Adventures with Erik Boomer in his Z3

Expedition paddling on Baffin island with the Nirvana and Z3.

Submitted by Erik Boomer

Last summer my partner Sarah and I got a chance to do two different expeditions in remote corners of Baffin Island. For the first trip our boats the Nirvana and Z3 were our means of accessing climbs, scouting and moving around in this beautiful little bay. The boats were perfect and had plenty of room to move around all of our gear and were plenty tough when we hauled them up onto the rock and would stash them while we climbed.

The second trip, Part 2 of the video we did a classic hiking waterfall sufferfest! We hiked 25 miles and were able to link up lakes and rivers to create the most whitewater laden crossing of Meta Incognita Peninsula that we could do. Approximately 35 fun Rapids, falls or slides and more berries and wild mushrooms than we could eat. It was my first time using the Z3 loaded on whitewater so I was really happy about how easy it was to pack with 20 days of gear, including a shotgun and a bunch of food and the slightly larger cockpit was really nice to get in and out quicker too. My biggest question was how would it perform with all the gear in there? It’s definitely not as fast as the Nirvana but still skipped ridiculously well over sticky holes and scary spots even with a bunch of gear, and was certainly easier to maneuver and control the bow in strong currents. I also enjoy how the boat sits on my shoulder when carrying it. Sarah Paddled the NIrvana, She is still progressing as a paddler and in fact on this trip she started stepping up and styling some of her biggest rapids yet.