Any Kayakers Here?

[ecchamberlin]

I have been into kayaking for a while but while on deployment I have spent quite a bit of time on the water with my brother. Yokohama bay. Looking forward to kayaking in Ventura/Orange Counties when I get home.

Are there any other kayakers out there?

[DHC6twinotter]

I don't kayak, but it is something I wouldn't mind getting into. My boss back at my last job was really into it. Seemed like fun stuff, and I almost bought one myself. My boss knew somebody that had a kayak, paddle, vest, etc for $250. Wish I would have gotten it now. :(

Does seem like something cool to start doing, but I dunno about all the crazy jumping off waterfalls stuff. :confused:

[Good Times]

Ken's (paddlenbike) a paddler so hopefully he'll see this thread :)

[ecchamberlin]

I hope he does see this. I do the open water type of kayaking not the river stuff. I am really liking the sit on top kayaks because you can surf them and jump off into the water without the difficulty of climbing into a sit in type.

[bamachem]

I've done it a few times here on the Gulf Coast. I don't own one, but I have access to them to use, and enjoy it from time to time.

[DHC6twinotter]

We did a kayak/canoe trip at the last place I worked. We wanted to do a 10 mile run down the river, but only got to do the 5 mile. The Canoe was pretty fun in itself, and we hit some class II rapids. The only downside to the trip was that the two fat guys (me and another guy) were in the same canoe, and we were riding low. We were dragging on a lot of rocks, and the rest of the group got pretty far ahead. It kinda took the fun out of it, but at least the water was shallow enough that I didn't have to worry about drowning. :hillbill:

This thread makes me want to do another canoe or kayak trip. :D

[cplvc]

I have a couple of sit-on-top ocean kayaks. I take them out to Malibu almost every weekend during summer with friends. I hear there's some cool kayaking spots out toward Ventura I can come out that way.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s129/cplvc/964runner/DSC01870.jpg

[ecchamberlin]

Very cool. I notice there a usually quite a few used Kayaks on Craigslist.

Jc, are those Scramblers? The Yokosuka on base rental place has one of these and I usually check that one out when I head out. Pretty short at about 11 feet long. It works pretty well for 1-2 hours trips.

[4x4mike]

I hope he does see this. I do the open water type of kayaking not the river stuff. I am really liking the sit on top kayaks because you can surf them and jump off into the water without the difficulty of climbing into a sit in type.




I used to do a lot of kayaking but not so much any more. We own 2 of the Airframe river inflatables and they are good and don't take up as much space as a hard shell. Sit on tops are nice because they are easy to paddle and to get up onto if you decided to get out. They aren't very high performance but they are tough and have few problems. I'd say to buy a used one if you're looking. You can get good deals on Swity's (sit inside) and Scramblers or Malibu's (sit on top).

It's easy to spend a lot on the boat and even easier to buy a high end paddle and floation. Having said that I have less than $100 in my paddle and vest and do fine with it.

[cplvc]

Eric,
No these are smaller 8 ft, yak-boards "surf kayaks". Wider and slower compared to the scramblers.

[paddlenbike]

I have a Necky Looksha, a 15' sit-in touring kayak with dry storage front and rear and a foot-operated rudder. I live near a large slow-moving river, so I tend to paddle that more than anything else. I also frequent lakes and a few coastal estuaries here in CA. My favorite thing to do is load up the boat with my camping gear and do overnight trips with friends. I don't do whitewater. My boat is a compromise, it will do light river work, it paddles nice on open water and has plenty of room for overnight gear, but it doesn't excel at any of those things. My next boat will be lighter (kevlar), at least 17' in length to make more room for gear and make it faster in the water and slightly narrower for more efficient paddling. I have a carbon paddle that lowers the effort level down a noticeable amount. I am anxious to do some paddling later this year!

http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/4Runner/kayak1.jpg

[ecchamberlin]

That is a nice looking sit-in. The Runner is looking really great to.

I am going to have to test out a few more sit-in because the ones I have tried seemed cramped compared to the sit on tops. I really like the Wilderness Systems Tarpon 140's.

What type of roof rack do you have in the photo? It looks like it works with your factory rails.

[paddlenbike]

Hi Eric,
I am using the old-school non-locking Yakima feet that screw into the threaded wedges of the factory roof rack. This allows you to be able to slide the towers just like you can with the factory rack. I like the non-locking Yakima feet because they sit much closer to the roof--the locking towers are nearly twice as tall. The kayak saddles are Yakima TLC's.

A narrow boat is much sleeker in the water than a wide one, which means you can paddle faster and be less tired than someone pushing one of those ultrawide sit-on-top barges through the water. I would spend some time paddling boats around and see if you can get over that cramped feeling you're describing. Around here (Sacto) there are stores that let you demo boats before buying. I paid $200 and was able to take out any boat in the store for a 3-month period, then I was able to apply that $200 toward the purchase of a boat. There is a huge difference in the comfort, stability, speed and efficiency among even similar looking boats, so see if you can try them out to find the one that is right for you. When I paddled my Necky for the first time I just knew it was the boat I was looking for.

Speed may not seem important but if you are paddling a sit-on-top and your friends are in sit-in boats, you simply will not be able to keep up. Meanwhile your friends are barely putting in any effort at all and they keep looking back at you thinking you are a weak loser, lol. So when the boat salesman talks about speed, keep in mind that he/she is really talking about paddling efficiency.

[ecchamberlin]

Good info. Thanks

I definetely believe that the speed is an issue and your right I just need to take a couple of them out and try it again. Can you recommend any that have larger openings and are more roomy?

[paddlenbike]

Go try out a kayak or two and pay attention to the opening size, i.e. whether you think it should be larger or smaller. Note the make and model and look up those specs online when you get home. Then you will start to have an idea of the range of specs you're looking for, then you can narrow down your search by shopping online based on those specs. In my case, boat width (speed) is important to me and I know that 21.5" is as narrow as I want and 23" is as wide as I will go. That narrows down the boats to 10% of what is made and I can shop online only for those boats. I always try before I buy, but it's a good starting point if certain things are important to you.