Seat time.
One of the most prolific open ocean racers, Oscar Challupski, is a bigger/taller guy and he paddled a variety of boats down to 17".
Loose hips, a boat with reliable secondary stability, and an instinctual brace (both a slap-brace and stroke-brace) can keep you upright in just about anything. Seat time is the 4th variable. If you’re not paddling at minimum 2x/week for 90 mins or more, you will have a hard time building the instinctual muscle memory required for less stable boats
Yes I paddle at least 180 minutes a week March-November. I paddled about 240 minutes yesterday.
I followed this advice the last ~2 years and totally overhauled myself. I thought I was in good shape 2 years ago even a year pre COVID and overhauled everything.
The issue is that it just takes that much more concentration and tend to think of a wider boat like an automatic transmission in that the vehicle did the concentration for you. Yup I was a HUGE stickshift fan back when they still were relatively common, same thing they say about kayaks, more playful and that jazz. But a narrower boat require so much more concentration, focus and watching what you do at every moment that unless you really like that kind of thing it gets old fast.
It really takes a certain personality and despite everything I have done for my own physicality I have seen many people do far less than I did the last several years and progress in their paddling so much more. I am getting the wind that unless you’re like Oscar and want to go pro and it’s the love of your life it may not be worth it to push yourself that much as the taller you are, the more you have to “try”. Said differently for that much effort there are many enjoyable things you can do that give just as much satisfaction but are less hard work.
I’m 6’ and at least your weight and one of my boats is an Epic 18x with a 22" width, so not much narrower but a bit.
It is different for sure when they get narrower. My chesapeak 17 is only a little wider and feels a world different. Partly the width, partly the hull design.
You can paddle them fine, but it certainly takes days in the saddle to feel right.
Thanks for the input everyone. So, I have a few takeaways:
I haven’t done any formal training, and know I need to. I used to mainly mountaineer but at 50 it is getting harder and have decided kayaking will be my twilight sport. Despite just a few years paddling I have done some long tours in Alaska, Norway and Iceland and at home in Puget Sound outside Tacoma/Seattle. I think I have reached the limit of being self taught, so hopefully the COVID restriction lift soon so instruction takes place again.
On the Solstice, I have one of those already. I actually have thirteen boats (don’t judge me) and the Solstice was my first. It is large, rock solid, fairly fast and I find it a little too boring and predictable. My current favorite is my Nimbus Telkwa which is pretty similar in style and spec but I find a little livelier. The boats I am trying to love is my CD Extreme and an English style Point 65’ North X-ray which are quite a bit more narrow.
For ballast I was simply using gallon water bottles, which aren’t the most stable load.
So moving forward, practice and instruction. I need to do instruction anyway since I would like to move from intercoastal to coastal and currently my skill set doesn’t feel like it will support it.
Again, thanks all for the input.
This was Harrison Fjord last October. Rental boat was a WS Tsunami 170 which is about as stable as a boat gets.
Dump your water ballast get sand in a garbage bag make it 10-15 lb. pancake shape 3" thick place it behind the seat. You can shape it with duct tape.
Hi Oliphant, I understood your comment about wanting practical “lived experience” advice from other heavy paddlers in narrower boats. My two cents here…
6’ 3" here, 253# this morning, 46" waist, 47" chest, size 12 feet, muscular thighs from a misspent youth running marathons.
My first boat was a WS Tsunami 175 rotomolded with a seatback, 24" wide, cockpit 36" x 20" (external), very stable, eventually got comfortable in 1+ foot wind waves/chop, paddled it about 2 years in salt marshes and some open bay/coast (SF Bay Area).
About 2 years ago, moved up to a Valley Etain 17-7 rotomolded boat, 21.5" wide, 34" x 19" cockpit (external) - that was a game changer!
At my weight/height, you got a few degrees of initial stability as you leaned, and then you go right over. No discussion, no warning, no secondary stability. I was petrified on my first few flat water paddles, and capsized on some very gentle beam swell in Monterey Bay.
But lots of seat time, exposing myself to boat wakes, wind waves, and a little moving water from local salt pond tide weirs got me to up my game. I realized that for my situation (250# tall guy in 21.5" wide boat), kayaking is more like balancing a pencil on the end of your finger, same idea as walking and bicycling. No inherent stability. Anything but paddling flat water requires a dynamic effort to stay upright.
So the fear/terror is gone, I’m comfortable, can even take photographs in small wind waves, but always on stability duty in anything more bumpy.
On club paddles, all the average (5’ 9" and 150#) paddlers can lay their paddles across their laps in moderate waves/chop, bob around like a cork, and be eating a sandwich on break. For me, it’s two hands on the paddle, a granola bar stuck in my mouth, continual loose hips/balancing/keeping myself upright, and frequent low braces thrown in.
It’s been a journey to get here, and I have to thank my fellow paddlers at Western Sea Kayakers for their advice and encouragement.
