Water from the feet area went right into the seat on the Tetra, wet butt! Venus is a dry seat side
I must be doing this kayak thing wrong…I always though kayaking was a water sport and expected to get wet?
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I had a SOT
that constantly had me sitting in a puddle . Wet sport or not, that gets very uncomfortable . I now have 2 that don’t do that. Slightly raised seats with good drainage.
Maybe there are multiple ways of doing it right?
So have you been out in the new one?
No. The design of the boat , and your weight , determine if you will be sitting in a puddle. The one that was wettest for me was an older generation Tarpon 160. It wasn’t a problem until a wave slipped over the side. The seat was recessed with no drainage. I bought the newest model which had a raised seat platform with good drainage.
I weighed 240 then, now 220.
Yes, I have paddled the S14S and it doesn’t hold water either.
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Is this reply to me? the forum says it is but it doesn’t look like it to me. The reason I ask was that my question was “Maybe there are multiple ways of doing it right?”
How do you like the S14S? Been thinking about one.
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The S14S is a good boat. Quick and turns on a dime. For me it was a bit twitchy at first but that settled out quickly.
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And why is this more of a problem “if you are a female”? Not trying to be snarky (or subconsciously maybe I am) - just really wondering why sitting in a puddle is more objectionable to women than to men. I wouldn’t think it would be anyone’s first choice.
Really, I mean, really? Whether that comment was intentional provocative snark or just plain old obliviousness, one would not think a basic explanation of the gender-specific anatomical orientation of human plumbing would be necessary on a forum populated by adults. Oy.
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I Googled Venus and saw the first example was listed as a Woman’s model (after the Goddess Venus?) I interpreted rnsparky recommending the Venus based on a belief that it was a dryer boat, which would be a fitting, if the person could fit “the Woman’ Model”. Made sense to me, unless I missed something.
Sorry. Consider it obliviousness, combined with early in the day irritation over being called “a female”, and not having the wet kayak experience to see beyond my apparently mistaken notion that what they meant was that women are whinier and less able to put up with a little discomfort. Mea culpa.
It wasn’t just you, @JCH_ski , I actually had the same interpretation at first (that it was a reference to the stereotype that women are wimps about being uncomfortable!) Then I realized that since the Venus is marketed as a “women’s kayak,” and is probably sized for a smaller person, that the comment probably just meant that if you can fit that kayak it might be a better choice. (Willowleaf’s interpretation did not occur to me…)
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There are a lot of women on this forum a lot tougher than me. Nothing to prove. My sister is six years older and she’s the only person who I can kayak with. I’d say we’re equal, but I don’t know if I’ll have her stamina in six years. Posts are tough to understand sometimes because responses come in so fast. Stay tough.
Sigh. And this is perhaps why the designs sized for smaller people, also most women, took so many years to follow the ones for the average male paddler in sea kayaking.
White water manufacturers were doing this right a long time before the sea kayaking folks got it.
Cruiser has a shirt…“I know I paddle like a woman. Try and keep up.”
This forum has plenty of whinners from both sexes. The paddlers boil down to two types. Those that complain and those that just do.
I was sitting at the Canoe Club’s 100th Anniversity celebration yesterday and watched a smallish woman pick up her sea kayak solo and carry it the dock and launch it. She is a do-er.
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Kayak…i should soon be getting information on a used QCC 18ft for sale in St. Augustine, Fl.
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In case this wasn’t abundantly clear, I am in no way saying I think women are wimps (I am a woman), just that some people seem to think that. As for “women’s” outdoor gear, I am smaller than average and have a hard time finding quality outdoor gear sized for a smaller person (whether you’re talking about kayaks, bikes, footwear, jackets, whatever.) Which is understandable, and I assume is also true for the larger than average segment of the population. The annoying part is that instead of just having the same product available in a range of sizes, manufactures sometimes decide to make a “women’s version” – often an inferior version with fewer practical features – and that’s what’s available in the smaller sizes.
There actually is a very good anatomical reason why having a boat whose design guarantees a wet seat is more of a problem for women than men. Got nothing to do with "whining " or “wimpiness.”
The reality is that we women are 14 times more apt to get bladder infections than you guys. The female urethra is much shorter than that of males and its structural orientation means that the opening is far more likely to be vulnerable to bacterial entry in a seated position than that of a male’s equipment.
Also, if we develop fungal infections from sustained contact with damp clothing or immersion, they involve more internal tissue and are therefore more uncomfortable and more difficult to treat than the surface “jock itch” that men sustain with similar exposure.
Unless you are John Holmes and paddling commando in board shorts, it is unlikely the vestibule to your own plumbing is going to be submerged in the bilge. Men are supposed to have superior ability to visualize 3D spatial orientation – should not be hard for any hetero adult male to understand why the opposite gender might be more averse to involuntary sitz baths than he is.
(I hope this topic is too trivial and salacious to inspire our esteemed poet laureate, CWDH …)
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