I've just ordered a kayak.

A little history…

When my best fiend and I went on the after-high school European excursion, we considered taking along a Sevylor inflatable kayak so that we could paddle on Loch Ness. Then it dawned on us that we already had heavy packs and that neither of us wanted to carry an extra 25 pounds. We never did make it to Scotland anyway.

Around 1994, my dad got into personal watercraft, an activity that continued for the rest of his life. I rode the JetSkis a bit, but again I thought of how much fun it would be to paddle around. For whatever reason, I never got a kayak.

Last year I went down to REI and looked at the boats. I talked to the sales guy about them and was going to take a beginner’s course. But I never got around to it.

Within the last couple of weeks, my best fiend went to British Columbia and rented kayaks in three places. He said it was awesome! This morning he bought a Cobra Excursion.

This afternoon I ordered an Ocean Kayak Drifter from REI. I’m getting the white one, and I’ve ordered the rudder kit to help with course-holding (at 12-1/2’ it’s probably not really necessary, but it may come in handy later) and an extra 6" hatch with a bag for storing small stuff. It has a 12" x 22" hatch up front and a nice tank/ice chest well astern. (That is, there is a well in the back – not an ice chest well-astern!) At 34" wide it should be nice and stable, and its capacity is enough to hold even my fat ass. :wink:

I’ll probably take it to Marina del Rey to try it out in sheltered waters, and a neighbour told me that kayaking is popular down in Long Beach. Who knows? Maybe I’ll take it down to Mission Bay and trade off between it and the JetSkis.

But what I really want to do is live in Washington (as everyone knows!) and paddle up there. Maybe catch me a yummy salmon. :slight_smile:

FWIW my on-water experience is limited to the JetSkis, and when I was in jr. high I spent four weekends teaching people how to sail at the San Diego Navy Sailing Club. I did a little scuba diving, but I don’t like beach diving in the surf around here and I don’t feel like driving up to Oxnard to catch a boat to the islands. Some nice, sedate paddling should be just the ticket. I wonder if I can rig a sail to it?

Oops! This should have been in MPSIMS! :o

Very cool!

Mr. Athena and I have just purchased sea kayaks. I am so incredibly psyched to be back by the water - after 11 years in Colorado, I’m dying for beaches, water, etc. etc. We now live about 1/2 mile from Lake Superior, plus there’s a gazillion inland lakes and reservoirs within a 10-60 minute drive. I can’t tell you enough about how fun the kayaks have been. We’ve had them for maybe a week and a half now, and have been out in them 4 times.

Last night we took the free safety class offered by the store we bought the kayaks from. I highly recommend doing something like this - it wasn’t only safety, it was about paddle strokes, boat care, etc. etc. The instructor we had was most excellent, and we went ahead and booked him for a 6 hour paddle on Saturday where he’ll teach us even more.

Johnny, if you have half the fun I’ve had, you’ll be giddy. This is the most fun new sport I’ve gotten into in, well, my whole life. I can’t wait to do some real trips - Apostle Islands are only 4 hours from where I live. And maybe someday I’ll even get into the ocean. <scary> but fun!

Athena: What kind of kayaks did you buy? I looked at Cobras, Ocean Kayak, Necky and Old Town. Cobras seemed to be the best value for the money, but I liked the Ocean Kayak. I like the looks of the sit-insides, but I went for a sit-on-top because they seem easier to get back on if you should fall off.

The big problem is going to be storage. There’s no way a 12-foot kayak is coming in through the front door. I might be able to get it in through the window if I take the screen off, but it’s not a very big opening. I have a 10’ x 7-1/2’ x 10’(high) storage unit I can keep it in temproarily (diagonally), but I plan to clear it out by the end of the year. If I can’t get it into my apartment, I’ll have to move it to my friend’s place in Washington or else carry it with me everywhere I go on the Jeep (I have a Yakima rack). But the latter option would expose the plastic to constant UV rays, which wouldn’t be good.

This is my boat, only in red, and this is the one Mr. Athena got, in yellow.

It really isn’t that hard to get out of the sit inside kayaks. We had to do wet entries and exits last night in our safety class, and you’re literally out of the boat in about 1 second after tipping over. That’s with a spray skirt on - it’s be even faster without it. I think it’s harder to get out of whitewater kayaks.

We lucked out on the storage aspect. The house we moved into has a huuuuge 2 car+ garage, and there’s another older garage we use as a storage building as well. Mr. Athena is going to build some racks for the boats. For now, we have them lying on cardboard and rugs on the floor.

Slight Hijack:

I’m in the process of building a kayak. While I am enjoying the building aspect, it would be cool to able to use it.

If you are curious, I my kayak building journal is at http://hosting.acegroup.cc/~brianm/kayak

I live very near the Mississippi, there a couple of canoe trails in the backwaters, I’ll probably start there. I also plan to take it up to Door County and paddle Green Bay/Lake Michigan (starting out in the harbors)

Brian

Looks good, N9IWP. I see you’re working on it almost every day. How many hours do you work on it each time? How many hours do you have in the project?

If you look at the daily entries on the main page, you’ll see two numbers-for the last entry, you see (2.0/45.2) that means I worked 2.0 hours that day, and have 45.2 hours total.

Brian

Aha. That’s what I get for trying to grab a look at work! I didn’t see it when I scanned the page.

I just got a book from Amazon today – The New Kayak Shop. It says that there are places where you can go for a one-week workshop and come out with a boat you built yourself. Coolness. But for now I’ll paddle around on the plastic one.