My thanks also to the forums at paddling.com and ukriversguidebook.co.uk for the great knowledge that they’ve shared over the years. I’ve been lurking and devouring the boat reviews, skills questions, and particularly enjoyed all the “big boy”/boat discussion threads.
I have never met Celia and the many other long-time p.net posters, but your wit and wisdom are appreciated, keep it up!
Happy paddling.
Eric
I just bought a used 2007 WS Tempest 180 Pro in excellent condition …great deal for $600 and they threw in an salvage Eddyline Fathom that has major cracking in the carbonite stern as well as Carbon Werner paddles. Anyhow…I love how the Tempest 180 pro paddles and there are NO issues with stability or any need for ballast.I can close my eyes, daydream or lean way over and it just feels right. I’m a big (fat) guy at 5’10"/245 lbs and the boat has plenty of room. I would probably be ok on a 170 pro but the 180 seems plenty fast. I was resigned to get another Mariner Escape which is a boat I know very well from Alaska and Baja trips but the Tempest 180 is so much faster and looks so much sweeter I could not resist.
My question is why not just settle on the WS Tempest 170 Pro if you can find one…it seems to have everything you need with no downsides (unless the boats you mention are really faster…I would not know)? Seems like the obvious answer.
My issue is I now have a 2 decent kayaks but living in central Texas for another year…lake paddling and working on my roll and self rescue in the warm water. Working my way back to the PNW for retirement - you can never have too many kayaks.
My question is why not just settle on the WS Tempest 170 Pro if you can find one
I have been looking for one. They don’t come up that often for sale and when they do they get snatched up in a hurry!
There is one on the Spokane, WA Craigslist. At $2000 it seems a bit high, but I hear that used kayak prices have gone up.
I see it on FB Marketplace in Spokane - yellow in great shape:
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A little steep but if it is truly like new I would consider it for sure. I was very lucky to find the Tempest 180 pro in San Antonio TX…really a fluke. I was actually thinking the larger Tsunami pro was for me but it is 24" wide and both the Tsunami and Tempest 180 Pro have the larger cockpit opening…which I definitely wanted. I don’t need or want any more stability (which is saying something - I like expedition boats). I can now straddle the kayak in shallow water and drop my but into it and then, one by one my legs…no scratching up the boat or risking a pre-paddle capsize. I also once owned a Mariner MAX…but I think I like the Tempest 180 pro better in almost all respects except weight (60 lbs). One thing I read was to check the boat over very carefully as production was moved to China from the EU in 2008 or 2009 and immediately there were issues…these are well documented here. My 2007 seems to be well made (though not up to the standard of the NW Whitewater built Mariner kayaks)…90% from my close inspection. Wish there was some way to quantify the speed and drag of these boats like Sea Kayaker did long ago - its all just seat of the pants now.
Good Luck
Extreme is 7 mph kayak in a sprint for me. Cruises easily, good in rough water. Paddling properly is key in certain conditions. You get stability from a bracing stroke. Weights of CD boats are accurate I weighed all mine.
He’ll probably get that or near that with demand now.
Oscar Chalupsky is about 6’3" and close to 260 and he not only paddles a 17" wide boat, he is and has been the world open water champ for as long as I can remember.
Check the weight limit and don’t exceed it and you will be fine, eventually. It took me close to a dozen boats to be able to be comfortable in my 18 and 17 inch beamed boats, but now I love them.
On the other hand I was at the race when Reid Hyle sat an Olympic boat for the first time. He won that race by a very long way. You never know until you try.
This guy sells a lot of boats, more sea kayaks than you would expect a few hundred miles from the ocean. I think he is a reseller and prices stuff pretty dearly. I’m holding out for a deal.
Part of Oscar’s talent looks to be reading the water that makes him a 
Or finding shirts that fit. My mother made my shirts through college because 37-38" arm lengths couldn’t be found. No problem now.
I’m right up there with you and as others have said, time on the water is key! My new daily driver is a P&H Valkyrie with a 21" beam but my rolling boat is a Rebel Ilaga with a 19 3/4" beam. The P&H Cetus would be a great boat if you didn’t want that Valkyrie hull shape but either would be a fun, fast and solid boat for your size. I don’t use any ballast typically and haven’t had any problems.
The biggest thing that helped me get comfortable in narrower boats was getting a workable roll. It doesn’t have to be pretty, just reliable. It takes so much of the stress out of things when you feel confident that you can get back up again. I’ve only had my Valkyrie for a few weeks now so I’m still getting used to it and finding out how much I can edge it, where that secondary stability is etc. If I force a few rolls when the water is rougher than I would like it helps to actually make it enjoyable.
For reference, here is me squeezing into that tiny Ilaga ocean cockpit for some winter rolling. That poor boat is using every last ounce of its volume:
Do you apply elk lard to get in that thing?!?
