Looking to buy a Kayak

pumaz

pumaz

pumaz

Soldato
Joined
7 Oct 2003
Posts
5,693
Location
Nottingham
Could do with some advice..

My brother bought a house that backs off on to a canal, the previous owner left an old canoe behind (old style about 10-12ft) and we've had a go on that which was fun but it's hard to keep it in a straight line.

We've both been bitten buy the boating bug and where looking to buy a couple of kayaks for messing about in and travelling up and down canals and rivers. We need something that we can cover distance in and is easy to keep in a straight lin as well as being small and lite enough for us to carry over locks etc.

So in short we want small, lite and easy to use kayaks can someone point us in the right direction and tell us what sort of kayaks we should be looking at?

Thanks :)
 
The best thing to do is probably to head to your local outdoorsy type place and see what is available, possibly check your local free ads paper too for people who've started and then got bored. For the sort of pootling about you're describing almost any plastic kayak will do for the moment, getting one that fits you well is extremely important and don't neglect to get good footrests, most of your power comes from the brace that you've got against them. Perception, Pyranha and Dagger were all good manufacturers when I was last looking at buying a kayak but that was quite a while ago.

Small tip, the power comes from the rotation of the waist rather than the arms dragging the paddle through the water - your trunk muscles are massively more powerful than your arms will ever be. I tend to 'punch' forward with the top hand and use the bottom hand to simply guide the paddle through rather than pulling with it (triceps are usually stronger than biceps as well as being the bigger muscle group).
 
I got a paranha G3, its nimble, but sturdy, fairly small & can take fat lads easily.

Its very boyant in the water, I wouldn't get a play boat unless you wanna do tricks/white water.

General purpose, stable but nice ride - G3 :)
 
Thanks for the advice chaps.

When you say "I wouldn't get a play boat unless you wanna do tricks/white water" is that because there not very good for distance and keeping straight?
 
Yes, play boats tend to be very short and great for rapid changes of direction but very little in the way of straight line ability. You probably could kayak distances in it but it isn't designed for that so will be less than ideal.
 
*bump*

I'm also after a Kayak for the Canal, as our farm has a canal running right next to it,

I've been shown the >> Perception - Sierra Which looks like a nice Kayak.

Any ideas on whether this will be suitable? and the best/cheapest place to order from online?

Thanks
 
I can't help on the places to buy I'm afraid. Perception tend to make decent kayaks so I'd have no real worries on that score - personally the cockpit looks a little bit too big as it would mean I either couldn't have a spraydeck/that it would have to be a special one but depending on your uses that might not be a problem.
 
Thanks for your reply Semi-pro waster :)

I'm going to have a go in a friends 'Perception - Sierra' one day this week, so will try and figure out if its alright for me, It does look a tad roomy in there though :o
 
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