Seafaring or Park & Play. Some recent discussions have led me to wonder what folks will communicate as their reasons for sea kayak design choice.
By seafaring I’m suggesting that you wish to travel by kayak, and everything that this entails. So this could be flatwater, or it could be launching through waves and landing through waves, or having shoals, currents, clapotis, open water waves and swells, but you like to travel somewhere when you paddle. Could be an expedition, but could just be a few miles after work or on Saturday morning.
By park & play I’m taking the importance of travel mostly out of the picture, and it’s mostly about a destination with a feature or features that you wish to enjoy, and matching your kayak to your goals within that/those features.
I feel like when I started sea kayaking, the “popular elite” of the sport were expeditioners. I feel like the “popular elite” of the sport since then has gone mostly over to rough water play. When I started, an “elite” kayak design took training to paddle well even on flatwater. Now the “elite” designs are comparatively flat. stable, and quite easy for a beginner to maneuver on flatwater. It sort of seems like it went from in the past, rough water park & play paddlers ignoring good rough water park & play kayaks, to now, flat-bottomed stable wave-play kayak designs being used primarily/exclusively for seafaring, even in flatwater.
For me, I love surfing sea kayaks. I love the park and play designs. They are fun for surfing and maneuvering on waves, and there’s no limit to the skill it takes to do it well. It’s something I just keep working on. Put me in a Delphin, Aries, Stratos, Karla, Xtra, etc. and I’ll have a blast. However, if I’m going for my typical after work paddle of 4 miles give or take, some days navigating breaking waves and taking a surf ride or 3 or 4, I have to make an effort to intentionally block the lack of glide out of my mind, and I can’t characterize these boats as “more fun” options for that activity overall, only for the few moments during that activity. So I find myself taking a park & play design out only rarely when my goal isn’t specifically more park & play oriented.
I have some kayaks with nice glide that travel well through rough water. They will “travel” through rough water more efficiently than the park & play designs. If traveling is my goal, and a significant part of seamanship is no doubt the ability to skillfully traverse waters in the least amount of time, I definitely find it more fun and rewarding to travel more efficiently. So here, put me in an Extreme, Bahiya, Ellesmere, Sirius, Caribou, Legend, Quest LV, Aquanaut, Greenlander, etc. These are some of the kayaks I choose for seafaring in favor of park and play designs. But they all require more skill to feel competent even in flatwater. A beginner’s skill level is much more evident in this style kayak, especially when edging and maneuvering.
If we were going to travel 10 miles up the coast, but we started out of a rough water but manageable for you inlet, and ended coming in through an inlet that was rough water but manageable for you, or perhaps traversing open water in a lake or bay or ocean that seemed challenging but manageable for you, what sea kayak would you choose? In your normal paddling life, are you 75% plus seafaring and chose a park & play design? Are you 75% plus park and play and chose more of a seafaring design? What made you decide on that kayak? Do you have experience with a sea kayak with different characteristics, or is this just what you paddle?
I have owned and paddled many boats and tend toward park and play style. Currently own 2 Dagger Stratos (1 large a 1 small). Use them for even paddles in the 10-15 mile range when we we aren’t playing. As I age I find I am playing less now, so most of my paddles are in the majority sea faring category.
Part of my choice is my storage area is 15’ long. But even if I had longer, I still would have park and play and maybe also a more distance oriented boat. But I did have a Valley Aquanaut HV for a while and found I rarely used it, so sold it. When I go to some place and borrow or rent, I automatically look for park and play type of boat.
Excellent question. I canoed a 17 ft aluminum conoe in very mild white water and flat water lakes during the 70s. Life chores took a toll, and I switched to bicycling, until they put a speed limit on my favorite trail; a speed limit for bicycles seemed like a joke, so I returned to the water and bought a few canoes. Then i took a plesant misstep and bought a 9 ft recreational Perception Swifty. I quickly evolve into longer kayaks since then, but haven’t graduated very far beyond the Pungo and the Tsunami. They aren’t stellar, but they are extrememy stable, reasonably fast and capable. I can’t think of better boats for my location.
