From the air it matters . 
Yellow is the color that shows up best at sea. I built and Pygmy kayak and left the deck varnished with a yellow hull.
I paddled a wood and canvas OT canoe for 30 years and it was painted white which shows up well on rivers.
I have had some tan and green canoes in gelcoat and paint that did not show up well at all.
Then you’re invisible.
That I believe has been established:
“Bright colors are handy in a search and rescue situation.”
“Color could make a difference in poor visibility.”
You don’t read my posts.
“The vast majority of my paddling is on smaller lakes or rivers”
Well TracerBullet, when I special-ordered a craft to be used on smaller lakes and rivers you can be sure that safety never crossed my mind.
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My wife has an orange yellow almost camouflage mix wilderness system tempest 170. I can’t find her half the time on the Army Corp lake we paddle. All my boats WW or touring are solid colors. Can see any from a mile away. If your concerned go with a solid color.
While participating in a USCG SAR training in Charleston, I took the opportunity to ask the search experts what color kayak shows up the best when they are scanning the water. Their answer: pick the color you like because we can’t see you until we are right on top of you.
The helo pilot reinforced that by saying the kayakers in distress who have a VHF are well known for shouting into the radio “I see you!” I see you!” as soon as the paddlers site the helo. The response is “well we can’t see YOU.”
If you’re hoping to avoid collisions with power boats, boaters often can’t see you not because you blend into the environment but because you sit so low and the boat driver has lots of blind spots, especially when you are right in front of their bow.
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I’ve got a yellow one, but it was the boat I wanted and could live with yellow when I bought it used.
The surfski didn’t come in colors.Fenn, like Epic, picks the color for you depending on the layup. My fiberglass Mako6 is white with red end caps, just like all of the others.
We have two yellow and red kayaks. Can be seen from a distance. Happy paddling.
I have a dagger axis in a blue to purple pink colour scheme. I wear a yellow life jacket. It’s bright and fun. I hope to never need rescuing. .
Pick a color that makes you happy.
Visibility is good. My first kayak was yellow, the second orange.
As for the issue of color: who thought dull, muted colors were good for life jackets?!? They are safety equipment - think Day Glo!!!
Also, black is a terrible color for anything kayak related. Black seats, paddles etc get hot in the summer sun. Light grey would be much better. And paddle blades should be white or other bright colors to make them visible at a distance.
Okay, so here I go again sounding off on the topic of visibility on the water. For the past 64+ years, I have paddled, rowed, sailed & motored a wide variety of water craft covering a range of sizes. I currently have 4 kayaks, 1 canoe, 1 rowing dinghy, 1 inflatable dinghy, & a 16’ sailboat in my navy. Just sold our 32.5’ twin engine motor yacht a couple of years ago. So my comments here are based upon real-life experiences, not speculative opinion.
Water-fowl hunters want to be camouflaged so the birds don’t see them. But where do you find these duck boats? They’re in the weeds, maybe near shore, & well away from channels populated by high-speed power craft. So, dull colors work great for them & if that’s where you want to paddle, then that will work perfectly for you too.
Okay, here’s the “but.” When cruising with my bigger boats around 30 mph, a tested fuel efficient speed for many mono-hulled power boats by the way, it’s surprising how much water is covered in a short period of time. A paddler is not seen & then suddenly there they are, close by, almost in harm’s way, & usually it’s because they’re in the middle of the navigation channel needed by watercraft with deeper draft than a surface skimming paddle craft. So, when kayaking, I paddle my bright yellow Old Town Adventure XL139 with a flag mounted 4’ above my stern & my paddle has reflective tape on both sides of each blade. If I want to get across to the other side of a navigation channel, I watch for a period of no power-boat traffic & then paddle straight across & outside of the nav channel. Why? Because I know that I still might not be seen in time. One person in this chain posted a photo of their kayak with a big bright-colored sail - fantastic - that paddler will be visible! One of my kayaks is mid-blue in color & I do not feel calm in that unless I’m cruising close to shore because I know that I will just not be visible to the faster boats until they’re nearly on top of me, so any sense of calmness from that color could be very short-lived.
Remember, while paddlers have the right of way over sailboats & both over power-boats, in reality, when on the water, size matters, so it’s one thing to be right & yet quite another to be dead right! If you want to paddle with the big kids, be visible - that’s the take-away from my spiel.
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I’ve bought used, but chose bright colors. Three things, first thing paddle movement is seen first. Bright transparent fiberglass stick out in light. I was told the mylar reflectors on my carbon blades were like spotlights flashing in sun. When sitting still and powerboats nearing I just roll them on combing so still flash. But without bright light they dont show up. Second the backhaul boat driver on Horseshoe Bend showed us how INVISIBLE kayaks were in sun or canyon shade to him at 30 mph, no mater the boat or pfd color. He just insisted stay the … out of the channel. Third I put 5’ flag on my SOT, but in photos it doesnt stand out much, its just too miniscule at much distance. I prefer bright light colors, but it maybe just peace of mind more than safety. My few cents. Enjoy your kayaks!
I like the peace and serenity of blues and I like to imagine blending into nature and being stealthy, but sometimes I need to cross large open lakes and speedboats make me nervous. I just don’t trust them to be actively looking for obstacles…
I recently bought a pair of matching kayaks. One is light blue and the other orange, so I really did have a choice//I had to decide. I made my home in the orange one. Getting run over would really stink.
Choose a color that you’d like looking at for a long time, right in front of your nose. If it blends into the environment get a brighter pfd and wear bright clothing.
Open water with many large rivers feeding it, like the Chesspeake Bay, have a lot of deadfall trees that wash out when strong storms erode river banks. I’ve seen log sections at least 24 inches in diameter and over 10 feet long, floating down the Bay with only inches exposed. Once while paddling, I saw a 2x10 by at least 20 feet long, floating with only the surface above water. If I could see it in the distance from a kayak seat, it would surely be visible from a person standing in a power boat.
I don’t travel under power often, but when I do, I’m hyper vigilant looking for things like floating hazards to navigation. My opinion is that only a fool could miss seeing a kayak of any size or color. A kayak is one of the least significant hazards a power boater faces on the water. Hitting a telephone pole that’s just breaking the surface will certainly disrupt your plans and your boat, if it doesn’t kill you. Even common branches the thickness of an arm could ruin a prop. I truely can’t understand how a person could miss a human sized object floating on the water.
Perhaps a better strategy would be to disguise your boat with a few branches and a cover that looks like tree bark so it resembles a floating log, or drag some wires from a cross beam to look like a utility pole. Even drunken fools driving fast seem to miss things like that. Better still, paint your PFD to resemble an aid to navigation. Some suggestions are attached. If traveling in a group, have the two paddlers on either side of the group wear black/white vertical stripes, so boaters will believe the area between the markers is obstructed. If they don’t understand that, maybe they’ll believe they’re in a sport field looking at some referees, so a whistle sound might mean stop the play.
Another option is a law that any boat with a motor larger than 15 hp should have a butt plug attached to a kill switch so they can’t start the boat if their head is up their rectum.
Especially those awful wakeboats designed to operate with the bow pointing 15 degrees or more above the horizon. The drivers can’t even keep their beers from spilling at that angle.
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If you capsize a green or blue boat it is almost impossilbe to see under water.
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I love orange but the new boat is blue because that’s what they had in LV model I wanted so I figure i was meant to have blue.
Blue is in my top three but I was hoping for purple 
Basically, I could not live with myself if I didn’t get a deal and that means take the color fate intends me to have. I think my hull is white.
