I am a 61 yr old male, 5’9", 160 lbs, fit. My wife and I have canoed and kayaked on and off all our lives, but always on rental or friends’ boats. We are now going to buy our own boats, and I’ve been researching and sitting in a variety of recreational kayaks, as local inventory allows. We live in IL, and all our outings will be on lakes or flat water rivers.
I find that I like the build quality and (especially) the seat(Zone DLX) on the Prodigy 10.0. The slimmer profile and lighter weight of the Tribute 10.0 sound very attractive to me, but I have been unable to find one to actually look at locally.
My questions for anyone who has seen/owned/paddled both of these models are:
Am I physically too big for the Tribute?
Is the build quality of the Tribute the same as the Prodigy?
How do the handling characteristics differ between the two models?
The maximum weight capacity for this kayak is only 225 lbs. That means you have 65 lbs remaining for all your “stuff” such as paddle, pfd, water bottle, drybag,pump, etc. And if you get wet, that adds weight. Say you have 10lbs added… BUT, if you were to accidentally take on just 3.5 gallons of water in a mishap, you’d swamp pretty easily, because water is heavy. Then it becomes a case of, can you either swim to shore or self- rescue? With this type of kayak, it is difficult to self- rescue on the water, because of what it is - relatively small, so even if you got it turned back over and pumped out enough, you’d still have trouble getting back in without swamping it again. Also, some kayaks have lots of built- in bulkhead space for floatation and float relatively well upside down… others really don’t.
The max. deck height for the perception tribute 10’ is 13". If it is a true “women’s kayak” it may be built for the proportions of an adult with slightly longer legs relative to the torso, but smaller feet. This means you may find your feet with any sort of shoe or sandal on having trouble fitting where they have put the foot pegs. If you need to move around any to be comfortable, this can be a very big deal. But the main thing is, if you do go over in the water, and you don’t have a spray skirt on so you could roll, you want to be able to exit the kayak easily. There are 2 kinds of kayakers - those who roll, and those who prefer to fall out without getting hung up so they can get back up to the surface easily. Worst case scenario is you’re in a cockpit that doesn’t allow either to happen easily.
This kayak also might be slightly better for a person who’s center of gravity is a bit lower. A man, on average, may have slightly shorter legs, but greater overall height and more weight distributed to the upper body, so a man might feel this kayak is “tippier” than a woman would. Again, this is assuming it is actually designed for women and not just a small generic kayak.
You will be doing a lot of work in a wide 10’ kayak (especially in a wind or cross current) compared to a 12’ or longer, because the longer lengths typically glide so much better - I think a lot of shorter people are pleasantly surprised when they go to a bit longer length kayak. Don’t be afraid of considering getting a 12’+ if you can deal with the weight, transport and storage needs.
Dear BearRiver… Thank-you so much for your well considered and composed explanation and advice.
You have taught me a great deal, in a relatively short treatise. It seems that I have much more to consider than I had realized. Of course, I have to weigh all this against cost as well.
What about the Tribute 12? I rented one for a day last summer. It fit me fine (5’9" 170lb size 8 sandal). I liked the seat and the lower deck, but found I wasn’t overly impressed with the paddling. It seemed to have less “glide” than I was expecting. I actually preferred my Pelican Storm 120 (same boat as Elie Strait 12) except the Pelican had a slightly better seat.
Tribute 12 Thanks for the suggestion about the Tribute 12.
As it turns out, I absolutely could not find a Tribute 10. Seems that they are discontinued, and the inventory has dried up. But today I did sit in a Tribute 12. It was a snug fit, for sure, but unfortunately my size 11 feet actually did not fit in the portion of the boat into which they extended. Honestly, my feet are too big for this kayak.
I’ve expanded my search, but I sure appreciate the help I’ve received here.
