I didn’t realize anyone was making them. So at least they’re still out there.
Bow volume and rocker definitely seems to be a difference maker. A flatter mid-section another. They all seem to have that in common. Concave towards the ends seems to typically be more directional control oriented - traveling rough water and minimizing directional control efforts. A lot of the straighter tracking touring kayaks employed this. Remove/reduce/soften some of the V’d keel line, take out the concave/extended skeg-type bow and stern shapes, and the same design becomes looser and has more bow volume. So it’s just something I find interesting with the Sterlings - something unique about their design. Do you get the same ease of control with a little less rocker, and add a little hull speed with convex? What is the thinking, and how does it play out? That’s one of those things I think you just have to paddle to find out. Hopefully I’ll get the chance sometime. Always another kayak to add to the list. I’d love to have one, and am happy that you’re enjoying yours.
Coming out of the fast diagonal run, with control, with something besides just peeling off of the wave, seems to be the set-apart move, even in board surfing. You can watch the handful of the most skilled surfers and think everyone does it. But what I’ve witnessed is that the top-turn even on a surf board is more the exception than the rule. The far and away majority I’ve watched in-person on the beach peel off or fall off. It isn’t like the videos of the world’s best surfers. When someone is executing top-turns, I’ll stop and watch for a while. So to me, executing anything like that in a sea kayak is a thrilling goal. I’m definitely with you there!
The pronounced rocker of the Sterling makes a huges difference. In this video, three Sterlings and one Delphin (the surfing longboats that I have experience with). These folks are good longboat surfers but the Delphin rider iwas disadvantaged by less rockered design of his boat.
Ok, more Delphin action in this clip:
sing
Oh, forgot this video - 2019 Hobuck Hoedown - three Sterlings and a CD Karla:
sing
Imported… which made me smile 
My son is on his 2nd Jackson. He goes on multi-day excursions in it and only has good things to say, to include the super friendly , pro customer service they provide.
I own O.T. but wouldnt hesitate to own a Jackson.
Plastic bags vice plastic boats. Hmmm. You made me curious.
Let’s compare and then take a guess on how long plastic boats have left.
Plaatic bags have great usefulness, but have also rightfully earned a bad name due to:
- Difficult for recycling centers to process the thin flimsy bags.
- The bags, more often than not, end up in a landfill to poison our ground waters over the next melinium. Or worse, in our rivers, lakes and oceans, causing great devastation to life in each of those environments (including our own life).
- they can be reused and / or repurposed, but only a small % actually reach this lofty goal.
- side note: Most people know there are other, better options besides opting for plastic shopping bags.
On the other hand, plastic boats - kayaks are much enjoyed and often loved by their crazy wonderful paddlers. They:
- rarely end up in a landfill.
- can also be recycled
- are FUN!
- have many many years of a productive service life as a boat.
So… two vastly different variables come to mind in regards to what or who impacts the question of “how long do plastic boats have left?”
One is the physical lifespan.
The other is the raging environmentalist that think all plastics are evil (i tend to lean towards “most” are really bad). However, upon weighing the quickly ascertained pros and cons mentioned above, I hope the raging environmentalist gives pause to their rage long enough to give our much loved plastic boats a passing grade and does not come trying to cancel our beloved plastic boats via more gubberment regulation.
My verdict: Plastic boats have many years remaining before the raging environmentalists and gubberment regulates it into oblivion.
That said, here are some interesting numbers on the physical lifespan of your plastic boat:
An inflatable kayak averages a 4- 8 year lifespan. If used fairly often, getting more than 8 years is likey very rare. Proper storage is a must, even for short periods.
Ignoring the Walmart version of a plastic boat and going straight to the quality versions we know and love, a 10 year lifespan should be expected. A much longer lifespan can be had with proper care, storage, and depending on the quality of build.
And when your boat finally meets its final day on the water, recycling it is accepted at nearly all plastic recycling centers. Just bring it clean and stripped of non- plastic parts before taking it to the recycling center. In many areas, it is OK to cut it up and place it in your recycle bin (check with your local recycling program for the preferred method).
