Welcome any comments on Ascend H12 hybrid kayak
What is your intended use?
Looks to be a canoe with compartments? Appears ok for very quiet ponds or small lakes near shore. Be ready to bail lots of water from the cockpit and rear compartments if it rains or water comes over the side. No idea how it handles for a self recovery when you turn it over intentionally or unintentionally.
Personally would never consider taking it further from shore than I can comfortably swim in open water = 100 yards (fyi, I usually swim a mile twice a week but open water swims are different than a pool).
Looks like a plastic dugout with probably the same handling characteristics. I agree that one good wave or boat wake and you have an aquarium.
There are two people in my group that have the H12 and one that has the Native 12 ft it is styled from. They use them for canoe camping and day paddles and do just fine. They are a submarine though if you get into any WW above a class I, especially with a load, so have a pump or bailing bucket handy. We were on the lower section of the Buffalo last September between Dillards and Buffalo City, the river was getting low to where a lot of 12’ kayaks were starting to drag in spots and the Ascends went right on through even with a load. It seems like an ok rec boat at a good price.
I’m looking for a second “something” boat as I have a canoe and she wants an open sit in kayak to do river floats with her girlfriends and also so we can go out together. If I were deciding what she wanted I would select an Old Town Next Canoe/Kayak. It is roughly in the same family IMO as something like the Acend H12 only lighter and the hull designed to be paddled much easier with a standard length kayak paddle.
From the reviews I watched on the H12 the channel hull bottom makes it really stable but with some negatives also. The front cover provides a little protection from water splash and gives the boat the appearance of being a kayak but really in calm water is going to do nothing and just adds weight. The rear cloth mesh cover is just for looks IMO. I think if I had one I would be leaving them behind and then it would have more of a canoe look. I would add flotation to both ends before I would feel good about letting her venture to far out on even our flat water lakes with it. Something like the OT Next will have at least some positive buoyancy from the 3 layer hull with the foam center and even that I would likely add a little flotation to each end.
It depends a lot as mentioned above what the OP plans on using it for. I’m not an expert at all really still a novice, but for the difference in price I think something like the Next would be my choice. Maybe OT should add a little skirt/cover to each end.
I think the H12 is going after the small lake fishing group.
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As a follow up to my above posting I sat her down this morning and told her the places around here I have been calling on seem to have kayaks coming in but people on waiting lists ready to take them and several stores said to come back in a few weeks and see what they have then.
So we started looking for her single boat as I know she won’t want to take the 147 canoe with her GFs and when we go together I doubt she wants to ride shotgun in the canoe.
I mentioned the OT Next and she liked the idea a little but said the price was too high even though I was paying for it. I think she figured also I would be using it all the time. I showed her the Acend H12 and a few others and she had always liked the OT Vapor 10XT and that type of kayak. I found Dick had the OT Trip 10 Deluxe Angler Kayak for a good price and she liked the looks of it and the OT name. She didn’t care that it came with an anchor or trolley and I told her I could remove that and the rod holders didn’t seem to be an issue. Other than that the reviews I read seemed fairly positive and it has good stability maybe over tracking or speed and for what she will be using it for that’s good. I liked that it came with a nose foam flotation block and that the rear hatch is a sealed compartment that I’m assuming will add flotation if she manages to flip it.
So I pulled the trigger and Dick’s offered 10% off for a new mail order buyer. That covered the taxes and part of the shipping to our door.
So in a couple weeks she gets a kayak of her own and I get a 5 lb anchor for my Guide147.
I post this as maybe an option for the OP to look at of something similar. 