Buy a kayak - a fantastic way to experience nature

a pretty important gadget…

Kayaking is a "quite" essential part when it comes to kayaking 😉 Choosing a kayak can be very simple, but can also be as difficult as it gets and a lifelong task... You can get started with paddling without spending a lot of money, but you can also shop wearing any amount of stuff. (Read How much does it cost to kayak).

Buy a kayak at Outdoorexperten or out north

The easiest thing - Buy a kayak and be satisfied

One way that you can apply when buying a kayak is to only buy the first best that is not extreme in any way, just long and wide. And then you paddle it and be satisfied for many years... If you want to, that is. In this way, you can get started quickly and you can think about the next kayak while you are paddling. Probably one of the most sensible ways to start kayaking and get started quickly. Gradually you figure out how and where you want to paddle and if/that you want a different type or another kayak! Read Buy the first kayak you see and start paddling.

Many kayaks in the "parking lot" at the Stockenträffen

Read everything and test paddle
Then you can make this kayak selection very difficult and it can take a long time. You can start by reading through all the technical specifications and thus try to find the right kayak.

The best way to find the right kayak is to try paddling as many different ones as possible, most sellers and renters can lend or rent kayaks for test paddling. In kayak clubs, at kayak meetings, you can often try out other people's kayaks. Preferably paddle both with and without packing if there is time and preferably in different wind and sea conditions. The more kayaks you paddle and the more you paddle, the more certain you become about what type of kayak you want and what type of paddling you want to do.

Most of the time, the first impression of a kayak is correct and lasts over time, but I still think it takes quite a few trips in a kayak, with different loads and different wind and wave conditions, before I manage to decide whether I really like it or not.

If you want to test paddle through all the possible kayaks out there, it will take a hell of a lot of time and probably cost a good penny, but it is, on the other hand, a pleasant pleasure!

Good resale value
One advantage of kayaks is that they drop quite a bit in price. So if you want to switch, you usually don't lose much financially by doing so. So you can buy a kayak, paddle with it one season and then change to the next without it costing you a shirt.

Buy where you are now!
Clearly the most sensible thing for the vast majority of people is to buy a kayak that matches where you are today. Which you feel stable and safe in. Don't buy a too rank kayak that you think you will master in a couple of years. It probably won't happen then 🙂 Better to buy a ranker or harder kayak in another way when you're there. After all, most people don't buy clothes that they think they'll be wearing in a couple of years 😉

Tips from others
On e.g. Facebook, the coffee table, the couple's dinner, utsidan.se etc. you can follow discussions about which is the best kayak and also read reviews of some kayaks. Some clubs have pages where members have said what they think of their kayaks (e.g. Tjörns Kayak Club). The advantage of this information is that it is from ordinary paddlers who have no financial interest in someone else buying just such a kayak. Information on certain manufacturer's/seller's pages should in some cases be taken with a (large) pinch of salt. It could be as simple as that they recommend a certain kayak just because they have the best margins on that particular model 🙁 or because they are the only one they sell.

One should certainly take information from other users with a large pinch of salt; many claim that their particular model is the best without having tried many others. And as you know, this applies not only to kayaks but to most things. You simply want to defend, and have your choice confirmed.

And just because a kayak fits me well doesn't mean it fits you well... Then there are a lot of people who just look at the price and think that the lower the price (or higher), the better it must be. That is quite rarely the case.

And on forums it is periodically certain that are heard the most, on the outside it is e.g. it is not uncommon for some keen paddlers to recommend everyone to paddle with wing paddles and exercise kayaks because it is "best". Or that some role & wave trolls claim that their particular kayak brand and model is the best, etc... The best thing is to try to get advice and tips from someone who thinks along the same lines as you and who uses the equipment much like you yourself imagined.

Spawn or rudder?
is a question that pops up on all kayak discussion forums at regular intervals. And to which you often get very definite answers, but unfortunately the answers are usually not consistent.
Whatever you choose, you can try yourself out; some cannot do without rudders, while others absolutely do not want one. I myself was completely convinced that rudders were a must when I bought my first kayak. Nowadays, I mostly paddle kayaks with adjustable bows and enjoy it just fine. But whether or not a kayak should have a rudder does not depend solely on the taste of the paddler, it is often the case that the kayak is designed to be paddled with a rudder or designed not to have a rudder.

On utsidan.se's forum, this is discussed with skædda or ruder quite often, sometimes some funny comments appear, e.g. "paddling a kayak with a rudder is like riding a bicycle with support wheels" or "kayaking without a rudder is like riding a bicycle without handlebars".

