Prompted by this post:
I bought my Ocean Kayak Drifter about 20 years or so ago.
My Ocean Kayak Drifter, January 2004 (or maybe 2001, like it says in the caption – I’ve forgotten when it was).
Mine’s the white one that you can just see in the first photo. It’s the same as the blue one, only it has a rudder. You can see the whole thing in the second pic, but it’s a small photo.
Yesterday I picked up a new Old Town Manitou Sport, (next to my wife’s Necky Sky). I had $700 in REI Rewards, and since REI changed their credit cards to Capital One I couldn’t redeem my Rewards for cash. So I got the kayak.
My wife bought her kayak from a neighbour last year for $200. I haven’t tried it yet.
On to the thread:
I was living in L.A. when I bought my first kayak. I’d take it down to Marina del Rey and put-in at Mother’s Beach. There were little sharks in the water, and also stingrays. I tried to get a photo of the sharks once. I stood very still, but the cowardly things wouldn’t get close enough for a photo. I got one shot in the murky water where you could sorta-kinda see a fin. I should have brought a tin of cat food. I liked sneaking up on the stingrays and tickling them. They were cute.
A typical paddle would be from Mother’s Beach, through the marina, out into the open ocean, and then up to the Santa Monica pier and back. Sometimes @Spiny_Norman and I would go kayaking together. Since I moved up here, paddling is a little more difficult. I live on a shallow bay, and the water is very far away when the tide’s out. Also, I’m married now and it can be hard to coordinate with my wife. My friend and I did take a trip to Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island once, and spent eight hours paddling one day.
So @TokyoBayer wants to find out about kayaks. I’ll start out with my Drifter. It’s a sit-on-top, which means you sit on top of it instead of sitting inside of it. It has four scupper holes on the floor. Water comes in, then it goes out the bottom. The downside is that you’re always sitting in some water. This isn’t a problem when you’re someplace like Southern California where the water is like 65ºF. Let me tell you though, that it’s a mite chilly up here on the Salish Sea where the water is 20º (or more) cooler. You can see in the photo that I’m wearing ‘waterproof’ pants. These just have elastic cuffs. I now have some dry pants. My friend (standing) is wearing mukluks. I wish I’d had some. I couldn’t feel my feet when we got back.
So now I have a sit-inside kayak. Since I only got it yesterday, I haven’t taken it out yet. With my damaged knees, getting in an out of a kayak – sit-inside or sit-on-top – is rather comical; but I got into the Mantou yesterday when I put it on the deck, and I won’t have a problem. The seat is very comfortable.
Paddles are adjustable for pitch. I like mine with a ‘twist’, but my wife likes hers straight. My Drifter paddles very nicely. It’s three feet wide and 12½ feet long, so it’s pretty fast for a recreational kayak. (Longer kayaks tend to be faster than shorter ones.) It’s also quite stable. I’m anxious to try out the Manitou to see how it paddles. I did read one review that said it doesn’t ‘glide’ especially well, which the Drifter excels at.
You’ll need accessories. First of all (or second, after the paddle), you need a personal flotation device (PFD, ‘life jacket’). Up here, you’re required to ‘have’ one. In the Drifter, I keep it in the well behind me. In the Manitou, I’ll have to wear it. If you have a sit-inside, you’ll want a water pump. Unlike a sit-on-top that has scupper holes, you need to pump water out of a sit-inside if you get flooded. You’ll also want a paddle float for a sit-inside. (I don’t have one, but the water’s shallow in the bay.) In case you find yourself in the water, you put the float on one end of the paddle and put the other end into the rigging on your 'yak. This should keep the kayak from rolling over when you get back into it. Since I haven’t used a sit-inside yet, I haven’t tried it. And you’ll want a sponge for getting water out after you’ve pumped it out. If you’re in a sit-inside, you’ll want to get a ‘skirt’ if you’re going to be paddling someplace where you may take on water. Skirts fit around your waist and around the combing to keep the water out. There’s a technique to roll yourself upright in case you get toppled, but obviously I’ve never tried it. That’s something I would want instruction in before I tried it on my own. As for sit-on-tops, you’re going to want a seat. I haven’t seen any that came with one, unless it’s part of a ‘package’. My Drifter was a la carte, so I had to buy my own. You can paddle a sit-on-top without a seat, but you really want one if you want to be comfortable.
When I got my first kayak, I had no idea what paddling was like. I just bought it, and tried it. It’s really easy! Nothing like the guys pulling a longboat in the movies. It takes very little effort unless you want to do a fast sprint, and even then it’s not that hard.
What else…? Can’t think of anything right now, other that I’ve only paddled in salt water.
