Our first stop at ICAST 2018 was the Hobie booth where Keeton Eoff showed off one of the best recent innovations. Fishfinder is a valuable tool but the transducer mounted on the bottom of the kayak is in danger of damage. The Guardian transducer shield protects the transducer puck from damage. When the transducer strikes bottom, the spring-loaded plate in the bottom of the kayak retracts preventing damage. To land and launch the kayak, pull a cord in the cockpit to manually retract the transducer.
Instead of redesigning transducer scuppers as pucks grow larger, they chose to approach the problem from another angle. Pushing the Guardian makes it move easily and pop back into place once the obstruction is cleared. Hobie designed the shield to accommodate the largest side-view transducers from any maker. The Guardian will be available on ProAngler models but we expect to see similar ideas trickle through other manufacturers.
