Available Options
and expanding them is where I am headed. I didn’t ask about SOT’s because, thankfully, they are available from the lower end (on the cost scale) all the way to the higher end waveski’s. I actually think the Kaos has some great lines though I’ve never ridden one.
I’ve only seen two waveski’s in NE in the several years I have surfed. One was being used on a break at Plum Island in the middle of summer. The other was sitting on the beach, for a demo, in the RISK winter session. I didn’t notice anyone getting on it. In the NE, the “best” surf season starts with the hurricane season and continues into the winter with nor’easters. Summer we seem to get into the doldrums. So, the window for comfortable use of a SOT/waveski is shorter. One can dress better with immersion gear for these but, when the water temps begin to drop, I think it’s much warmer for a surf paddler with a roll to be in a SINK. Combined with a drytop/drysuit, the paddler is better protected from the cold water. I think this is why we don’t see many SOT/waveski’s in NE.
The problem for SINKers trying to get into surfing is the lack of a range of options at different price levels. It’s seems to be either a ww boat which is not optimal for green face surfing, or a very high composite boat. For someone getting into surf, it’s hard to rationalize the price of admission of $1500 and up for a composite boat, especially when one hasn’t experienced the difference of a surf specific design.
In terms of getting used surf crafts, it’s not that easy because the “supply” of such crafts are low compared to white water boats. That’s why we see so much more white water boats in the surf, at least around here, than surf specific crafts. I surfed a Riot Trickster with fins for well over a year before I got the Boogie. I still smile when I think of how I got my Boogie on a gearswap. I was literally looking for well over a year before it turned up. I still kick myself for letting Shay’s Micro Mako get away, though there was no way to get it since he wasn’t going to ship… Before I had a chance at Preston’s glass Boogie prototype, it was gone.
Definitely, at some point, I going to get a composite surf kayak. I know it’ll be worth it. I going to have save it bit before I can afford a new one. At this point, I am comtemplating selling off my glass Montauk to help finance the purchase since I (and my wife) paddle mostly the Greenland S&G and/or the SOF anyway. It’s much easier for me to build another (SOF), which I like better than the available day tour boats out there anyway (a whole other story), than to build a composite surf kayak.
We’ll see.
sing