A friend just told me about these unusual kayaks. You mainly pedal but also paddle or sail. They seem weird but may be best for my back. They are in the product reviews.
Anyone own or looked at these?
I’ve seen 'em
There was a guy on our lake last summer and I’ve since seen them at dealers. It’s a Hobie fisherman or something like that. They kick up quite a foam and in tandem these people got up a darn good head of steam. It’s a sit on top made, I guess, for fishing and the means to travel with hands free for fishing or whatever. The people I talked with loved them! They move a lot faster and easier than “peddle boats.”
Demoed
Demoed one a couple of years ago. Speed was impressive, but didn’t try to maintain it over a long distance. Worth looking at if you want a SOT.
I’ll get slammed for this…
… but I rarely see SOT paddlers with good paddling posture, except surf ski paddlers. It’s the big paddled sling back seats you usually find on them. They encourage you to lean back into them AND limit rotation. Both bad for lower back.
The seats make sense for fishing, or sitting and enjoying the day, but not serious paddling.
Not ALL SOTs, or ALL SOT paddlers, but most I’ve seen. Most can get away with it as they don’t have bad backs (yet) or paddle long distances.
You can of course always just be aware of it and lean up off the seat back while paddling. Another option is to leave the seat off, but some provide zero support then. A low narrow back band would also help - but they do not attach/position well with most SOTs.
Nothing against SOTs in general. Of the 5 kayaks I’ve bought, only one is a SINK. The Hobie’s look like fun. I pass by them often here. Paddler position is more like a recumbent bike than a kayak though…
I own one
and they are a blast to pedal and very comfortable to sit it. It is a slug to paddle. If you plan to pedal more than paddle they are great fun. I own the Mirage. The Mirage Outback is the fishing version.
I’m considering one for fishing…
but I frequently find myself in very shallow water. Just how much of a pain in the neck is to lift up the pedal mechanism when you hit shallow waters?
Other question:
Are they stable enough to stand up?
HI, YAL-& I DON’T THINK SO…
I demoed Hobies twice -the regular single, and the angler. The regular model was fun but surprisingly sort of twitchy even while being stable when paddling. When pedaled, the angler went just fine and it WAS kinda novel fun…
It looks like a fair platform for fishing, but you don’t want to get into water much shallower that perhaps a couple of feet, especially in soft or silty or vegetated bottoms -I believe he action of the propulsion system might kick up the bottom in those conditiond.
My pedaling demo of the fishing version was in a lake in Palm Beach County -nice Park called Okeeheelie -that had a lot of shoreside aquatic vegeation like the plants in freshwater aquaria. I kept on forgetting to pull up the wings, and kept on getting caught up in the plants in about 5 feet of water. It’s not all that difficult, but it IS a tad tedious, and you’ll need to keep room for the unit amongst your fishing gear if you go this route.
I also wonder about the action of the wings and how it might affect the fish.
It’s a solid boat, but it really is a heavy, heavy, boat, probably precisely because it IS so sold feeling. The angler version has a series of shallow compartments along the gunwales where you might keep smaller fishing gear & like stuff. And as I recall, it has a TW in back.
But I wouldn’t get one -I think they’re overpriced, and while it’s nice to pedal and not paddle, especially while trolling, it just don’t seem the same, if not right…
If enough of us got one, how on earth could I sign off with
Paddle On!
-Frank in Miami
Peddle On!
Peddle On!
LOL
Thanks Scupperfrank. We can always count on your insight.
There’s one location that I’ve fished (Lake Ponchartrain) where trolling along the bridges is the preferred method for catching speckled trout but my usual haunts are the backwater marshes while persuing tailing redfish. I’ll probably shy away from the Hobie.
Sounds like a great duck hunting machine on lakes though. Alas, I hunt crawfish ponds and other shallow waters.
mirage
my wife has the mirage with the pedals, all you have to do is push the pedals to the extended position and the flippers are flat against the bottom. as for standing, the fishing model looks like you could do it but it looks like the suv of yaks, a little overpriced but built to last; i found my wife’s in a mangrove miles from land after hurricane georges,they are tough. if you want to fish look at the tarpon 140, flat cockpit made for standing, half the price and lifetime warrenty. good luck
Who makes the Tarpon?
What is the company?
Thanks lees
and for neo_SC - the Tarpons are made by Wilderness Systems http://www.wildernesssystems.com/
i demoed one last year.
I did not care for it. I don’t think I could have gone much distance with it. It is not quite like a bicycle. It was tippy and uncomfortable on my back.
Good initial speed but, again, I don’t think I could have kept up the initial pace. And ity definitely doesn’t meet my personal sense of aesthetics.