I am interested in purchasing a used kayak from a coworker. It’s 10’ long and plastic sit in style. I don’t know the brand, only that it has some stickers on it that state:
“Winner of 1986 Yampa River Rodeo CO”
“Winner of 1987 Ocoee Rodeo TN”
“Winner of 1988…”
He is asking $80 (seems in okay condition, no paddles) Any ideas??
Thanks for the help.
What have you got to lose?
It’s a specialized whitewater kayak
It will likely be a hard-to-control pig for flatwater cruising. Is that the kind of kayak you want?
squirrely playboat
I agree it is probably a whitewater boat. Not something you would care to use on a lake or placid river.
What kind of kayak
I took it for a quick spin in a small pond using my Greenland II paddle and it seemed pretty fast and tough to control. A nice alternative to my collapsible kayak. I was just curious if anyone knew any history about this thing.
Use for Buffalo river and some rafting
I think it could be fun in northern Arkansas on some of the rivers we have, or possibly TN once I get some confidence. Any paddle suggestions, inexpensive?
some disagreement
– Last Updated: Jul-26-12 5:06 PM EST –
the rodeo boats of the mid '80's were much sleeker than the 5.5-6' rodeo boats of today. At 10' long it's probably relatively low volume and I'd bet you'd really have a good time with it. As stated...$80, nothing to lose. Not a kayaker, but 87 ww friends who are ;-).
As far as paddles, best bang for the buck, probably go with an AB (aquabound). Relatively reasonable, tough as nails, will make a great back up blade if you ever get into the big stuff..
something to get you stoked...
http://www.canoekayak.com/canoe/old-school/
some disagreement
Thanks for the paddle advice, I will check them out!
limited number of possibilities
Assuming that the stickers in the boat actually apply to that particular boat, there were a limited number of whitewater kayaks around in the late 1980s. Most of them were well in excess of 10 ft and in fact longer than 11 ft.
Perception had far and away the greatest market share in the later 1980s and produced the Mirage and the Dancer. I cant recall exactly what year Dagger brought out their Response, but that would be a possibility.
As Matt indicated, those old whitewater hull designs were narrow and long and actually do quite well as river day trippers, and are even tolerable flat water boats as long as you don’t need dry hatch access and are not planning to paddle a ton of miles.
Sunlight UV damage ?
How brittle is that hull, cockpit, coming, etc. ?
If truly a 10 ’ boat of 1980s vintage
it is probably a Noah Jeti, a boat design that was way ahead of its time, and a real steal at that price if in decent condition.
Make sure you can get a skirt to fit it. Whitewater kayaks had smaller cockpits back then.
Just guessing…
Wasn’t the Dagger RPM a pretty hot Ocoee rodeo boat around that time frame?
skirts
Had great luck getting skirts from these folks.
http://www.daveyhearn.com/MWP%20Gear/Helmets%20Sprayskirts/helmets_sprayskirts%20mitts.htm
much later
RPM was almost a decade later.
hmmm
sounds like a winner.
Noah Jeti
Pblanc’s guess of a Noah Jeti based solely on a 10’ length and a 1988 date is a good one. I can’t think of another WW kayak that short at about that time.
I don’t think kayaks were narrower in those days – they were longer – but I’m really not up on today’s models.
The Jeti was called by many a “spud boat” because it was shaped like a smoothly elongated potato.
The only time I paddled one was on a relatively flatwater section of the West River in Vermont. It was a pig on the flats. It was great creek boat for its time. The guy who paddled it was always our “probe boat” when running unknown rapids blind in West Virginia.
It all depends on what kind of paddling you are doing, whitewater or flat.
There was a bigger version of the Jeti called the Jeti Grande. Here is Paul Mason (Bill’s son) in one on the Ocoee:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/2059_1088536136251_4545_n.jpg
to go with it…
…you’ll want to pick up a copy of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Kayak-Animated-Intermediate-Whitewater-Technique/dp/0897320506
Most were quite a bit narrower
Perception Mirage: length 13’ width 24" L/W 6.5
Perception Dancer: length 11’ 7" width 24" L/W 5.8
Dagger Response: length 11’ 3" width 23.25" L/W 5.8
Prijon T-Canyon: length 10’ 8" width 23" L/W 5.7
Prijon T-Slalom: length 12’ 1" width 23.5" L/W 6.2
Contrast that with some popular modern whitwater boats:
Wave Sport Diesel 75: length 8’ width 25.5" L/W 3.8
Dagger Mamba 8.0: length 8’ width 27" L/W 3.6
Jackson 4Fun: length 6’ 9" width 26.37" L/W 3.1
Liquid Logic Remix 79: length 8’ 11" width 27" L/W 4.0
Going from length/width ratios of 5.5-6.5 to L/W ratios of 3-4 equates with an enormous loss of hull speed.
Whitewater boats used for river running back in the 1980s were typically no wider than 24". Now widths in the 26-27" range are commonplace. A couple of inches less width coupled with a lot more length makes a big difference.
UV damage
It looks to be in fair shape. I think it was kept indoors for most of its life. I am going to take it out tomorrow and see what I can do in it.
Confirmed a Noah Jeti
I found some images with google that match what I purchased. The listing on Craigslist was about 4 times more than I paid, so I feel like I got a great deal. Thanks for all of the information everyone.