Rapidfire
Check this link if you’re worried about the RapidFire with a high seat. The first reply answers your question!
http://www.adkforum.com/showthread.php?t=9684
I Highly Recommend The Surfski
For it will get you up to speed real fast. If there’s an active group around, they’ll furnish the motivation for you to race, which means recruiting the dormant muscle cells that have been neglected for years. Most of us old guys paddle long and slow, so we got an overabundance of slow twitch muscle. Racing will force you train in such a way that your fast twitch muscles will be preserved, and you’ll be able to whip the pants off those 40, 50, and 60 year old youngsters. So, go ahead and test out that V-8.
I have the low seat and the high seat
Conveniently the high seat fits over the low seat and a bungee arrangements ensures if you do tip the expensive seat will not part ways.
I note you are in New Jersey and suggest that you visit the Placid shop to test the seats. The high seat has a very different sit angle than the low seat. It pitches you slightly forward. You may love this or you may hate it.
aging paddlers
I’m 71 myself and find that loading kayaks over 55 pounds is difficult.
My lightest kayak is long but light–at 17’ 8" the Surge weighs only 38 pounds due to its kevlar construction. The only drawback was that my wallet was much lighter too after I bought it!
Any Kayak Over 25 lbs Is Outrageous
For anyone past 60 years old. Everyday, I observe gals 20 - 70+ years old, hoisting and transporting their 17 - 25 pound outrigger canoes, which are 21 ft. long, to the beach from their cars without help. They do it in strong wind too. Perhaps, that’s why surfski racing is dominated by 40, 50 and 60 year old paddlers because the boats are so light?
bit of a reach
maybe 1950’s “60”. But not the 21st century “60”.
1950’s? No Way!
Check the demographics. No surfskis racing in U.S. back then. They weren’t raced in the Molokai till the late 70’s. Forty year olds were the senior racers then until they aged up and 50 year old divisions were added in mid 90’s. Today, the 60 year olds are showing off their stuff, like the one that won the Short Course Division of last years U.S. Surfski Champs. Of course, if you come in first overall, you’re no longer an age grouper. Now, that’s a goal worth reaching for?
ps: In last Saturday’s race on Oahu, a 60 year old male, on a Epic V-10, placed 18th overall, just behind a 50 year old female, on a Huki S1X, that placed 12th overall. Yep! They’re beating the youngsters.
we’re not getting each other
– Last Updated: Nov-21-14 10:02 PM EST –
I thought you were saying no 60 year old should have a kayak over 25 pounds. All I mean is that 60 is young these days. My mother was paddling a 45# SOT at 60, loading and unloading it by herself. I think it's too much to draw a line at a relatively arbitrary weight and age and call anything beyond it outrageous.
I may feel differently at age 60.
I don’t think you will
– Last Updated: Nov-21-14 11:29 PM EST –
I know some 50-year-olds who have a hard time lifting anything over 30 pounds, let alone a kayak.
Then there's 75-year-old Meade Gougeon who had no problem launching his outrigger sailing canoe off the beach for the 2014 Everglades Challenge (rules forbid any assistance), then finishing the 325-mile trip in four days. He'll be on deck for the 2015 EC.
not exactly “outrageous”…
…but certainly not pleasant.
Maybe there’s an inverse ratio for ideal boat weight per age range. When you’re 25, a 65 lb boat is no big deal, but then you deduct a pound a year after that. So by the time you hit 65, the perfect craft is 25 lbs. At that rate, I’m already considering the 20 lb Feathercraft Aironaut to get me into my 70’s. Guess if I make it to my 90’s I’ll be lily-dipping from a 4 lb packraft.
Choice made
My 18 foot, 52 pound kayak is now in the capable hands of a strong, young, experienced paddler and I hope that he’ll enjoy it as much as I have over the past eight years. On Saturday, I picked up my new boat from Jersey Paddler, an Epic GPX. I think I made a good choice but I’m still fascinated by the V7 surfski with the overstern rudder and I plan to take one out for a test drive though that will have to wait for spring. The GPX and V7 might seem an odd couple but I think it could be a lot of fun going from one to the other depending on the sort of paddling I want to do on a particular day.
