Cyclocross - What are my options for upgrading my brakes?

I did some searching and couldn't find the answeres i was looking for.

On my cross bike, I have Avid Shorty 4 Cantilever brakes. I never plan to race, just use in bad weather road rides and some rails to trails. I can tell that when the roads get a little wet, these brakes aren't gonna work very well. So do I have any upgrade options. I would eventually like to get disk brakes, but that would require new wheels and is out of my price range right now...

i'd definitely try some kool stop pads before spending money on anything else. all canti brakes will suffer in the rain, but they should all work if they're set up right and have good pads.

also remember to clean your braking surfaces, a lot of the gunk that builds up on rims seems to turn into slime when it gets wet.

Cool. Thanks for the advice. I'll try some Kool Stop pads. I have the stock ones on now, so they are probably garbage...

Tektro mini vees...cheap and they work. You'll want some adjustable barrels to aid in getting the wheels out :)

I'll heartily recommend the Kool-Stops. try the Eagle II's or the dual-compound "Mountain Pads".

I run the dual-compound pads on my 'cross bike with the Shorty-4's Massive improvement over the stock (garbage) Avid pads.

Honestly-- I don't know why Avid even bothers. They should have some sort of OEM contract with Kool-Stop!

The Kool-Stops have a little angled edge molded into the leading edge of the pad (the part that hits the rim first) that they call the "rim rake" it quickly skims off water film and dirt before the rest of the pad touches down. Stopping is smooth and powerful. Squeal and chatter is greatly reduced or eliminated.

The Avid cantilevers are really quite nice brakes. They modulate well and are super-easy to adjust. Kool-Stops make them even better!

I can not offer any more info but to second everything above. Buy new pads before new brakes.

For pads, I really like the Kool Stop Tectonic (http://edinabike.com/page.cfm?PageID=62&action=details&sku=BR1125). For brakes, it's nothing but Paul' (http://edinabike.com/page.cfm?PageID=62&action=details&sku=BR8869)s for me. The combo is just perfect.
http://edinabike.com/images/library/catalogs/soc/p350X350m/BR1125.jpg
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http://edinabike.com/images/library/catalogs/soc/p350X350m/BR8869.jpg

Another vote for Paul's.... only thing we use.

Ok so Pauls are looking good from what I've read on here tonight. Are any of you running drop bars and what levers are you having the best luck with, no travel agent suggestions please, I'm past that point in my experiments!
Thanx

if you want stopping power in the rain, get koolstop salmon pads. these are the ones that use the patented scott mathauser compound. put these with paul brakes and you're all set.