To be honest for every one pound of plastic bags I have brought home from the stores I have brought home at least 100 pounds of plastic containers inside the bags. I see no change in the process of packing all this other stuff and all the outrage goes to the bags for some reason. I do reuse 100% of the bags we bring home but they do end up in the landfill as I use them to put the garbage back in and then place them in the big plastic garbage can. In a way it helps as it offsets me buying garbage bags. Why buy bags when the store gives them for free. I understand nothing is free but they didn’t lower my prices when they eliminated bags. Now I buy their $1 plastic bag and reuse it until it fails. They don’t last super long and we have more than we need because we don’t always remember to carry bags with us when we happen to go shopping so we buy more. My brother in law takes 4 plastic laundry baskets with him to the store and puts his stuff in them as he shops and then sits the full basket on the belt to check out. The person has to unload and then scan and then he has an empty one for them to put the stuff in. in doing this he slows the system down and feels good about the well paying jobs he is creating.
We recycle and compost for our garden anything that will compost. We keep paper and cardboard separate from garbage that goes to landfill and we compress and pack down the garbage because we are using the small shopping bags and that saves space and cuts down the trips to garage. I know people that put out 3-4 cans and have likely less than we do.
Eliminating the bags are an image of solving something more than actually making much of an impact. The oil they came from was under the ground for millions of years and the components of the plastic were a waste product of refining fuel. It is a human problem if they are out in the ocean along with a million other plastic things.
I don’t have any issues with plastic boats and when you look at 10 year or a one day useful product life if the material is the same and can be recycled in the scope of a million years to me they are the same. Aluminum really works because the cost of recycled is like 100 times less than making new from oar. Plastic is the opposite there is no cost savings in not using new. By the time you use 5 gallons of heated water to clean out a peanut butter jar clean enough to be reused the cost is way more than the savings. Plastic bags are ready to go. Glass is another one that is cheap to make new. It all is about economics in the end.
The late Jon Huntsman Sr. was an interesting billionaire who invented the polystyrene box McDonalds used to put your Big Mac in and also your coffee. It took a tiny fraction of the cost to make compared to the green cardboard box they now use. Didn’t require cutting down a tree or processing wood to pulp to paper in a mill. Was 100 times cleaner than a paper box in terms of germs, kept your food hotter longer, did not leak. The green movement raised such a fuss they took the product away the product. Now if I buy regular eggs they come in a foam container but if I buy free range eggs they come in a cardboard container. McDonalds got rid of the plastic foam coffee cup that didn’t burn my hand and kept the coffee hot and went with paper but still has a plastic lid.
This is all perception and little logic and the people wanting the perception don’t care if it is a boat or a burger container or a shopping bag or fuel for your car. If it comes out of the ground and is made from oil it is bad and has to go.
Many plastics are vital to our modern technology, and truly make life better for people.
Peoples use of plastic products that don’t decompose and can’t be recycled like styrene cups and containers are an environmental problem. They may be cheap and work well, but the cheap part doesn’t take into account the long-term cost to life on this island in space. On river clean ups I have done there is no easy way to pick up all the small styrene pieces floating in the log jams. It’s just not feasible. When you look closely you can see uncountable small dirty white specks of styrene mixed in with the natural flotsam. They do end up in the oceans eventually. If you are a filter feeder you will be ingesting them. If you would like to see what that is like, try eating that coffee cup. I think if I had to make a choice, I would rather eat the paper cup.
Plastic itself isn’t the problem. The root of the problem is “too many people” and our needs in the moment. The world population is estimated to have been 2 billion in 1900. The world population went past 8 billion this year and is projected to be close to 10 billion by 2050. That is a fivefold increase in 150 years. Our economies are based on growth. Do any of us think that our world can support a fivefold increase to 50 billion in the following 150 years? At what point do we stabilize this growth? How or what will change this growth rate? We are already driving a mass extinction with our increasing need for the planets limited resources.
We selfishly want what we desire. We justify our actions. The short term seems always more important than the long term. Yes, I count myself as part of the problem and the small ways I try to offset my impacts really aren’t enough to make a difference given the scale of the problem. However, we do need to try.
Growth rate will be changed by nuclear war. If you think about all the countries getting the capability to wage a nuclear attack in the next 10-15 years it’s mind numbing. Even a limited exchange and it will be over. It will happen hope I’m not here.
Just think this started about Jackson kayaks. 
Carbon fiber is not 
correct?
Castoff,
Too many people, and especially too many who sacrifice everything else just to get cheap convenience, is pushing the world towards disaster even if it does not happen in OUR geezer lifetime.
