Choosing the Right Kayak

alright let's go check out what equipment we're gonna need for river running we're at the Nantahala Outdoor Centre in the Outfitters store all the goods are inside come check it out ok you need to know what makes a good river running kayak rule number one is if your objective is to get down the river right side up comfortable in control and gain confidence in kayaking you need a boat that's gonna make that as easy as possible now the funny thing is a boat that's really good for one person a great river runner for one person might not be a great river runner for another person and the primary factors that determine a great river running boat are number one the boats design and number two the size and the shape of the person in that boat so let's go through number one the design the design of a river running boat your objective is extremely easy to roll now I designed a boat called the fun series and the objective was to maximize the river running ability of this boat so rolling ability is number one in order for a boat to be easy to roll the back band needs to be low enough on your body that allows you to do a full hip snap and lean back number two you need to have a lot of Flair and the sidewalls so that when you roll up it gets to a certain point it wants to finish the roll and get you back right side up that Flair also keeps you from tipping over it gives you secondary stability which is a key factor in a river running boat next you need a bow and stern that stay out of the water as much as possible that means you need to have enough rocker in the boat so when you're paddling you're bowing and purling all the time lastly you need to make sure that your boat is stable enough needs to be wide enough for your body if the boats too narrow or too small you're going to be tippy in the boat if it's too wide it's going to be hard to roll so basically what you want is a boat that's the right size for you so size is key there is actually one other other factor if your boat has edges on it at all they need to be high enough out of the water that you're not catching your edge down the river you want some space between the water in that edge as long as you have some space the boat's not going to be edgy you can have nice sharp edges on a kayak and they won't be a negative factor it'll be a positive factor as long as the water is far enough below the edges now let's go with a couple people here here I've got a couple of helpers my daughter Emily and Lauren both of these girls can fit in the fun one and a half for example no Emily you want to jump in please Emily can fit in this kayak go it's called the fun one and a half so she can fit in it comfortably she can sit in the boat this boat is designed to be easy to roll non edgy an ultimate river runner however Emily is a little bit too heavy for this boat when Emily's in this boat the water is all the way up to the edge if the water's all the way up to the edge or even slightly over these edges are in play at all times which means every time a current hits her from the side it's gonna try to flip her I'll go ahead and jump out him now Emily could play boat this boat really well she could do all kinds of tricks in it you want to jump in one now Lauren it's quite a bit smaller Lauren's on the 80 pounds that she's in the same boat now all of a sudden Lauren's in the exact same boat now the water line is down here this boat is an awesome in fact that is the number one best River runner that this nine-year-old girl could possibly get in at her size and weight now what is the difference while Emily is big enough that she can really throw the boat around it's a great play boat for her where Lauren isn't going to be able to flat water cartwheel the boat necessarily are very easy however because she's the right size for the boat even a little bit on the light size light side for it's gonna make the ultimate river runner for now check this out Lauren currently owns this boat over here this is the next size down the fun one you want to jump in that one so this is the boat that Lauren currently paddles it's called the fun one now this is a full-size down from the fun one and a half right well Lauren can full play boat this she's she can paddle forward and go into a bow stall that type of thing she's 80 pounds she's right at what it's considered to be the top level for the weight of this boat so the river running ability of the fun one for her is starting to get it starting to get lower the play boating ability is increasing so when you're deciding what kind of kayak to get it's very key that you look at the chart and you make sure that you're not at the top end on the weight of for that particular boat if you're looking for the easiest river running boat as we get into the larger categories of boats there's boats have been designed for a lot of different sizes there haven't been a whole lot of boats designed for the 240 plus category so if you're over 240 pounds you need to be looking at the charts and determine what boats go to the highest weight category this is an example of it's super fun and I show it between 190 and 250 as the category however then at 260 does that mean this boat isn't going to work for them not at all it's going to be his water line is going to be higher on the edges and it's going to be more edgy that Nathan here at 220 but the objective is to get the best possible boat for your weight and unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of boats designed for over 250 so you need to get the biggest one you can the example in the fun series is the super fun there's also a few creek boats out there and remember running creek boats that fit the bill as well you've got a great river running boat your next your next key is gonna be getting outfitted properly you need to have contact with your body in all the right places your hips your knees and your feet you need to have a proper back band in place start with the hips hip pads go in the boat the objective is to take up that extra room in your rear end so that your rear end doesn't slide back and forth if you go too lean to the side your butt doesn't slide to the side it also makes it a lot easier to roll when you're doing the hip snap now you can adjust the hip pads up and down that really helps tighten it if you want to tighten your hip pads you move it down and the thick part goes further down on your rear end if you want to loosen it up you simply raise it up or rotate it there's also often for really small hip people there's often shims you can put on to tighten the thing up as well so the hip pads go in key number one you should feel like there's no extra room side-to-side but it shouldn't be squeezing next thing is your back band your back band should be adjustable and it should support your back when you're sitting neutral when you lean forward the back band should move away from your back slightly when you lean back you should feel a little bit more pressure hey Nathan you want to jump in please so Nathan's getting in the boat here alright so Nathan I want you to tighten your back band okay good now let's see where you are sit up straight good posture okay I can put my hand between the back band and his back let's tighten it a little bit more okay perfect alright now lean forward a little more you go the pressure comes off his back lean back alright good now next thing is let's make sure that our knees are properly outfitted now with this boat the the knee brace is designed right in the kayak now his legs if you look aren't even touching now the reason these legs aren't touching aren't because the the knee braces aren't tight it's because his feet have too much room so but his feet him too much room his leg pushes forward we need to bring his legs back by giving him some foot which that will hold his knees to the top so Nathan there's a pump bomb in here if you can pump that up in this boat it's thing called the Happy Feet which is an adjustable foot brace he's pumping up the air bladder which will move is his air bag all the way back until it keeps pushing his feet back and back and that'll hold his knees against the top all right now look this relaxed Nathan move your arm here now notice he's got contact in his leg from here all the way up to his knee and his knees also contacting the outside of the boat that allows them to have really good control he can lift the knee if he drops in edges and he doesn't fall to the side and he goes to roll he's got great contact and it's gonna be comfortable he's not gonna be falling out of the boat so we've got foot contact leg contact back and hips so now his great river running boat he's perfectly outfitted and he's ready to run the river cool thanks

Channel: Paddle Education

Views: 26,354

Rating: 4.8571429 out of 5

Keywords: kayak, paddle education, jackson kayak, how to kayak, how to boat, water, paddle, river, whitewater, eric jackson, whitewater kayaking, instruction, instruction kayak

Id: jlqSfOOZcEg

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 01 2014