Chris Duff, who has paddled around Ireland, Great Britain, New Zealand's south island, etc., paddled the trip around New Zealand's south island (roughly 2500km) in a kayak without either a rudder or a paddle. And the conditions in which he paddled there are probably among the most difficult you can imagine, so with good technique and a good kayak you can go a long way without either rowing or getting hurt.
But it is clear; if you have to go far and/or want to move quickly, a rudder is good, then all the energy can be put into driving the kayak forward.

For my own part, I've probably started to give up a little on the rudder issue. With a wing paddle and/or in conditions with wind without waves it would have been nice now and then.

Sittbrunn
A cockpit opening is good to have so that you can get into the kayak, but how big should the opening be? Here you can find all variants from 40x40cm (extremely small) to 45x100cm (giant). The extremely small cockpit opening is of course more difficult to get in (and out of) than the huge one is.

The advantage of the large openings is precisely that it is easy to get in and out of the kayak and the advantage of the small openings is that once you are in place, you do not fall out so easily and it is also easier to make good contact with the kayak. Another advantage of a large cockpit is that you can then work more efficiently with your legs, one reason why exercise and competition kayaks usually have large cockpits. A big advantage of a small cockpit is that you can have the map or map case attached under the deck lines in front of the cockpit and see the map well without having to bend forward or pull the map backwards. The same can apply to the candy bag and/or the drinking bottle. With a small cockpit, it is often possible to have knees and legs both in the middle and out to the sides for nice variety.

Good contact with the kayak for hips, knees and feet is a big advantage (pretty much a must) if you want to learn to maneuver the kayak a little better and e.g. learn Eskimo turns and other slightly more advanced and fun paddling moves.

But there are also large cockpits where you can get good contact with the kayak to hold onto Eskimo turns and advanced manoeuvres. This also applies; try, test and try again to see what fits best.

Unfortunately, there are many kayaks that have a mid-sized cockpit where you become very locked in your sitting position. Can be good if the kayak is to be maneuvered and rolled a lot. But for most people, you spend more than 95% of the time paddling forward and then it's a bit of a shame to be locked in the frog position and not be able to vary. I think many people would have liked a really large cockpit opening where you can still hold on if necessary instead of the slightly silly neither-or cockpits a la keyholes.

Sizes
There are kayaks in all possible sizes and variations. Most 1-man kayaks are around 5 meters in length, but there are those that are only 4 meters and there are those that are just over 6 meters.

The width can also vary considerably; most have a width of around 55cm, but everything between just under 50cm and upwards of 70cm is available.

Then kayaks can be more or less high as well. The higher they are, the more wind they catch and the more pack volume they have.

How big a kayak you should have is also something you should decide. Should you only paddle shorter day trips alt. weekend trips, there is no reason to get a kayak with a gigantic pack volume. I usually find it more fun with a slightly smaller kayak because it is easier to handle both in the water and on land.

Many (most) buy a kayak that will handle multi-week trips and then you are only out on a single overnight trip; the rest of the time you are dragging around lots of empty volume that you have no use for. And it is the case that all that volume that you fill with good-to-have items suddenly becomes quite heavy to paddle around with and makes the easy-to-maneuver kayak significantly more difficult to maneuver...

It has also become quite popular with Greenland kayaks or kayaks that are very low and have very low volume. Really fun to roll with and also works okay for regular paddling. However, quite uncomfortable for most people and it's not very nice to be wet around the waist all the time. Although as a second or third play kayak, they are not completely wrong 😉

Stability
Two things that come into play when it comes to a kayak's stability are the hull shape and the width. Most people, both beginners and experienced, generally like a stable kayak that makes you feel safe both on flat water and waves. In a stable kayak, you can drop the paddle, take out the camera and binoculars without any problems. I think it feels good to have a kayak that feels reasonably stable even with little (mostly no) packing because I often paddle with only day trip packing. Having to ballast your kayak every time you go out without a pack seems completely crazy to me, but there are some who do it and think it makes sense...

Seat & contact
It is very important that you sit well in your kayak. The idea is that you should be able to paddle for many hours without having to feel pain in your body. However, most seats can be fixed with sleeping mats and foam material to fit perfectly. Buying the first best kayak that fits you well can be a good move. Fixing good support and contact, if you want, is usually also possible with sleeping mats, foam or something else.

The knees can be a bit more difficult to fix if you have too large a cockpit, but you can put your own "wings" there.

The footrest can be a bit difficult to fix yourself, especially if the kayak has a rudder, but here too most things can be arranged. On kayaks without rudders, you often have footrests just outside the side of the hull (keepers) and have to sit a bit like a frog with your legs, but there are other variants, in most exercise kayaks you have good footrests in the middle of the kayak. It is important that the foot support is substantial and does not fail in order to achieve as efficient a paddling technique as possible.