I put my Yakima rack back on the Cherokee today. I don’t know if the kayak will fit with the Load Warrior on. I might be able to have the basket on one side and carry the boat on its side on the other side. Or I can take the basket off (though I don’t really have a place to keep it). Or I could mount a kayak carrier on top of the rack, as it’s designed to accept accessories.

Congrats, Johnny L.A.! You’ll have to check out the Broken Group Islands, in Pacific Rim National Park here on Vancouver Island. Sea kayaking paradise!

On a more serious note, I hope you didn’t purchase one of those brands of kayak that come complete with the on-board propane heater for use in cold climates. Apparently there is a defect in the regulator, which has caused quite a few kayaks fitted with the device to burst into flame, even while alfloat. Which just goes to prove the old saying,

“you can’t have your kayak and heat it, too.”

I’m in the process of building a canoe with my father.
We’ve been in that process for a few years, however. I have hope though! One of these days we’ll be out in the quiet waters being harassed by mosquitos, but enjoying the pleasures of our handywork. This day might not come for ten years or so, but it will come.
Congrats on the kayak! May you have many adventures in it. :slight_smile:

I have a plans for a wood kayak from Laughing Loon kayaks (www.laughingloon.com). The very next time I have 300-600 hours free, I plan to build it. Actually, I’m hoping that if I can order premachined wood strips, I might be able to cut down on that time somewhat.

Kayaking around Catalina Island is good too, and you don’t have to go all the way to Oxnard to catch a boat. There are boat-in campsites available for overnights, and some good snorkeling/diving spots.

Sit-on-top? You may regret that in cooler weather-- It gets cold in Washington state!

That being said, wait until you get a chance to see the starfish, oysters, seals, and everything else up close. I was kayaking a couple weeks ago on San Juan Island-- got about 10 metres from 2 dozen seals and their pups. Magnificent.

I thought of that – and that sit-on-tops can be a bit wet because, well… you’re sitting on top. But I wanted to have one that I could get back on easily. After I’ve paddled the Drifter for a while, I’ll look into sit-insides. I did consider an Old Town Loon 138. Once I have some experience, I’ll be better equipped to decide on a traditional model.

What do you think of traditional models: plastic or fiberglass?

Kayak report:

Yesterday Mr. Athena and I went on the Big Lake - Lake Superior - for the first time. We had a six hour session set up with Sam, the local Kayak demigod. He’s the guy who trains and certifies the instructors in the area, so we feel pretty safe with him.

The day was awesome. In the morning, while we learned new paddle strokes, the lake was like glass. I don’t know if any of you have ever been to Lake Superior, but it’s clear. Perfectly clear. Imagine a lake full of Evian, it’s that clear. We were in 20-25’ deep water, and looking down gave us vertigo. You could see straight through to the rocky bottom of the lake, and it felt like we were on a magic carpet flying 25’ above the ground.

We ate lunch on the beach while Sam explained some basic chart reading skills and wind patterns. Then we went back into the water and paddled out to Middle Island. We stopped in the calm area just east of Middle Island and checked the weather using Sam’s weather radio, not because it was looking ominous but rather so he could show us what it was like. Then we went around the southern point of Middle Island and over to Partridge Island. We periodically stopped and did some practice chart readings.

I really need to get a waterproof camera so I can take some pictures. But in the meantime, you can get an idea of what we were paddling by at this site. We started at the Presque Isle - the island shown in the pictures. Although we were at different islands, it looked a lot the same.

N9IWP: I’d very much like to try my hand at building a wooden kayak; unfortunately, I don’t have the space (as I said, I don’t know how I’ll store my plastic one).

I’ve read The New Kayak Shop, and the Chesapeake looks fairly easy to build if you’re patient enough. I read an article in Sea Kayaker about a couple who paddled 1,400 miles from Alaska to San Juan Island in CLC Cape Charles they built themselves.

I may have to read the section again, but one thing I’m not clear on is the removal of the stitches. The author said the ends could be cut and the rest left in, as they will be covered by glass. He also said that a torch could be used to soften the epoxy and the stitching could be pulled out. What confuses me is that the stitching is covered by glass tape and epoxy, and they are made flush with the inside pieces by bending their middles down with a screwdriver. Not having tried it, I don’t see how they can be removed. :confused: Can you elaborate on that? What did you do on your boat?

So I’m down at REI…

I got an e-mail saying my kayak had been shipped from Ferndale on Thursday, and I thought I’d go and get the accessories for the rack. As long as I’m there I get my paddle, seat, PFD, and a cable and lock as well. I asked the girl at Customer Service when I could expect my boat, and she said a couple of weeks. I decided to browse a little more, and while I was doing so the girl came up and said, “Actually, the guy behind you was delivering your kayak.”

Well, I thought I’d put the kayak carriers on the rack and have them ready. Now I had to put them on quickly, as the boat was there and I was on my lunch break!

I have a couple of storage options. First, I can try the front window. If that doesn’t work, then I can try the storage unit. If that doesn’t work I can lock it to the pool fence temproarily (the Kyrptonite cable just fits through the scuppers). Or I can keep it in a neighbour’s lean-to/shed that is attached to his house.

But the important thing is that I have my kayak! wOOt!

Congats on the kayak JLA. I’m jealous Athena. How often is LS glassy?

Answering JLA’s question:
The CLC and Pygmy directions may differ, but for my kayak I was instructed to twist-tie all the stitches on the outside of the kayak.
Later on the inside seams were glassed (with 2 inch wide fiberglass strips) and the etire inside was “painted” with epoxy.

After everything cured, I turned the boat over and clipped the stitches as close to the boat outside as possible. I then filed down the remains to be flush with the outside. So I still have the inside portion of the stitches (underneath the fiberglass strips)

Brian