crack monkey
May 26th, 2009, 02:56 PM
So it appears a few of you are into kayaking. It also appears my wife wants to get into kayaking. Neither of us have any clue what we should be looking for in a kayak.
Experience: Very limited. I did a fair bit of whitewater rafting and canoeing as a Boy Scout, but that was nearly 20 years ago, and I never did any whitewater in a kayak. We have recently rented kayaks in Chincoteague and Ocracoke, where we used them on the protected side of the islands.
Probable usage: Outer Banks (mostly sound-side, with the option to fool around on the beach/surf), flat water locally. No desire to do whitewater at this time.
I have used sit-on-tops and sit-insides and don't have a preference. My wife has used both and didn't care for the sit-on-top, though I wasn't there, so don't know if she just had a bad day, or what.
Do any dealers do demo days locally? Or, are there local outfitters who have a variety of styles to rent for a weekend?
From what I gather poking around online, we probably want some flavor of basic recreational kayak. But, I'd really like to try a few out before committing a sizeable chunk of money. I *think* I'd like something shorter and more nimble (relative to what Laura would like), but would really have to try several to be sure.
Experience: Very limited. I did a fair bit of whitewater rafting and canoeing as a Boy Scout, but that was nearly 20 years ago, and I never did any whitewater in a kayak. We have recently rented kayaks in Chincoteague and Ocracoke, where we used them on the protected side of the islands.
Probable usage: Outer Banks (mostly sound-side, with the option to fool around on the beach/surf), flat water locally. No desire to do whitewater at this time.
I have used sit-on-tops and sit-insides and don't have a preference. My wife has used both and didn't care for the sit-on-top, though I wasn't there, so don't know if she just had a bad day, or what.
Do any dealers do demo days locally? Or, are there local outfitters who have a variety of styles to rent for a weekend?
From what I gather poking around online, we probably want some flavor of basic recreational kayak. But, I'd really like to try a few out before committing a sizeable chunk of money. I *think* I'd like something shorter and more nimble (relative to what Laura would like), but would really have to try several to be sure.