Congrats! You’ll be smoking your friends now… 
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Will do. You should be
very comfortable in your new kayak by then.
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My theory is that people very rarely regret buying a slightly longer kayak than they intended. All the advantages that everyone said about the length and the Equinox, they’re true. It will perform better, it’s capable of more, it will grow with you.
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Please post again once you’ve gotten the boat and let us know how you like it!
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HI, I’m not sure you would be able to find one but Perception Vizcaya or Storm are both great kayaks for stability and speed. The Vizcaya is longer and so faster, I believe it has a 24" beam so very stable for a longer kayak. The storm (which I have) also is either a 34 or 25" beam. I haven’t measured it in a while but I think it’s a 13’ kayak. They are both discontinued for many years. I did a test ride on the Vizcaya and it was great, easy to maneuver. Of course longer makes for a more difficult turning radius. I’m not an avid kayaker, job doesn’t allow the time. I just missed buying a Vizcaya from a friend years ago. He retired from kayaking. I bought the Storm used on Paddling .com years ago. Tip: Most dealers, ie REI, EMS or others have Demo days where you can try many brands and styles. Go for that before buying, you just may find something you like.
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Thank you Nick for the info, I did go with the Equinox from Wormdevil.
Well I had planned to go today, perfect day for it, however had to clean the carpet sadly, took 4 hrs, we have a senior dog with incontinence problems, oh well that’s life Tomorrow for sure!
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Very nice choice. I’m not sure why someone would buy the Sandpiper unless they wanted to carry a dog with them and just do leisure paddles on flat lakes. The cockpit is so huge! I think even the Skylark is big. Have fun with the Equinox!
I do not have a specific boat to suggest. The two features that so many here have spoken of, A. It is physics, longer water lines (longer boats) go faster, often with equal effort. To move at 4mph with an 8’ boat, is nearly double the effort as 4mph with a 16 foot boat. Same speed, half the effort. (This is an over simplification.) and B. Stability has as much to do with how low is the center of gravity, than almost any other consideration. The biggest difference in stability between a ‘sit in’ and a ‘sit on’ is the 1.5 inch difference between the two. So you have two features here. The ‘sit on’ raises you because you are sitting on an extra layer of boat, and the normal wider ‘sit on’ has you sitting a bit higher than the narrower hull. A 25" wide sit in will have a very similar stability to a 30" wide sit on. A half a dozen comments here are correct, the time to accustom to the narrower hull is almost nothing. The differences will lie in the hull shape.
As you gain skill, go longer and sit in the bottom. I paddle canoes in white water, everything heavy is lashed hard to the inside bottom, the lower, the better. Even me, I slide forward and on to my knees in the big water, another 3 inches lower makes it more stable. Eschew the seat pads except perhaps the very thinnest. And, have fun. A few extra giggles makes a world of difference.
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