I’m dialed into local conditions and anticipate what I can expect. I don’t have much talent for fancy kayaking, compared to many members of the forum, but my advantage is an understanding of my environment and a thorough knowledge of the limits of the 145, which edges well and tracks straight; the 175 Tsunamis handles rougher conditions but unfortunately needs the aid of a rudder as wind speeds exceed 10 mph. Both are very forgiving, dry, controllable and comfortable in the right conditions. My preference is to get out of the inlets into open water which is far more manageable.
There are few better value than kayaking. I paddle the upper Chesapeake Bay and just prefer a boat that I don’t have to anticipate being spit out of in an instant. If I decide to venture out, I’m confident that the Tsunsmi will deliver me back unscathed. Hasn’t failed in over 18 years. More than once, I’ve ventured out on the cusp of thunder storms and survived. My sister who is a bit slower than me, until she hears thunder, then I can’t catch her. She paddles a 140 Tsunami and loves it. She can actually handle turbulent conditions better than me, because her body weight of 145 lb and a boat max capacity of 300 lbs is a better ration than my 255 lb weight at the time in a boat with a 350 lb max capacity. In a nod to the spray skirt crowd, I could have caught her if I didn’t need to slow down to reduce riding the peaks and plunging. That easily solved the problem, and it gave her a sense of accomplishment by besting me.
I like wandering around in nature. So seafaring is where I think I would fit in your categories. But if I come upon a feature that is fun to play in, I will spend some time enjoying that too. All my boats have been what you would probably call seafaring designs, with perhaps a little nod toward playing perhaps? P&H Cetus is my boat.
I wish I had a 22 inch bottom. Those boats are sleek. Looking at them make me feel like, " . . . my hands are course and my boots are thick."
Primarily seafaring and camping and own two sea kayaks (one with good rocker) and an adventure racing tandem hybrid sit on top. I really like playing in rough water and surf but that isn’t my primary paddling. I live 3 hours from the coast. I like how the surf zone teaches a lot of skill set lessons. I would enjoy a park and play kayak if I was coastal but have not been motivated to buy one because it wouldn’t get used enough. I do about an equal amount of canoeing as kayaking because of where I live in the piedmont. Then over the last 9 years boat money has gone into 3 sailboats. I Have been looking at paddleboards lately which lend themselves to playing in the surf. Also, age is starting to slow me down, and you start to weight the cost verse use equation. Allocating time becomes a factor when you have multiple outdoor interests. The wanderlust and exposure to nature have been lifelong afflictions
It seems that the zest for outdoor activities has waned over the years. My grand daughters have a talent for kayaking, but thier attention is on volleyball and school orchestra.
I notice during my eleven year helping in my son’s scout troop that the general interest in outdoor activities had declined sharply. A day spent camping, hiking, or on the water was a day at the amusement park; I never developed a taste for structured amusement. Running free was the best activity.
I like the CD Solstice for paddling around Victoria or Gig Harbor area but the Braveheart for rolling or
playing in lakes or warmer water closer to shore.
Also I prefer the rudder for photography and longer paddles because I like holding it on point with less thinking, more looking.
There definitely seems to be a continuum between seafaring and park & play designs, with some falling fairly well into one category or the other, and some sharing some elements of both, or perhaps leaning one way or the other. I agree that the Cetus would be in my seafaring category. I’ve had the opportunity to play in the surf in a Cetus, so I’m familiar with it being quite capable and fun for such things when not looking to paddle something more specifically surf play oriented. I’ve paddled a Cetus and an Aries back to back, and the difference in glide is not subtle.
I think I remember you having a fairly highly rockered Northshore kayak. I can’t remember which one? I remember someone letting me try their Northshore Buccaneer once and being impressed. I now have a Northshore Ocean. It incorporates a flatter section under the seated position with a more typical seafaring hull configuration going to the ends. It’s a pretty cool and capable design. I’ve really enjoyed it, and I feel like I should take it out on a park & play day to really test it’s capabilities in that environment, as it seems like they designed something pretty special with that one.
It just goes to show how personal it is. I would be grabbing the Aquanaut most of the time.
Yes, I have a Buccaneer. When I came across it for sale it seemed to check all the boxes for a fun camping capable rough water kayak. I have stuck with it because I still feel like that. It’s also responsive as paddle friends will tell you how I like to weaver under and around overhanging trees and limbs along a deep lake shore. But I do lust for a Petrel Play…