teaching respect for life and weapons (note we do not have national service and we have the highest firearms crime rate in europe, switzerland has compulsary national service and almost every household contains a firearm yet it has the lowest firearms crime rate in europe this may be a simplification but it makes more sense than saying " ban all firearms and arm all police and we'll be safe if we don't we'll end up like new york" which is often touted although it is actually illegal to own a firearm in the state of new york so only crimals & police carry one there). By all means give the police tasers and other none lethal forms of defence but sort the cause of crime out first not just the symptoms. Also let the police do their job cut back on paper work and get them out on the beat.

Captain fishy finger has just got a copy of this book and the 50 scottish trips one as well but i have yet to get a peek, CFF has said they seem very useful and he is already looking to plan several trips for next year using them and the info they contain.

Personally I can't see a problem with passing on this sort of info especially if there is only one dealer in the UK (correct me if i am wrong here)and people may not know who it is. I have no interest in buying a kaskazi myself (can't afford one having recently splashed out on a prowler elite ) at this moment in time but for anyone else interested then the knowledge that some new kayaks may be arriving on our shores can only help by giving people a broader selection to look at and chose from. It seems however that recently you cannot be seen to extol the virtues of a company/product that you have had good experiences with or think people may be interested in without being accused of being a rep for that company by someone. Lets hope the kayaking forum doesn't descend to the depths that the sea fishing forum has done lately with personnel attacks and bickering, I think if you have a good experience of a product post it, if you have a bad one post it and if you have any knowledge on new products post that as well, the information will help people make up their own minds.

correct you win a cookie your turn

nope. but heres another from the same film "you should read your bible sirs, you'll find all types of weird s**t in there, like did you know jesus was a jew?"

heres one from a film i watched recently "Hey f**ko, we like to call it interspecies erotica"

bungit din wasn't that carry on up the khyber

Having done a couple of tests in the surf at tywyn last weekend i have found that some water can get into the main hull of the prowler if you wipe out but only about a glass full nothing to be too concerned about, you can also get water in the hull if you accidently forget to replace the drain plug on the front before going out as well .when correctly fastened and assuming you avoid wipeing out in the surf i have found no water generally gets into the hull.As for capsizing i would think that if the hull is airtight then no water will get in through the hatch if it is totally immersed because for the water to get in the air would have to be able to get out(try pushing an empty glass upside down into a bowl of water you will note the water cannot get in because the air cannot get out) you only risk getting water in when righting the kayak if the hatch cover becomes detached or is loose.of course this does assume that your kayak is relatively airtight. As for the centre hatch i found the only water that go into this was water that was sitting in the recesses in the cover that got in when i opened the hatch.

I managed to get some water inside but this was after doing a washing machine impression in the surf and i don't think i had tightened down the front hatch perhaps as well as it could have been. i may be doing some more impromptu tests this weekend if i do i'll report the results.

Dogfish go really well in curries and make nice fishcakes too.

Go for it !! i reckon you'll have a great time. Me, CFF and another mate have been talking about doing something similar but haven't decided on a final route yet, the pembrokshire coastline is one of the trips being discussed and the caledonian canal another. Another book that you may find useful is Welsh Sea Kayaking: 50 Great Sea Kayak Voyages by Jim Krawiecki and Andy Bigg. its available on amazon as well but i think theres about a 2 - 4 week delivery time on it.

Well done that man an outstanding piece of fishing.

The transducer cable can be hidden neatly under the fishfinder mounting plate on the elite although admittedly it can be a bit fiddly and care needs to be taken not to trap the cable under any screws holding the FF mount in place, until a shorter cable appears this is one possible hiding place for it(its works for me anyway).maybe as the fittings evolve they will also put prethreaded fittings for the control line cam cleat on the elite it would again save a lot of fiddy work.

Have a look at Five Ten canyoneers they're quite expensive but have great grippy soles if your launching over wet rocks and are comfortable to walk in over most terrain as well. apparently they were designed for canyon and river running in the states.I have a pair and so far they performed admirably

Ok to answer to your facts as i see it 1) Yes it appears Johnson outdoors have allowed one of their dealers to sell factory seconds, personally i do not see any problem with this if, as is stated, they are seconds only due to cosmetic flaws. the important word being "cosmetic" this would indicate that there are no structural flaws of any kind and as such i very much doubt it would stand up in a court of law as a useful get out clause as it is plainly obvious that any flaw which puts the hulls integrity at risk is not a cosmetic one but a structural one. 2) As you say it should be stated what the faults are with each of the kayaks being sold as seconds and i agree it doesn't on the advert, however it does say to contact the company selling them for details at which point if you did i'm sure they would tell you what the faults are with each individual kayak. infact although i do not know new zealand sales law but it may be a case of they have to, then again maybe they don't but if your going to buy seconds common sense would dictate that you would at least ask why they were seconds and if possible inspect them yourself before purchase. I personally have never said that Johnson outdoors know of any structural flaws with any of their kayaks only that i presumed they knew that one of their distributors is selling factory seconds which as i've said before happens in many industries.From the responses that both CFF and myself have had from johnson outdoors it appears that they take their customers problems very seriously and dealt with any problems we had in a very satisfactory manner. Yes i agree that safety is the priority which is why i said if anybody thinks they have any problems with their elite to contact their dealer or johnson outdoors directly as this is the safest thing to do as these are the guys who know exactly what they're talking about in relation to the elites. As for my teddy he stays firmly leashed to my kayak in case he goes for a swim during one of my washing machine style re-entries

