I test paddled a Current Designs Caribou and really liked it. These seem like popular boats, judging from the number of reviews here and from what I’ve heard from other people.
Where should I look to find one of these boats (used)? There don’t seem to be many for sale.
Thanks!
Not to be a wet blanket, but
Is the Caribou the only sea kayak you have demoed? That isn’t meant by any means to be critical of the Caribou, but your post does sort of sound like you might be new to kayaking. If that is the case, it might be prudent to try out a lot more designs if possible.
Something you need to account for…
All of the boats you listed in your original post (Andromeda, Caribou and Ellesmere) are older designs, have been around for a decade or so. At least one has been discontinued. Two are simply older designs that have a smaller following now than when they first came out because of newer designs that have hit the market. And consumers do tend to follow newer.
So there are likely to be fewer of these around than something like the Wilderness Systems Tempest, which has been very successful and has been tweaked all along.
While it is correct that a couple of these boats would seem to be a match for what you said you wanted, you may be missing some even better choices by skipping the more current line of shorter, often more playful boats that are still full out sea kayaks. Boats like the Dagger Alchemy. Most of these designs have happened in the last five years.
I didn’t ask before but maybe should have - why these three boats?
answer
I put down these three boats because I could find prices to fit my budget on all of them. Actually, I’ve test-paddled about 15 kayaks in my search. Maybe half felt “right”, and only these three were available at a price I could afford.
At any rate, I found an Andromeda in excellent shape for a really low price, so I decided to go with that.
Thanks for your input.