The Right Kayak for You

A couple of weeks ago, I had my first weekend where I did guiding/instruction for LL Bean's Walk On Adventures out of the Columbia store. These are introductions to kayaking where the participants are outfitted with PDFs, paddles, some instruction and put into recreational boats to take out on Centennial Lake. I really enjoy doing this, as I've gotten to see a few people really get hooked on kayaking. That weekend we had one such individual.

From what my co-guide told me, she was there on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed her time in a kayak. She had recently bought one from the store on a whim and wanted to get some instruction before going out on her own. I worked on Sunday and the co-guide told me that she promised she'd be back the next day. Sure enough, she was on the bus and this time she brought a friend. Down at the lake, she asked to be put into the boat that she'd purchased instead of us assigning a boat to her. I was happy to oblige and pulled that specific kayak for her.

We got everyone launched and soon were underway to our first rest stop. She told us later, almost immediately she could feel the difference between the boats. The one she was in the night before had better tracking and glide - the one she was in, not so much. She was peppering the other guide with questions through-out the 1st half of the paddle. For the 2nd half, she and I paired up and she was peppering me with questions - why does it feel so different? is it her? is it the boat? She explained that she was fairly athletic and wanted a boat that would compliment her. I told her that we didn't have any talking boats, but I figured I understood what she meant. We talked a bit more and the end of it came to - she was in the wrong boat for her. It doesn't seem like much, but a 12' boat is a huge change over a 10' boat. And the hull shapes are tremendously different. I felt guilty telling her it was so - but, at the end of the day, it was the right answer for her.

On Sundays, we have 2 sessions - one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Guess who we were surprised to see step off the bus for the afternoon session. Yep, Miss "I bought the wrong boat". We chuckled and asked what she was doing. She explained that on Saturday, she tried an Old Town Dirigo 12. And on Sunday morning, we talked about the differences between it and the Wilderness Systems Pungo 12. (As a side note, on land - I actually flipped the boats over so they could see the differences in hull shapes.) So... now, naturally, she wanted to try out the Pungo 12.

It was quite interesting to see. By the time we got to our first rest stop, she decided that she was definitely returning the other boat. By the 2nd rest stop, she decided that she liked the Pungo over the Dirigo.

It was a rewarding day that we were able to expand on her skills a bit and was able to help her hone in on a boat that was a good fit for her.