I am about to buy two Prijon kayaks. They’re not very common in Canada where I live and I would love some honest 3rd person opinions.
I’m looking at a Touryak 500 hv. and a Seayak 520 (HV). My idea is to do some camping out of the kayaks.
So my questions:
Prijon Plastic - is it all they claim?
These boats are 2 years old. I’m not really asking about price because that it regional. Would you go camping in them? My logic is that they will last better than the typical plastic kayak - am I wrong? I don’t want to care for a glass kayak in lakes and rivers.
Any experience?
Update:
*** I found a Composite Gulfstream at a price I couldn’t pass up. I still want the Prijons but they’ll wait for a better deal. I’m just getting started in this so I have to be pragmatic. The Gulfstream will sure teach me enough to start!
Prijon is blow molded vs. rotomolded plastic. The material and process used typically makes for a higher density material that is tougher than traditional rotomolded. The finish is noticeably different compared to rotomolded but that’s how Prijon rolls.
Other newer poly developments are out there that achieve a similar performance but with more refined design allowances compared to the blow molded methods. P&H Corelite X would be an example.
The common wisdom back in the day was that the blow-molded Prijon whitewater kayaks like the T-Canyon were the toughest PE boats around. I never owned one so I can’t speak from personal experience, but I saw a couple take some hellacious hits without significant damage. But that experience was from back in the 1990s. I don’t know if things have changed since then.
the new prijon ww boats seem to be a bit lighter than the older models, have a bud that paddles one of the new boats, they’re hard to get in wv (got his in cali)- seems to be happy- I say go for it
many old T canyons and T slaloms going strong still- boats fade badly, still heavy, but going strong- “eskimo” brand was also bomber
There heavy boats. Plastic appears to be thicker. I have a friend with at least 25 year or older not exactly sure that is now pink in color originally red. Still going strong. Solid boats, Boring design.
Have owned a Prijon Kodiak. Currently own a Prijon Marlin, a Prijon Combi, and a Prijon Yukon. Some of the reasons Prijons are heavy are the metal brackets and foot pegs used in the touring outfitting. In my Kodiak, I removed the seat and put in foam. At that point, the boat was about fifty pounds. The plastic is strong, but you can still oil can them if you are not careful. That having been said, with normal use the plastic is indeed bomber. The boats are very abrasion resistant and UV damage seems much reduced. Some of my Prijons developed leaky bulkheads (taken care of with marine goop) while others have not. As a side note, I would replace the seat back (which is a torture device and pops out of the seat at inopportune times) with a backband. A further note - if you need replacement parts, they have to be shipped from Germany and can be expensive. A lot of people replace the deck nets with bungies. Good luck.
