surge

anyone have a surge, or input, good or bad ??

surge
What are you talking about

Paddling.net reviews
see

http://www.paddling.net/Reviews/showReviews.html?prod=447

Description

– Last Updated: Jul-09-04 3:23 PM EST –

SURGE KAYAK

Surge – At 17’ 7” long x 22.5” beam, 38 lbs., this kevlar kayak is both a joy to paddle as well as car-top and carry. Very fast with excellent initial and secondary stability. A most unusual hull design that does not weathercock nor need a rudder or a skeg for tracking, yet with a lean, is as nimble as a cat. Performance oriented but so user friendly that it hard to imagine. A limited production kayak built for smaller to average size paddlers. Lots of races have been won with this kayak. MSRP at $3300

_______________________________________


Mark Stephens paddles a Surge. He is from SE MA. He came in paddling.net for awhile but hasn't been in this forum for awhile. You can probably reach him at NSPN. There is also another NSPN member, a woman (? name), who paddles a Surge. I believe Pam Browning who comes in this forum every so often has raced with a Surge, or trains with one.

sing

Caroline has a surge
Tracks a touch stiff (that’s second hand). fast touring boat. low volume compared to most but super high at front of coaming, Truly superlative craftsmanship!!! tough strong and light. Made to not need tracking aids.

Surge? YES!!
Simply the finest paddling boat I have ever been in. Period!

Sing-where can I find more info on
the Surge yak? Is it too small for a 5’11", 175

lb. paddler?? Sounds like a fine yak. Pictures??

Surge
Surge doesn’t have a web site, but…Country Canoeist in Dunbarton NH has a couple in stock that you could demo. Also Country Canoeist is having a retirement sale this month, they are trying to liquidate all their stock by August 1 before the new owners take over. Some great deals are available. here is a link to their current price list. http://www.countrycanoeist.com/MonthlySpecials.htm

size
i’m 6’ 175#, and it can handle a lot more than that - it’s 17’7" x 24" x 38# - - the boat is a masterpiece - EXCEPT, IMO, the cockpit - it’s not keyholed, so looser than i like - it has a cheap plastic seat, with no side bracing - you pop in foam blocks, and the dealer says the seat is glassed in, and removal would void the warranty - it has pop in thigh braces, and they’re a bit spread apart (no keyhole) - if they had put a bit more into the cockpit, i’d have bought it in a blink, as demoing it in 25kt winds, and putting the wind on every point, it never wavered - course correction was effortless - a couple of owners said they would like a skeg for heavy surf, but all agreed that it didn’t need one 99% of the time - - re-the non keyhole - the dealer spent an additional $600. on his own boat to have a keyhole modification

Peter, can you get Caroline to post
a picture of the mysterious Surge yak? I have never seen one.

Where is Surge Marine located? Do
they have a mailing address or e-mail contact??

Contact Info
This is all I could find on them:



Surge Marine

Kerry King

686 Main Road

Westport Island, ME 04578

tel. 207-882-9474

as I hear it surge is a one man shop
apparently the formulations he uses are very high performance but hard to work with. So notbody else does. So do not expect constant availability from a person who makes $8.00/hr and does not know much. Absolutely, expect great craftsmanship.

one man shop
the shop only produces 20 boats/year - i’m sure my local dealer could sell all 20 if he could get them

Small, Local Operation
as already pointed out, I think that makes it tough for you to demo down where you are, unless you willing to come all the way up here and borrow someone’s boat. That means you may have to go the “QCC” route, in terms of ordering the boat on faith and hope you like it. I think the Surge has a decent market up here so it would be hard to re sell, though you would have to deal with shipping.



sing

Surge Sea Kayak
I’ve had my Surge for about three years and have raced it and won in the Clinton, Adirondack Classic, Run of the Charles, and Blackburn. It’s a wonderfully fast yet stable sea kayak, and light weight at 38 pounds. There’s a used one listed in Atlantic Coastal Kayaker. I’m around the Boston area, you’re welcome to try mine sometime.

Thank you all for your helpful info.
Bill Zeller(Country Canoeist)posted some pictures

of the Surge for me. Guess I’ll have to find an excuse to go North. Am a little concerned about the cockpit fit and you can only get that by getting in the yak, as you know. Thanks again.

NH
Sure, come on up… we have some great paddling here!



Good luck!

Ayerloom-did Kerry King do the keyhole
cockpit mod??

surge
all i know is that it was done at surge - i’m not familiar with it’s ownership