He’d walked up to the right crowd with the wrong question: “What kayak should I buy?”
He might as well have wandered into a Turkish rug shop and asked what broadloom should he buy; or stood at the entrance to a county fall fair midway and screamed, “What game should I play?” Standing with me was a kayak company sales representative, a kayak instructor and a well-travelled wilderness guide.
Right question, wrong crowd
He had a pair of black Vuarnets hanging on a string, was wearing an alligator golf shirt, and carried a plastic bag stretching at the handles with travel brochures, catalogues, beef jerky and a pound of maple fudge stuffed inside. I knew this was going to be good, so I pulled up a piece of trade show carpet and sat down to enjoy the show.
“Well,” started the sales rep while the others waited their turn, “you’ll want a quality-built kayak. Buying a kayak is like buying family jewellery…you want Kevlar…and you’d be looking at $4,600….”
“Yes, but what about these…,” he tried before the instructor took over.
“You’ll want a boat that will perform all 45 fundamental strokes and 34 essential self rescues. You are familiar with the stirrup re-entry aren’t you?”
With a blank stare he looked my way. I shrugged. The instructor went on about outside tilt reducing the effective footprint and semi-hard chines versus more traditional “V” hulls.
By now his bag of shwag was on the floor at his ankles and he was leaning against a rack of paddles. Between nodding in uncomprehending agreement, he’d glance at his watch and catch glimpses of the hang gliding video playing in the next booth.
“Oh yes,” said the wilderness guide (it was his turn). “We used those boats exclusively when we headed up Belcher Channel on our circumnavigation of Devon Island six years ago. Talk about a well-behaved bow in confused seas—will you be coming to my slide show at four?” Not waiting for the answer, the three of them burst into debating the reintroduction of traditional kayak building to the Inuit peoples.
Right, but what kayak should you buy?
I was amazed this guy listened for so long. Despite the industry’s best attempts to baffle him with design jargon, exotic strokes and epic tales of misadventure, the appeal of kayaking was too strong. Winter gives us time to read enough to be experts and embellish our paddling stories, but guys like this are examples of what kayaking is really about, putting your butt in a seat and a paddle in your hand and getting on the water.
Finally he turned to me and asked again, “What kayak should I buy?” He was pointing to two recreational kayaks resting on the carpet beside us. I told him I thought the blue was nice.
“You’re right.” He pulled a gold card from the front right pocket of his khakis, grabbed a paddle from the rack he was leaning against and handed them to the sales rep, “Excuse me. I’ll take the blue one and this here paddle.”
This article was first published in the Early Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. The blue one looks nice. | Feature photo: Jamie McCaffrey/Flickr
Personal experience. I read all the reviews, did the weight/size/use calculations, annnd ….. bought the exact WRONG kayak. The point being, it doesn’t matter what you want – – you have to sit in it on the water!!!!!!!! Three (count em: three). kayaks later I have one Im happy with. The people that wrote the reviews could paddle the front door on a class VI run and write a review that confirms its the best ride for everybody from beginners to experts. ’nuff said.