While “best” is a contentious term, reading these forums, many paddlers a decade ago would have rated the P&H Delphin the “best” surfing sea-kayak and somewhat unique in terms of forward chines to help drive an edge, upswept bow and paddler weight placed relatively aft. The p&h hammer has been and gone and this looked like it ticked a lot of boxes as a surfing focused sea kayak- unfortunately there are very few in the second hand market in Australia.
Newer boats have arrived since then, such as the tiderace Vortex. I am interested in peoples opinions on whether the delphin is still the kayak to surf in, particularly given the premium price (for a plastic boat).
My use case is taking it out of may garage and putting it in the river behind my place, paddling a few km to the ocean, and another few km beyond that to a point break, and catch as many waves as possible on the outside on onshore, choppy days. On those waves, required traits are both changing direction early and then holding diagonal runs - in an ideal world, railing into the face as much as a sea kayak can, for as long as possible, once the wave steepens up. I am an experienced paddler and surfer, although 50 with lots of injuries, so i no longer charge as hard.
It will be part of a quiver of kayaks. I guess another option would be a very long (longboard style) surf kayak with fast hull speed?
I think the Delphin is a pretty good surfing sea kayak (regret selling it). At 15’ for the 150 and 15.5’ for the 155, it has a bit more speed than then current crop of shorter than 15’, RM surfing sea kayaks, e.g. Stratos, Virgo. I am a bit biased in that the Delphin got me re-interested in longboat surfing, after 15 years plus of just surfing surf kayaks and waveskis. Here is my Dephin 150 in action:
For RM, I currently surf a Stratos 14.5s which is also very good on waves, but is slower on the paddle out than the Delphin (which I should have kept):
Right now, for me, the “ultimate” (subjective) surfing seakayak is my Sterling Kayaks Progression (or any of the other Sterling models, except for maybe the Ice Cap). But, would have to really like (or be “addicted”) sea kayaks surfing and be willing to pay a pretty high premium to surf a Sterling. Because, of that “Premium”, I keep a RM Stratos around for the rocky breaks and rock gardening:
It is for this intention that I got a Cobra ReVision (elongated Cobra Strike), a surf oriented SOT kayak. The ReVision’s 13’ length makes it relatively fast for a surf specific kayak and great for getting out to the outer reef breaks. It does indeed surf like a “longboard”.
A “International Class” (IC) surf kayaks, 11’ plus, would also work for faster hull speed. I used to surf a Mega Venom, which was about 9’ long, a step down from IC towards the “high performance” class of surf kayaks. The Venom was not as fast as the IC surf kayaks but far faster than the current crop of HP surf surf kayaks at 7.5’ and under.
Another option is to get a “longboard” waveski that is 9’ plus in length (I have 2 longboad waveskis which get way more use than my three HP waveskis. I getting too old and out of needed conditioning for the challenging paddle out with a short HP waveski). Fast but still more manueverable than any kayak on a wave face. Australia has a significant community of waveskiers and makers.
Most sea kayak for ocean surfing don’t carve waves. They surf, but it is straight down the wave. This can be fun, but a vessel that can carve (go somewhat parallel to the wave) the wave is a step above.
Surf kayaks, wave skis, and other surf dedicated boats can carve to some extent. These boats are as close as you can get to a surf board hull (short and flat wit lots of edge) that you sit on. Sea kayaks generally can’t (the the Sterlings are probably as close as you can get).
I’ve used Delphins an currently have a Stratos, an agree with Sing that these are good straight down the wave surfers for sea kayaks. If I won Lotto, I’d get a Sterling Reflection (the larger person version of the Progression Sing has).
One option is a double boat day. Surf boats wouldn’t like the distance you cover. Sea kayaks wouldn’t do the surf well. But you could take your sea kayak for the distance, and tow the surf specific boat for the play. Just stash the sea kayak at a safe spot on the beach while you surf.
No more Hammers, except in the used market. But, this is an interesting new 13’ kayak built more like a “shortened” sea kayak for surfing, rather than an “elongated” white water boat like the Hammer.
I love the look of the Sterling Progression and Edge Kayak Alnes Ocean, but shipping kayaks from the US and Norway respectively would really make them an expensive proposition.
I do agree it is hard to get a sea kayak closer than about 45 degrees to the face without turning off the wave, but also on the right point break this can be quite workable for a very long ride, and I was interested in how close one can get to the face with a long design. The problem with a surf ski is that they require such a steep face to takeoff on the wave that you will be in amongst the lineup competing for the inside.
I’ll keep an eye out for second hade delphins, Hammers and Cobra revision (now renamed the strike+ I believe)
If you are shopping pre-owned, keep the Dagger Stratos 14.5 ("S or “L” depending on your size) on your list. The Stratos is a very capable surfer, even though it gives up a small amount of speed on the paddle out, compared to the Dephin. Like the Delphin, the Stratos is still in production and shows up more readily in the used market.
Good luck on finding a boat and getting the stoke on!
And then there is something a little different for surfing:
the 1999 Valley Cliffhanger:
(maybe the oddest kayak they ever made, like they clipped the stern off a Nordkapp and merged the bow with a surfboard.)
The black one is mine. Good for a laugh and soon to be sold to some hapless victim.
No clue how it would be in the coastal conditions it was designed for. I only got it wet once last June. I had just acquired it for a C-note (sale included a decent Werner paddle that was worth that much) from a suburban dad whose buddy gave it to him after finding it in an abandoned storage unit he bid his way into. Sub-Dad tried it once in a local river, fell out and flooded and nearly sunk it (was missing a hatch lid) and was too freaked out to keep it.
I hauled it along with my Curtis Lady Bug to the solo canoe rendezvous nearby and put it in the tiny pond there after the day’s single blade events were over. As with any Valley, the cockpit is nicely comfortable and snug – but the boat is a beast, probably weighs 60+ pounds (it’s only 13’ long but built like a battleship) and it was sluggish to propel on flat water. It has a nice retractable skeg and it def needed it to track. Hard to gauge where its “talents” lie in a flat puddle. I had hoped to haul it to Delaware in October to test it in surf, but didn’t have room for it since i ended up bringing 3 of my Greenland style boats to DelMarVa to provide loaners for some of the attendees and coaches who had to fly in.
I did replace both rubber hatch lids (critters had nibbled the one it came with), cleaned it up, and still have to replace the slackened bungees. I have to say the quality of the glass layup and gel coat on it are outstanding. The Daffy Duck decals I added were a bit frivolous, but the duck-billed bow and color scheme suggested that identity and I couldn’t resist – “thufferin’ thuccotash”).
The thing looks barely used and, as with many of my salvaged oddball fleet additions, I have to wonder how the heck such a craft landed in inland Southwest PA. I may haul it to Lake Michigan if I get back out there this summer to try it for the heck of it before trying to unload it as a “collectible”. For all its novelty, it’s just heavier than what this little old lady cares to wrangle.
There was some useful feedback here after I posted an inquiry to the board back when I first found the thing and couldn’t ID it. Sing, the Shogun of Massachusetts coastal surfing, provided a thoughtful analysis of its probable performance in that thread: Weird Valley kayak. Anyone recognize this?