Bulkheads and Hatches
Most kayaks that are manufactured/engineered for use in the sea have waterproof bulkheads and hatches. If you tip over and have to get out of the kayak, only the cockpit gets filled with water. This makes it much easier to drain the water that comes in compared to when the whole kayak is completely open forward and aft from the cockpit. It usually feels much safer to paddle a kayak with waterproof bulkheads than one without.

I myself find it difficult to pack a kayak without bulkheads and hatches. It is much easier & more convenient to pack through gaps in the deck, but it is certainly a matter of habit.

Some kayaks have a bulkhead, which is usually a small watertight space just behind the cockpit that is packed through a small hatch. It is possible to access the content while travelling, at least if there is not too much sea going on. When you are out on a shorter trip (day trip), you can fit everything in the coffee cup; coffee, change of clothes, thermos, toilet spade, toilet paper, waterproof bag with wallet, mobile phone, etc. Everything is then still in the kayak even if the sea is higher or if you want to practice rolls or other things that make the kayak tilt in one direction or the other. Otherwise, with little packing in the kayak, it is easy for things to move around if they are in a large bulk.

A disadvantage of fika shots can be that you cannot pack the really big and heavy things closest to the cockpit and that the kayak becomes heavier and that you have an extra hatch that is in the way.

In recent years, it has become more common to have a coffee hatch both front and back, so a kayak can thus have four hatches. Can certainly be comfortable, but partly it looks shady, almost more hatches than decks on a kayak and of course it weighs more, is another hatch that can leak, etc.

How big gaps do you want then? This is also a matter of habit. We have most variants and you get used to it quite quickly. Coming from Canadians, of course you think all the hatches are small 🙂 It's convenient to have a large hatch for slightly larger items, but otherwise you can easily adjust the size of packing bags and more. An advantage of small hatches is that they may hold up better if there is a really big lake, but most of us are not out on the water then anyway.

All kayaks are compromises
But all kayaks have to compromise on something, there is no kayak that is optimal under all conditions. The optimum would clearly have been a kayak that is the best at everything; fast, easily manoeuvrable, extremely stable in direction, swallows enormously with packing, weighs practically nothing, takes no wind, easily surfed, easily rolled, etc... But it doesn't exist... yet 😉

From the book "Kayaker's little book of Wisdom" comes the following quote which I think is good: "There is no one tool for every job. The same applies to kayak designs”. In other words, you "need" several kayaks 😀

Material
Kayaks can be built in all kinds of materials, the most common if you buy a finished kayak is that it is made of fiberglass reinforced polyester plastic (usually called fiberglass kayak) or polyethylene plastic (usually called plastic kayak, sometimes by the nasty, bucket plastic kayaks). Polyethylene plastic kayaks are becoming more and more common and they are usually cheaper than fiberglass kayaks.

If you build yourself, you can build with wooden slats, foam slats or plywood covered with fiberglass fabric and epoxy or why not build as they did (and still do) in Greenland with a wooden skeleton covered with canvas.

If you build yourself, the cost will be lower as long as you don't count your own working hours. If you count your own working time, it will probably be considerably cheaper to buy a finished kayak. The big advantage of building yourself is that you can adapt the kayak exactly the way you want it and they usually turn out very nice, especially if you build with wooden slats or fine plywood.

Color
Some think the color doesn't matter and others think it's among the most important. Here, too, there are lots of opinions. For our own part, we like colored stuff, please finely colored (orange, green, and blue) of course. I think it's nice with clear colors overall and also the clear colors are visible well, which is good if you're not too secretive and don't want big boats on top of you. Some people think that you absolutely cannot have a kayak with a white deck because then you will be dazzled. Maybe so if you are very sensitive to light, but we have had 2-3 all-white kayaks that were paddled quite a lot and never thought of it as a problem. It's probably worse with reflections from the water and then there are sunglasses.

Diverse
For my part, I think it's incredibly fun to have a kayak that is easy to maneuver and that gives a good "payoff" when you tilt and edge the kayak.

But how a kayak should be in the end depends entirely on how it is to be used, if you are often out on really long trips with a lot of packing and have to paddle far every day then you should perhaps invest in a kayak with a gigantic volume, which is extremely directional stable, fast has rudder etc....

Also read How much does it cost to kayak.

I have posted some text about our kayaks here

Good reading about choosing a kayak can be found at Björn Thomasson where there is also a lot of other information about paddling, construction and paddling in general.

At Orust Kajak there is a page about "Different ways to build a kayak" which briefly covers different materials used for kayak building.

Links to kayak sellers, construction sites and other things can be found below links.

a pretty important gadget…

Buy a kayak at Outdoorexperten or out north

The easiest thing - Buy a kayak and be satisfied

Buy a kayak at out north