Cheers, Jake
Congrats.
Please follow up when you’ve had more seat time in the GPX.
Good luck with the Epic
ENJOY!
GH
For $150 More
Do hope you got the Performance model rather than the Club? The incremental cost is worth losing the 6 extra pounds. Anyway, no matter what, you’ll enjoy the seakayak, and it should prepare you for the V-8 next summer instead of the V-7?
ps: For me, I would have bought the Performance V-14 (on sale)for $2100, and made that my lifetime proprioception trainer. Once you mastered that ski, everything else is a piece of cake and you only need to go through the learning curve once.
The GPX Club model
has been discontinued by Epic and I was offered the last one in Jersey Paddler’s inventory for $600 less than the Performance model. Being a Jersey Guy I just couldn’t walk away on a deal like that. Sure, it would be nice to have the GPX in the 27 pound Ultra model which is Epic’s biggest seller to the Halt & Lame market in south Florida but when I can no longer handle the 38 pound club it may be time to think about the 19 pound Feathercraft Aironaut that Willowleaf mentioned. When fully deflated and rolled up, it should fit nicely under my bed at the assisted living residence where my keepers might allow me an occasional excursion, under their watchful eye, on the local drainage pond.
I was able to get a couple of hours seat time on local waters before the weather shut down for awhile. The GPX is a fine little boat and, despite its length, is certainly not what one would call a “rec kayak”. It moves along quite easily at 4 mph with less apparent effort than did my last boat which was almost 18 feet long and narrow of beam. The cockpit size is not so large as to be sloppy but long enough to allow me to pull my knees back and up for a good stretch when needed. With an inch or so of foam on the seat pad my butt is somewhat elevated with the pelvis tilted slightly forward, my back just barely pushing against the back band. I find that this posture significantly improves my own paddling efficiency while also proving more relaxing. The boat’s stability offsets the higher CG though I’m not sure that I’d care to negotiate gnarly conditions with the GPX set up this way. But, then, gnarly conditions are pretty much a thing of the past for me. The forward deck, being relatively narrow, allows me to use a 210 cm small blade paddle at a moderate high angle, in this case a Werner Shuna, at an average rate of 60-65 strokes/minute. The only problem so far seems to be weathercocking when the boat is running with a quartering wind in excess of 10 mph. This should be easy enough to remedy with a minimal fixed skeg, something I’ve done to good effect with a couple of boats I’ve owned in the past. Just a matter of deciding on shape, size and placement and then sticking it on with 3M 5200.
Cheers, Jake
I am 66 with some limiting lower back
and leg issues. Last spring I found a Stellar 18s ski. 18’, 38 lb and supposed to be stable for a ski. Even with my high COG, I usually have no issues on flat water. I doubt it will ever see the ocean,at least with me.
That’s A Good Deal
For a brand new boat. So do have fun! For quartering winds, leave the kayak as is and brush up on your strokes instead. I like to use a “pitched stroke” or “C” stroke on the windward side just for this purpose. Your short high angle paddle should facilitate this effortlessly? It takes a lot of practice, but eventually, the movement is embedded in your brain and later it is applied automatically.
Your higher “CG” puts more pressure on the blade with the same effort. Add a few interval sessions and you’ll be going from one stroke per second to 1.5 sps. With the paddle you have, 2 sps is doable by summer.
I’ve Got Lower Back Problems Too
After half an hour of paddling Elite level skis, I look like a beginner and start to capsize. After an hour, I can’t sit upright anymore. It takes about a month of practice to be able to extend my paddling time to an hour where I can go out and bang around w/o capsizing. Paddling more stable skis only aggravates the problem and doesn’t help.
Thanks for the good advice
I think that the paddling efficiency afforded by a higher seat position will facilatate working on some control strokes. The GPX is a right good swimmer for a little boat so maybe I’ll just try an learn to control the weathercocking with paddle technique and leave off the fixed skeg. Keep it simple.
There You Go…
Practice them “circle strokes” on your new kayak, no cross bow stokes needed, for you’re always onside. Trust me, when you switch to the ruddered V-8, you can control it in the most challenging water with the smallest/shortest rudder available.