Making sense of what you see at the boat store

Like shiny new sports cars, sea kayaks lined up in the store all look good. That yellow one over there. That's one hot-looking boat. Not like that gray slug I paddled with the outfitter. Yo! How much is the Turbo Orca? Somewhere down inside our cerebral cortex, we understand that we're not real sure what we're looking at, but meanwhile there's this little voice saying "It's you. It's SO you. This is the boat that'll make YOU the kayaker in the SUV commercial." That the voice turns out to be coming from the salesman doesn't make it any less compelling. He's a kayak pro, isn't he? And right now he's making all kinds of sense about "secondary stability" and "rocker" and "righting moments" and the diamond-pattern deck bungees - the Turbo Orca signature, he tells you. Give me some of that! You're thinking. And at the same time you're wondering What is that?

This article won't tell you what kind of sea kayak you should buy. But it will tell you what you're looking at when you go shopping for one. So let's go shopping.

Download PDF of How to shop for your first kayak PDF (1.2MB)

1. How to Shop for Your First Kayak
2. How Much Boat
3. Rudders and Skegs
4. Construction and Cost
5. Boats you wear
6. "Trying on" a Kayak
7. What's on deck?
8. The Test Drive