I feel at this point i have to make a several comments in defence of CFF although truth be told he can defend himself quite adequately without my help. Firstly, as a close friend i can tell you he neither works for johnson outdoors nor any of their distributors or infact in the marine industry, i could tell you the trade he is involved in but really that is none of your business suffice to say its nothing to do with kayaks(and if you don't believe me on this point i couldn't give a f**k). Secondly, his defence of OK is based on the treatment that we recieved when dealing with them (we both purchased elite 4.5 kayaks at the same time and both had problems that were resolved efficently and successfully by andrew at johnson outdoors)you've assumed that his defence of this company means he works for them or one of their subsidiary companies, in the same way i could assume from your venomous attacks on OK that you work for a rival kayak manufacturer intent on muddying the water for them. Thirdly, are any of the people on this site who are making comments about the structural integrity of the elites hulls either marine engineers or involved in the plastic rotamoulding industry? if not how can you judge what is structurally sound or not? as i've said on a previous thread comparing the thickness to that of a cola bottle is actually a pretty poor example as cola bottles in general can withstand pressures of in excess of 80 psi and in some cases i've seen them survive up to pressures of over 150psi which is far higher than the working pressures of car tires and yet looking at them or pokeing them with an untrained finger you wouldn't think so(I have worked and do work in the testing/calibration/quality control industry for the engineering and the construction industries for over 17 years now). fourthly, you say that you only want to pass on the facts to people so they know the full details and are capable of making their own decision. fine then let them do so, you've pointed out the fact that there have been a couple of examples with what appears to be thinner than usual points on the hull, great but why then why go on about the fact that OK NZ are allowing some of their dealers to sell grade a seconds without knowing the reasons why they are actually seconds. I know many large companies that several factory seconds including several boat manufacturers, these seconds usually have cosmetic faults or are infact ex demo models. to think that any legitmate manufacturer would knowingly sell dangerous equipment is paranoid to say the least. At least contact these distributors and find out why Ok are allowing them to be sold rather than just assuming they are dangerous rejects. Finally as for taking the p*ss out of someones spelling i'm sure i could sit here a run through lots of peoples posts(including my own) for grammatical errors and find hundreds but to be honest its a bit sad and childish really. My final parting comment is if you think you have a problem with your new kayak that you've just purchased be it an ocean kayak, a malibu, a perception or whatever contact your dealer and ask for a replacement or a refund you do afterall have the law upon your side. If you have problems after that i suggest contacting the manufacturer or trading standards. I'm sorry if this appears to be a bit of a diatribe but i feel some unjust comments have been made and as such i couldn't stand by without replying.

Only if its got a crab pot in it!

Ah well a bit of agreeing to disagreeing on some issues never hurt anyone. after all it would be a boring world if everyone thought the same. i personally am quite happy to listen to others opinions as long as they extend the same courtesy to me. As someone once told me " a fundamentalist is someone with a open mouth and a closed mind"

mines the mango flame one. the set up still need refining a bit as i found after taking this photo that travelling light seems to be the best way to go most of the time

i know that feeling although on a couple of occasions a washing machine might be a more fitting description to my landing technique

I didn't mean my reply to look like i was having a go at you, infact i was agreeing with your view of the "single species interest groups" there are far too many so called environmentalists who pursue the future of one type or species of creature without looking at the wider picture and the effect such single mindedness has on the rest of the eco system, look at the animal rights idiots who released the mink from fur farms a few years back with no regard to the environmental damage that releasing a non native appex predator into an unprepared country side would have. I agree with you that for anglers who aren't making a living from catching fish to shoot seals so they can have a better days fishing is stupid. As for commercials once again its a different picture these people earn their living from fishing and i can understand the opinion that if something is taking "the bread from off your table" so to speak that you might get more than a little pi**ed off with it.I don't necessarily agree with that opinion but i can understand and respect it.

Good point. if your worried as you obviously appear to be then it is best you contact your dealer and then if you have no luck with them johnson outdoors, I myself have a prowler elite in mango flame and have had 6 Oz leads, a waterproof camera and various plugs and hooks lurking in the cupholder at times and it shows no signs of wear and tear as yet. In respect to the comments about the strength of coke bottles has anyone actually tried to push their finger or any other body part through the side of an empty coke bottle? if you do try you'll be surprised how much force it actually take to pierce it, stab it with a knife is one thing but try and force a finger through it and your more likely to break your finger than the bottle remember people make bottle rockets from these things and they withstand pressures of over 80psi. this however doesnt mean that your kayak can be used as a giant bottle rocket although in saying that it may save energy on paddling

And people say whales are clever!!

I agree with you on this one it shows that there is always a time for selective culling. as i said in another thread it just gives natural selection a helping hand, darwin never said anything about survival of the stupidest.