White Kayak Visibility on the Ocean???

it’s a lovely color
get one of these and you’ll be more visible than someone in a yellow boat. If you get a more crushable one you can stick it under your pfd as needed.



http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl;jsessionid=ac112b801f4387cdeab89a2a489698e6b1f0364b9caa.e3eTaxiPc3mTe34Pa38Ta38NbNn0?c=080402&it=A&id=5479

Yellow and Mango (WS color)
almost glow in low light.My Tarpon is Mango.

Paddle “reflectivity”…
I have a black carbon fiber paddle (werner) … there is a pattern in the blades … kind of like a weave. This seems to reflect light … at least bright sunlight. But then again I’m too close to know if this is reflective enough to be seen at a distance. Does anyone know if these paddles can be seen from a distance?

robins egg blue
The best marshmallow Peeps. Other than yellow.

In Short, No
While kayak-camping in the Apostle Islands a few weeks ago, our party stood on the shore above Lake Superior and observed a pod of paddlers approaching from a mile away. As has been mentioned already, boat color is difficult to discern, and we frankly couldn’t even tell how many boats or what kind they were.



For a long time, all we could see was ONE set of paddles flashing in the sun; a pair of yellow fiberglass blades. The red boats, the blue boats, the black carbon-fiber paddles–all were indistinct blurs until they approached quite a bit closer. Only the yellow blades were obvious.



As a side benefit to the yellow blades, fiberglass blades in particular will also flash brightly even when BACKLIT by the sun.



The black carbon-fiber blades indeed have a certain iridescent quality to them, but that is not enough to make them reflective. If you really want reflectivity, apply the abovementioned decals.

not on Tahoe
Interesting, paddling Lake Tahoe over July 4, I saw a guy paddling a red rec boat going the same direction as us a quarter mile or so away. I was keeping an eye on this person, because I thought it was a bit risky for him to be paddling alone (and they didn’t look like he had a lot of experience).



Only after a while of paddling and slowly getting closer did I notice that there was a second boat - a blue one. Maybe not robins egg blue exactly, but Lake Tahoe’s blue water made blue boats disappear.



I guess a multi-color approach and trying to get the most color overall (paddle gear included) is the way to go.

My anecdote…
A few weeks ago I worked a demo sale. A young family bought three SOTs. The 9YO got a small blue Hobie, mom got a red/white sot and dad bought a yellow sot.



The next day I was paddling in the area that they had told me they lived. At a distance I thought I spotted kayaks and I headed their way. The first one I could ID for sure as a kayak was the little blue Hobie and it was a while before the other colors became apparent.



So I would vote for the light blue.