I Need a Two Man Kayak, where should I look?

[Cacia]

My son and his best friend are at that funny age....too young to drive, they take the bus and go to the gym and football practice.

They want a kayak to fish from and I will put it on the boat at Kona Brewery. The idea is they can go down there and paddle around the marina, go to Cha Cha Chas...tie up, etc.

should I rent one for a week to see if they use it....or buy a used one, or what?

Who rents them anyway?

I think Costco just has the one man.

 

[onfloat]

You can rent them from the base at MWR by the scuba shop. If remember right it was $4 an hour.

 

[VBlueV]

the NEX has 'em sometimes.. $350ish..
and sports authority too for a bit more..

 

[redrover]

Catherine I suggest doing a bit of renting first if they don’t know about kayaking – if they’ll want to stick with it. Some people think paddling is a lot of work.
There are different kinds of kayaks too – kinda like cars made for hauling kids, driving the Autobahn and off road. This site has some really great info I thought. I haven’t seen a CostCo I’d get for diving yet (I keep looking.) And they are very expensive to ship from the mainland, too big. I couldn’t even get one tossed onto a pallet of ocean freight, sigh.
If you can find a decent shape used one of the kinds this site favors I would go for it though if they were pretty eager. Here Kona Boys sells their rentals periodically.

Personally I prefer one man, really like kayaking. Do these guys canoe Paddle? (It’s a really big thing on this island.) It’s different stroking but the work effort is similar – you get out of it what you put in to it.

 

[chepar]

I'm not a real experienced kayaker, but I would rent first to see if they'll want to stick with it, as mentioned before.

I like the one man kayaks too - I hate being on a 2 person kayak and figuring out that I'm the only person paddling. :shakehead

 

[Cacia]

I hate being on a 2 person kayak and figuring out that I'm the only person paddling.

sounds like you have been out with me!

Thanks lisa for the scoop. so, maybe two one man kayaks would be better....

I don't need to dive off it, it's just so they can tool around inside the rather large waterways in HK.

 

[OHGoDive]

In general, you will probably be happier with 2 singles, rather than 1 double. One of the nicer features of ocean kayaks is their gracefulness, quickness and ease of paddling. You lose virtually all of those features in a double. They are akin to paddling an RV through the water. No one will be happy paddling a double by themselves.

Plus, 2 man kayaks are heavy. Real heavy. In a sea kayak, rotomolded plastic singles are just about the upper limit of what one person can reasonably manage alone (about 60 lbs). Kevlar and fiberglass are much lighter, but more delicate and dramatically much more expensive.

You can raft up 2 singles and make a very stable platform for fishing, etc. Two singles together are probably more visible to other, larger traffic than one double. (If they stay in the same vicinity).

Plus, with 2 boats, if one person has trouble, the other can still assist. Getting back into a kayak in open water can be tricky for the experienced (and viturally impossible for the inexperienced), and it is much easier when another boat is there to assist.

If you can rent decent equipment, go that route first. Kayaking is great, they'll love it.

 

[Cacia]

great advice.

two singles will be less awkward at the slip maybe. I want to lay them on the boat so they can just plop them in the water and I won't have to be part of the plan, with a car.

I will make them wear ski vests for awhile, probably. They have the judgement of 14 year old boys. Inside the bridge its calm, the marina patrol is around, yet there are lots of places to explore without being in the open ocean. He cannot dive due to ear tubes and all that....I am afraid he would lose more hearing.

They do like to fish.

BINGO, Alex of AAA diving just gave me his. he used it to get out to his boat, but has bought a tender with an engine.

it's a one man, from West Marine.

You can raft up 2 singles and make a very stable platform for fishing,

how? put something across them?

 

[redrover]

Yeah. I haven’t kayak fished but that site favors the fishing from comparable to diving from, a stability issue. Consider the playing of our size fish (than say those little rainbow trout.) It’s a delicate balance between stable enough and still reasonably steerable. The safest ones are like steering a dinner plate around (maddening, key word is a-round like in circles) vs the hull of a one man racing canoe flies (big rush) but needs the outrigger.

Two can stack by the way for storage and transport.

Check if paddles long enough to lash accross.

 

[Cacia]

they don't actually catch much

Jb told them "that's why its called fishin' and not catchin' "

Two can stack by the way for storage and transport.

Check if paddles long enough to lash accross.

okay, I get it...

he is giving me the long snap together double paddles, two sets.