Anybody paddling a Surge Marine kayak, only about 20 of them are made each year? If you are any comments about quality ectectra.
My wife and I demoed them a few…
years back at billington Sea Kayaks in Plymouth, Mass.
It is a sweet kayak.
Absolutely beautiful to handle.
At the time she was looking for something with less volume than her QCC-600.
The only thing that kept her from getting one was the lack of a rudder, and she did some hard pondering on that.
We are both rudder people.
Perhaps Pam Browning will weigh in her. I know she has one.
Cheers,
jackL
One in a group
One of the paddlers in a group I was in had one. I don’t think you’d need to worry about quality at all with these boats. They have a high peaked foredeck that will have your knees up there, which you may love or may find a bit too high. The only question mark with this boat was that it had very limited deck rigging and solo re-entries were at best very difficult. But the current model shows full deck rigging, so I’d guess that this boat was a singular one.
Thanks for your help
I’ve got Billington Sea Kayaks holding the one they have in stock for me to look at on Saturday, not sure if I’m going to like the orange deck. Surge just calls it orange and skips all the mango/tiger lily etc. color descriptions. Billington says it looks nice lighter orange with a slight brown tint not the fruit colored orange. Asked about a digital photo but they don’t have a digital camera. It’s a 500 mile round trip from Eastern Long Island (the ferry prices from here to New England have gone insane this year) so I want to get as much feed back as I can before I go. There are four of them locally but the only chance I’ve had to paddle them has been on fairly calm days. I’m down to choosing between a QCC and the Surge for my new toy. The lack of a rudder on the Surge is not an issue I think the last time I used the rudder on my current boat was about two years ago. Lots of info on the QCC just trying to find out from as many people as possible as much as I can about the Surge. If the color works I’ll pick it up on Saturday.
Had mine for 6 years now and its
never let me down. I have subjected it to a substantial amount of abuse (rocks, etc.). Dropped it once from the top of my car onto a paved surface and not a crack to be found. The boat is tough, yet light at 40 lbs.
It is seaworthy beyond my capabilities.
Only negative was the deck pigment faded when exposed too long to UV. Al
Love my Surge
The bright red has faded to a shade of Nantucket pink, it’s been run over by a truck which only put a little crack in the hull, it’s done the Clinton 70 miler, the Adirondack Classic, and several Blackburns, in lots of wind and waves I’ve occasionally wished for a rudder, but I like the fact that there’s no rudder to break, I did take out the footpulls and put in a foam block to rest my feet, with all it’s battle scars it’s still a beautiful boat. Pam
Thanks everyone
Tried to google “Nantucket pink”, with no luck, hoping it was some kind of macho color as panic set in about the possiblity of the kayak fading to pink. So far everyone seems to like them, which reinforces what the local people I know who have them say, so I’m driving up to look at it tomorrow. I’ve paddled one already and very rarely use the rudders on my other kayaks so if the orange/mango deck color works I’ll be bringing it home.
PS: Clinton 70, I’m impressed Pam. That would be a two or three day trip for me.
Thanks again everyone, Ray