Elie_AK_May2011.pdf 1 11-03-18 1:43 PM
1» OCEAN PLAYBOATS Why surf big, breaking waves in long, unwieldy boats? Because
it’s fun, says Brian Day, U.S. sales rep for P&H Sea Kayaks. Sea kayak designers are feeding the rough water frenzy that’s be- come popular in the past five years with a new, easier to paddle genre of pint-sized boat that’s sure to grow as long as adven- turous paddlers keep playing in surf zones and rock gardens. P&H has met the demand by creating their 15-foot Delphin, a sea kayak with the planing hull of a whitewater boat that keeps the bow loose and maneuverable, and eliminates the joy-killing
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propensity of most long boats to pitchpole in steep waves. “Rough water sea kayaks had been the same for about 20 years,” says Day. “The 16-foot-long sea kayak was the norm. We set out to make something different.”
San Francisco-based sea kayaker and former world surf kaya- king champion Sean Morley expects the evolution to continue, with ocean playboats following the whitewater kayak trend, get- ting smaller. “I think something around 13–14 feet would be ide- al,” he says. “Sometimes you need a bit of speed to catch big, fast waves or to make that crux move. “The funny thing,” adds Morley, “is that I learned to paddle on the sea in a 13-foot general-purpose kayak over 30 years ago. With these new boats, it’s like being a kid again.”
2 » SEA KAYAK LITE
Take a close look at any kayak manufacturer’s website and you’re sure to notice that many of the boats fall into the 12- to 15-foot range. Current Designs’ creative and marketing director, Jake Gres- eth, says the brand’s bestsellers are its transitional models, the Vi- sion, released in 2008, and Whistler, updated in 2011. That’s because light touring kayaks meet the needs of the majority of paddlers. “Why paddle a hulking expedition boat when you could cruise
effortlessly in a lighter, easier to store and transport, pint-sized model?” asks Greseth. Of course, good design—in particular, proper fit—and a full suite of features like decklines, adjustable seats, skegs and bulkheads have come a long way in distinguish- ing these miniature sea kayaks from tubby, less responsive recre- ational boats. The result has been the dominance of a new class of kayak that’s fun, affordable, comfortable and easy to paddle.
3 » THE END OF THE OCEAN COCKPIT
Purists scoffed when Welsh kayak designer Nigel Dennis devel- oped a large, keyhole-shaped cockpit for his Romany sea kayak in the early 1990s. Since Ken Taylor took the lines off of a West Greenland kayak in 1959 and formed the archetypical “British- style” sea kayak, small, circular ocean cockpits were a defining feature of all U.K.-built boats. But it didn’t take long for Dennis’ keyhole cockpit to catch on.
His design principle was to come up with something user-
friendly. Ocean cockpits may have been traditional, but they were often uncomfortable and less than perfect for quick entries and exits in surf. All the while, the large, oval-shaped cockpits of North American boats didn’t offer enough boat control. The keyhole struck a balance between the two and with advances in neoprene sprayskirts, Washington-based Valley Sea Kayaks sales rep Rob
Avery says Dennis’ idea became the norm. With the exception of traditionalists’ requests for the Anas Acuta, the fiberglass replica of Taylor’s Greenland kayak, Avery says he only imports a few ocean cockpit-equipped Valley Pintails and Nordkapps each year.
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SPRING 2004
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ROUGH WATER
R O UG H W A T ER R E VO L U T IO N
EXTREME KAYAKING IS COMING OF AGE
DAVID JOHNSTON LOOKS AT ITS TONGUE-STUD-AND-TATTOO ADOLESCENCE, AND THE INCREASINGLY MAINSTREAM DIRECTION IN WHICH IT’S HEADED.
F
OR MANY, sea kayaking is synonymous with quiet paddles into the sunset and multi-day trips on scenic coasts. Lovely, challenging even, but not exactly thrilling. That’s changing. Over the past five years, interest has exploded among a growing subset of paddlers in a more adrenalized
aspect of the sport: rough water sea kayaking. Sea kayaking in rough water isn’t new. Small pockets of paddlers have been taking long boats out to play in surf,
rock gardens and tidal races for over 25 years. When Stan Chladek founded the infamous Gales of November on Lake Superior in the mid ‘80s, the annual event drew up to 50 of the sport’s top paddlers, including Nigel Dennis and Dave Ide. Footage of early pioneers like Eric Soares and the Tsunami Rangers careening through impossibly narrow pas-
sages and exploding haystacks, along a cliffed-out coast pounded by 20-foot Pacific swell, is still hair-raising nearly three decades later.
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EARLY SUMMER 2011
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PHOTO: JOEL COOPER
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