We have been thinking of buying a Kayak or two. We know nothing about them and were wondering if some of you could give us some direction? I'd like to do a bit of fishing from one . My wife just wants to have the occasional paddle. I've looked at a couple in BCF and on eBay. There are heaps to choose from! Are we better to get a two seater.( how practicable are they. Lifting off cars etc? ). Or one each? Which are the better brands? Any advise welcome.
Have a good think about when, howand where you'll use it - a boat for the local dam is very different from one for surfing. And make sure you have at least one paddling lesson - you'll save a lot of strain on the wrong muscles and enjoy your time out a lot more
l've got a 16ft canoe . You can fish in it, heaps of room, pack stuff, takes 3 people but you can easily motor along in it alone too. Just personally l didn't like kayaks for much other than paddling, too confining . Fishing's much more comfortable from a canoe, your not stuck to your seat and twisting and turning, you can move about in there, change around , raise your seats, more boat like if you wanna do stuff. Mines Fiberglass , l trimmed some fat of it and got it down to 35kg but it's still pretty hard getting it on the racks though. Look for under 35 if your going alone alot, makes it a lot easier. Love my canoe, very cool.
I bought a second hand two seater "sit-on'top" kayak a few years ago. Really enjoyed it, both times we used it! I'm going to move it on as we never get time to both be free long enough to use it together and it's too big for single use. I'd say go for two singles rather than a double, much more versatile. I like the sit-on ones, (like the fishing ones), rather that sit-in ones with the spray covers. Purely becasue I did a 10 week canoe course when I was about 16 and got stuck in mine when it overturned, I twisted and couldn't get my legs out of it, luckily the instructor was close and rescued me! I was really scepticle of those fishing ones with foot paddles, but boy, they can really motor along and they leave your hands free for fishing plus no paddles to worry about.
I second going for 2 singles if you can. We've got a Hobie 2 1/2 seater and I'm sick of carrying my lazy wife everywhere while she does next to nothing. 2 x singles are much more controllable. It's a bit too big for me to take out on my own, got to get myself a single for ease of use.
A couple of years ago we bought 2 x 2 seater canoes second hand. We were looking for just one, but found these two at super cheap prices & thought it would be great to have an extra one, so friends can come out with us....and for that reason they are. The downside is that they are really heavy & I have no way to get them on or off the trailer, but it is a lot more fun to have friends in the other one, than us just going out alone. We used them a lot the first year, not at all last year, because every weekend we were free, either the weather wasn't good, or we were busy elsewhere. So far this year, we haven't been out either, despite several times thinking about it. We'll be away most of February, so it's not looking good.
We have 2 single Extreme kayaks, cost about 1k a few years ago, weigh about 20 kg each and take up to 130kg. Ours are stackable on roof rack. His is a fishing with 4 rod holders, mine plain. Agree, 2 singles as he can go off fishing and I can paddle or lay back and read a book (have slept on it occasionally), Can fit heaps of crap in and on yak. Mostly used on dams
Can you hire them where you live? If so - hire them for the next three months and see how frequently you use them before committing to a purchase. Saves the hassle of storing and carrying them around and too. Cheers Jamie
I agree with @Jamie Moore. If you find you are getting into boating, and want to combine kayak, fishing and sailing, and are nearish larger bodies of water (sea, lake), then Hobie Adventure Island's are absolutely fantastic.
At the moment we just have 2 for the kids which are cheapies but I can manage to go on them and not sink them I would get 2 x singles so you don't have to be together and your wife can paddle around whilst you fish. A fishing one probably needs to be slightly better than a paddle around one. I have found that a decent special for a new one is almost the same as what people want second hand on gumtree so shop around.
Good idea. We hardly use ours, maybe a few times a year, even though I only have to drag it about 10 metres from it's storage place into the water. Here's out 2 1/2 seater:
Just make sure it's lite, to lift off the car roof and to push through the water. I paddle these things but probably not the best when just staring out. Oh...and I very much second getting a basic paddling lesson. Basic stroke principles , otherwise you'll end up paddling with your arms and your forearms will get tired very quickly.
We have an inflatable 2 seater. Goes up in a few minutes and no hassles with lifting/roofbars. Love it
Odyssey : Hobie Cat Heavy is relative, close to 40kg. I can pick it up and carry it quite easily with one hand.
Yeah right . l find dragging or carrying mine around at 35 is no hassle and it slips through the water like a damn fish, takes nothing to row it. But throwing onto the racks is another thing all together. So l often put off taking it out bc l can't be stuffed getting it on and off the racks, 4 times. It just falls all over the place and it's too wide to say grab from the middle and lift up that way. lt's pointed both ends so l'm thinking of bolting a piece of light wood across one end so that l can stabilize one end on the ground and then lift the other end up onto the racks and slide it on from there. l really love the canoe look of the pointed curved up ends though so l'm trying to come up with another idea that don't spoil it's look. PS , ellejay you couldn't throw in a pic could you? love to see it sounds like a great idea if it's any good. You can get in a canoe these very light ones, not sure what they're made of but on youtube a girls carrying one down a bush track over her head. They're Canadian style, great looking canoe but pretty expensive l'd say.
