Wednesday, May 14, 2014

IYAK Demo Day

Over this past weekend, Gladdie and I went to try out a bunch of different types of kayaks at Demo Day in Noblesville. 


It was a great way for me to decide what type of kayak I like best and to compare different styles.  For the first time ever, I tried out a very long and lean sea kayak.  It was rather tippy, but I'm at the level now where I handled it with ease.  It cut through the water quickly with very little effort on my part.  Also, I was able to stear it using the rutter alone.  Because of it's long and narrow design, I don't think it would be good to use in the creeks where I normally fish and there is not much room in the cockpit. 


My favorite kayak was the Prodigy by Perception, 12 ft.  It was very comfortable and I liked the knee pads.  The second favorite was Pongo by Wilderness, 14ft, it felt good too.  Both of these were very comfy, and I could see myself enjoying a long river fishing trip in either of them.  I think I will try to pick up a stadium seat for my Kayak so I have better back support.


I preferred the sit in kayaks.  Gladys, in contrast, really liked the Jackson sit-on-top kayak.  It has a lawn chair type seat and was her favorite pick of the day.


If I were strictly using a kayak for the sake of kayaking (as opposed to fishing from it), than I would be leaning more toward investing in a sea kayak. 


All in all, the day was great fun, with good people and yummy food.

The time flew by, and I learned so much in such a short amount of time.  We were even allowed to try out different types of paddles.  I used the same paddle each time, so I could keep the variable limited to the kayak itself.  Maybe next time I will take a closer look at the different kinds of paddles.

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