Need advice for buying a kayak

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Permalink Reply by Dan Crandall on February 7, 2009 at 5:21pm

Hey Micah, first of all, I envy the trip to AK, one of my favorite places!! (<:

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Permalink Reply by Jason Bates on February 7, 2009 at 7:25pm

Sounds like a ton of fun! Maybe someone else out there can give some better advice, but to me your criteria is still kind of wide open. First instincts would be to look into touring boats or possibly inflatables, not due to stability issues as canoes are quite stable too. The big advantages that I could see (guess):

inflatables could be rolled up and take less space, be carried further, very easy to learn to paddle in. Could do white water rivers, NOT so great at dealing with big bodies of open water, heavy winds, tides etc...

Touring boats would be better at carrying gear, and MUCH better at covering long distances, dealing with winds, rough water (NOT white water though). Really a very versatile craft, but with some more time needed to really paddle well.

Three questions I would ask up front:
Do you want to paddle any rivers with white water (other than gentle class I-II)?
Do you see paddling larger bodies of water, with long distances, potential for rough water, etc...?
How much time do you want to spend practicing in the new boats before this trip?

I think that between those questions you could narrow the search down a little, also know that it's probably not worth too much stress; any one of those three boat types will be ideal for certain types of paddling. The real key to a safe and enjoyable paddle will probably be zeroing in on the types of paddling that will work well for your craft within your skill set. Just don't expect any one type of boat to be ideally suited to EVERY picturesque body of water that you'll encounter along the way.

Enjoy, JB

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Permalink Reply by Micah Downs on February 7, 2009 at 9:57pm

We will prob. be primarily doing large bodies of water, since we won't have someone to take us back up to our vehicle on rivers. How unstable are the inflatable kayaks? How do they compare to a canoe as far as being unstable? What about a kayak that has the ability to collapse, are they reliable?

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Permalink Reply by Geoff Jennings on February 8, 2009 at 1:39am

If you are Ok spending the money, look closely at the FeatherCraft and Klepper folding kayaks. Serious boats, they have been used in expeditions all over the world, and fit in a large duffel. Much better performance than any inflatables I've tried.

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Permalink Reply by Brock on February 8, 2009 at 4:25pm

Micah-
Good comments from others. I'll add to that. Our recent experience has been in some smaller Advanced Elements inflatables. We are very happy with them for what they are. Quality is good, they are rugged, track pretty well and are stable. We've used them in San Diego, several lakes in Oregon, the San Juans and in British Columbia. Their larger models could probably do what you want.

Caveats - it gets to be a pain to set them up and take them down. Set up goes pretty well with practice, but getting enough air out of them to repack into their bags is a bit of a hassle. Positives are the size and storage. For trips where having them in the car is not necessary and we can carry on top, we are going to add a couple of hard shell, sit insides. Easier in and out and better performance in wind and waves.

On the collapsibles - Geoff is right about them being used extremely successfully. But take a serious look at the setup procedure. We ran into a couple of people on this last trip that had become very frustrated with that and they'd been using theirs for a few years.

As Jason said - a lot ultimately depends on how you intend to use them. If there is any way you can get to a kayak store or center where you can try out a few boats it will make a huge difference and could be worth a couple of hours driving time to check them out.

Have a great trip. Brock

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Permalink Reply by Jason Bates on February 8, 2009 at 6:33pm

Micah, I didn't mean to imply that inflatables are at all unstable, in fact of all the various categories of boats they are usually regarded as among the most stable (generalizing here). The comment I made about rough water, winds, tides etc... wasn't a stability factor, but rather in the fact that they tend (again generalizing) to be much less efficient in terms of paddling, and are blown around more. I personally can't think of a worse hell than trying to force an inflatable to make a two-three mile crossing in heavy crosswinds, chop and fighting a tide.
Just to reiterate again, these are very general and relatively comparative on a "type by type" basis, within each of those categories there are of course endless variations and some will perform much better than others in certain types of water. Kind of like vehicles really, I mean you could narrow your search down to SUV, Pick-up, Sport car, Motorcycle... etc, but within each of those categories there would still be quite a range. Brock's advice to hit a shop up and try some out is great advice, and I will reiterate my suggestion of the last response that you could have a ton of FUN with any of those boats as long as you tailor your paddling adventure relative to that craft and your skill set. What I mean, is that the paddling opportunities will be endless and spectacular, as long as you don't try taking the "right" boat on the "wrong" paddle. If you have really specific desires of where exactly you want to paddle, that might help narrow the boat choice down a lot more too.
Good luck,
JB

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Permalink Reply by Micah Downs on February 11, 2009 at 6:36am

guys this is awesome advice, thanks so much. We're pretty much going to be on calm water, and some sea kayaking as well. We'll even be doing a couple of multi-day trips. Because of the potential wind and larger bodies of water, it seems like a touring kayak would be the best way to go?? If so what are your suggestions. Money is deff. a huge issue. We have a truck with a rack on it so transportation isn't a problem. What do you think? Also, we are trying to decide btw a 2-person and 2 1-person kayaks. Can one person use a 2-person kayak efficiently? What about cargo, how much space do they have? I know it varies but do any have enough room for a frame pack?

Thanks so much for all of the words of wisdom!
Micah

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