At least in the US if not the entire world, darned near every person is so used to plastic that we have difficulty weaning ourselves off it. But every little bit helps.
Instead of unthinkingly reaching for the cheapest or most convenient thing, making some small changes can be very easy and often free. For example, plastic straws that servers automatically provide for sit-down dining? Just say No Thanks, and skip the preaching—just say you don’t need them. I found that businesses are more than willing to cut down on such expenses.
Some foods can be bought from bulk containers. This has typically meant using thin plastic containers or bags. However, they might constitute less plastic waste than the factory plastic packaging used for standard supermarket containers.
Also—and I wish more were done with this technology—there ARE some thin, moisture-proof bags that are biodegradable. When full, you just dispose of the filled bags in your trash. Example: When we had dogs, we bought some poop bags derived from part of the corn plant. I was highly skeptical of their ick-proofness. It turned out they were far BETTER than the usual plastic bags (whether dedicated doggie bags or reused newspaper or straphandle bags).
Not only were they strong enough for the purpose, they were LESS porous than ordinary plastic. I did a literal sniff test to determine this. I had noticed that after picking up dog poop with other bags, my hands smelled of poop despite never making direct contact. But using the biodegradable doggie bags, there was no poop smell on my hands. After testing a few more times, we switched to using only the special bags.
There must be dozens of other easy ways to cut down on plastic consumption. Multiplied by millions of people, small reductions make a big difference.
Jackson Kayaks’ best trait (to me) is that they realized the future of the sport lay in expanding the line of boats made to include children and small people. Terry did the same for women’s bicycle clothing and saddles.
The Jackson Sidekick I bought is and remains the one and only WW kayak ever got, though I demoed other WW kayaks. Contrast that to my experience with sea kayaks (not including my first kayak, a rec kayak), of which I went through 5 models, and every one of them was optimal for someone at least 15 lbs heavier and a couple inches taller. The sea kayaks were made in three countries, including the US.
The Jacksons also came stock with good adjustable seats, do what they are designed for, and the boats are tough.
The right fit and high quality are much more important to me than what country the kayak was made in, though I am both glad for and supportive of US manufacturers that produce good items. Same for any other products. LOCALLY MADE (not just national level), high quality, eco-sensitive companies go to the top of my list. Price matters but not nearly as much as the other factors.
I don’t really want to see anything in our waterways other than what God intended to be there. When I visit one in my canoe my intent is to bring everything I took with me back. This I believe here is preaching to the choir as every member that I have seen here holds this same belief. Like you quite often I return with more than I left with, as I won’t paddle by some floating garbage if it is at all possible to fish it out. I always have a couple free Wal-Mart bag tucked away to put trash in.
Plastic is plastic as far as I’m concerned putting it into making a boat or a bag or a drink cup doesn’t change we have a responsibility to use it and deal with it responsibly. I suppose no new use should be allowed unless it meets with an end of life plan. Right now the end of life plan for a styrene cup is the same as a peanut butter jar and that is to go to a landfill with no plan of ever digging it up and doing anything with it.
If I go to Wal-Mart with my reuse bag why don’t I go to McDonalds with my thermos and dinner bucket and let them dump the food in for me to take out.
World population is an interesting subject and the rate of growth is as you say, but it is also interesting to see where it is growing and what we as a nation can do to impact it.
Here is a good site with tools you can play with to break it down.
World Population Growth - Our World in Data
In the USA for being told we are the problem we actually have a good handle on the problem and are actually going in the right direction, even though we keep living longer and each year invite 5-10 million people to walk across our boarders and stay. Population alone isn’t the problem IMO as much as what the populations are doing to help the betterment of mankind or at least the betterment of the close community around them.
Who is to say what the correct number should be was it in 10,000BC when it only grew .04% per year between then and 1700. That was pretty stable and sustainable. Life expectancy before 1800 was only 30 years. Or was it correct within our lives someplace. I remember 1960 being a good time maybe that was the holding point. If we had today’s population in 1700 we would be in serious trouble without the technology that allowed the population to grow.
There isn’t much we can do to curb the population of China, India or Africa except maybe explore for new practical sources of energy to help them sustain or let what history/nature has always done to all species to self regulate over population. I know some billionaires are playing around with ideas. I’m not so sure I agree with some of the plans.
I wrote to Lincoln and asked if they were still in business. This morning they replied and said they were.
Good USA