Paddle kayak for women

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Paddle kayak for women#2304920

By Ptslmbttx - Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:12 pm

- Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:12 pm #2304920

What’s the best kayak (size, make, model) for females? Do any of y’all ever have your wife go with?

Re: Paddle kayak for women#2304956

By Ron Mc - Mon Jun 29, 2020 9:22 am

- Mon Jun 29, 2020 9:22 am #2304956

My grown daughter flies in her Redfish 10, but it needs a skeg for wind control.

With the skeg addition it glides infinitely without windcock, even on strong broad-reaching wind.

Stable, wind slippery, turns on a dime (with the skeg retracted), rated 325-lb capacity, and total weight (with skeg) just under 50 lbs. A great river boat, and good in coast wind with the skeg addition.

Last edited by Ron Mc on Mon Jun 29, 2020 10:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Paddle kayak for women#2304961

By JW FunGuy - Mon Jun 29, 2020 10:33 am

- Mon Jun 29, 2020 10:33 am #2304961

Well my wife is sitting right here so I asked her. She actually bought a kayak from me in 1978 and we have been together and kayaking ever since. So I asked her what she thought was important.

She said for her first it was the paddle. It has to be comfortable in her hands. Not too big a diameter of a shaft, she likes an oval shaft (being a whitewater paddler she uses offset blades) and not too big of a blade. Weight is also important.

The boat is going to be a different set of variables. She prefers a fast boat over a stable one, so if you are looking for a boat she can stand up in that will rule that out for the most part. The lighter the better also. So bottom line is narrower is going to be faster, doesn’t require a long awkward paddle, lighter is going to be easier to paddle.
And the biggest help is just learning how to paddle efficiently, being able to keep the boat in a straight line as well as turning while paddling .
Hopefully we can get back to having demos so she can decide what feels good to her.

Re: Paddle kayak for women#2304963

By JW FunGuy - Mon Jun 29, 2020 11:07 am

- Mon Jun 29, 2020 11:07 am #2304963

Oh, she added something (surprise surprise) her preferred way to paddle is our tandem. (Actually it is a triple)

My next boat will probably be a Nu Canoe Frontier 12, it can be paddled tandem, for when she wants to go it paddles OK fast solo but s incredibly stable for standing and casting. Plus as I get older you can add a motor.