I’m going to be buying my son a kayak for his birthday. We gifted he and his wife one from our cottage but this will be a second one so they can go out together.
As I’m looking around, just wondering if there is anything special these days I should be looking for in terms of features. Or if you have one you have purchased recently that is easy in/easy out. Do not want inflatable.
Additionally if anyone has had experience with the kayak pull carts (they can put in only about 2 blocks from their home) or outside hanging systems to attach to a garage.
And don’t worry, I’ll make sure they have life jackets!!
See if they can borrow one from a neighbor before you purchase. It took me a couple of tries (yes, then sold the rejects on Craigslist) to find the one that works for me. I am short-- but strong- but I miscalculated the leverage factor in getting the kayak in and out of the water. Every site lists weight of course- but I learned it isn’t so much the weight as it is how it’s distributed if that makes sense. I found a heavier kayak can be easier to maneuver than a lighter one. He won’t be lifting it over his head like in weightlifting- he’ll be maneuvering it onto a cart and balancing it before tying it down. So trying out a few can REALLY help you figure out which models you DON’T want!!!
Good suggestion. We have had kayaks very similar to the one linked (and he/his wife) have used those with good success. So I guess my thought also was stick with what they know and have had success with.
I rationalize the bath I took in dumping the kayaks that didn’t work for me as "if I were on vacation, and renting a kayak from a commercial tour operator, I’d have paid MUCH more than the money I lost by selling an “almost new kayak”.
The amount of hours he spent hiking, backwoods camping and kayaking during Covid was definitely worth the expenses of then kayak, car rack and camping equipment. Now he and his friends are bowlers apparently.
We have multiple kayaks, and go kayaking a few times each year. However, we are kayaking in the ocean (or more precisely a somewhat sheltered cove off the ocean) so we do not use the “sit on top” kayaks. Most of ours were purchased used.
One issue is the size of the person kayaking. As an example, one of our kayaks is 17 1/2 feet long and specifically designed for people who are well over 6 feet tall and also well over 200 pounds. This makes sense for me, but not for the rest of the family. At 225 pounds and 6’3" a smaller kayak has trouble supporting my size and becomes rather slow. A 10 or 12 foot kayak would be relatively much easier to deal with when it is out of the water compared to a larger kayak. Both weight and bulk become an issue with carrying larger kayaks. Generally the larger kayaks are better when they are in the water with a large person in them, but are a pain to carry around when they are out of the water.
A few of our kayaks have rudders, which we almost never use. You turn using the paddles. Apparently the rudders are supposed to be most useful when you are going downwind at an angle to the wind. Kayaks like to turn into the wind, and the rudder can be used to counteract this. I would be just as happy if our kayaks did not have a rudder.
We actually have a small kayak pull cart, and never use it. I just carry the kayaks around.
To me the hanging systems make sense if your garage is tall enough. Our garage has a relatively low ceiling so it would not work for us.
And yes, life jackets are essential. Most of us have fallen in from time to time.
I think the one you linked to is a good choice. I notice it is 10ft long. Not sure about in your state, but in our state any non-motorized watercraft 10ft in length or shorter is exempt from the requirement to buy a licensing tab. It’s not that a license tab is so expensive, but rather that it’s easy to forget, then it expires and you realize last minute and find yourself spending a couple hours sourcing and buying one on a nice sunny day when all you wanted was to be on the water! So we have always been careful to buy kayaks 10ft long or less. ETA: But I agree with @DadTwoGirls about the weight issue. We all weigh 150 lb or less, so don’t need a bigger/longer kayak.
We do three season kayaking, sometimes in roughish water (not surf), so we have sit-inside kayaks. They weigh a bit (probably close to 48-50 pounds each) but we carry both together, one holding the front loops, one the back loops, and can go fairly far like that (and I am a not especially strong almost 65yo woman). One thing we did find when we bought them 20 yr ago was that the most important things were tracking and not too wide for ease of paddling. So the closer to bathtub shaped ones I first thought I would be more comfortable in were eschewed for a fairly narrow, 14’8’ boat. It’s a lot less work keeping it going straight than shorter, wider ones.
We do have very simple kayak wheels but we rarely use them. We mostly have to drive to the put in, and then do the two person carry.
So maybe a follow up question is do people just do a roof top attachment - or slide them in the hatchback as far as they can go and put down a tarp for the way home?
Yes, we put them on the roof when we are transporting kayaks by car.
For the heaviest of our kayaks it is difficult to lift it up that high and get it up on the roof. We instead put a couple of old blankets on the rear-most of the two kayak holders. This allows the kayak to slide. We get the nose of the kayak onto the towels that are on the rearmost kayak rack, and we just slide the entire kayak forward onto the car. This is quite a bit easier.
We have one 12 foot kayak and another 14 foot kayak and it is relatively easy for me to just lift them up and put them on the roof.
We have J hooks for the roof of the SUV for our kayak. We have a tandem so it’s quite heavy and not the easiest for me to get on. (We have it down to a science now but H does the bulk of the work). For our next car we’re going to get an assisted side lift.
We have a sit upon - it’s super stable and we just take the plugs out when we are in rougher water.
