I repeatedly see people asking “which 10’ kayak is best for me?”
My first thought is why would you want one?
-I want to get it in my car.
That’s a great thought, but what does it have to do with paddling?
-It’s cheap.
There is a reason for that.
I really want to find out if I like paddling.
That’s great. Rent a stubby boat and paddle it for a few hours then rent a longer one and do the same. Then you can make a semi informed decision.
Full disclosure. I am 6’5" and 230. I didn’t do any trial paddling before my first boat. I got a 12’ rec boat and thought it was great in spite of bruising my shins getting out of the too small cockpit.
Then I got a 16’ Sea kayak and never looked back.
And I never grabbed a 14 yo girl’s butt.
Good time of year to repeat those provisos with people thinking of buying “starter” kayaks for Christmas gifts when they have little or no experience with them…
I used to work for outfitters and we dealt with that all the time, well-meaning gifters intending to buy sports equipment for others, things like XC skis, kayaks, bikes, backpacks and even climbing gear, all of which really need to be tailored to personal fit and activity intentions. We managed to circumvent some of the inevitable trade-ins and returns by offering lay-aways and pre-wrapped cute miniatures of the items that could be packaged with gift certificates. But some buyers are just too focused on having big items “under the tree” on Xmas morning to be dissuaded.
@string said:
I repeatedly see people asking “which 10’ kayak is best for me?”
My first thought is why would you want one?
-I want to get it in my car.
That’s a great thought, but what does it have to do with paddling?
-It’s cheap.
There is a reason for that.
I really want to find out if I like paddling.
That’s great. Rent a stubby boat and paddle it for a few hours then rent a longer one and do the same. Then you can make a semi informed decision.
Full disclosure. I am 6’5" and 230. I didn’t do any trial paddling before my first boat. I got a 12’ rec boat and thought it was great in spite of bruising my shins getting out of the too small cockpit.
Then I got a 16’ Sea kayak and never looked back.
And I never grabbed a 14 yo girl’s butt.
Not even when you were in junior high; I thought everyone did that and a lot more.
I have on in-law that for weeks has , every time we meet,asked if a certain 8ft kayak he saw at WalMart was good for fishing. Everytime we say “No” . We offer our 12ft fishing kayak as a test boat to see if he likes them. He says wait till it gets warm. Then in a week or so he asks the same question all over again. We’ve been dancing this way for about 10 months.