Hey there. i live in british columbia and want to start kayaking. i have rented rec/hybrid kayaks and gone on lake strolls but i want to get into play boating and going down some white water. creeks aswell.

what boat should i buy. i want a white water boat the shorter kind.

im 5-11 about 160 lbs

thanks. if anyone has one for sale and lives in my province dont be afraid to mention it

hi

I might be able to help here. Im just getting into kayaking again and ive gone through the same process of choosing a boat etc etc.

You said you want to do some playboating and some river running aswell, it sounds like you need an allrounder to me. The problem youve got is that if you buy an out and out playboat then ull struggle to paddle it any kind of distance, and if you buy a creeker you wont be able to do many playboat moves.

Im far from being an expert as like i said im just getting back into it myself. Im sure someone else can add to this. But the kind of boats you prob want to look at are:

Wavesport - EZG or fuse
Dagger - juice
jackson - fun
big dog - havoc
fluid - spice

If you go to your favourite store or online and look for the allround section most manufacturers have something to offer.

As for your height/weight you will have no trouble finding something to fit, your probably at the lower end of the medium ranges. But as anyone will tell you try as many boats as possible and make sure you are snug but comfortable, you have to sit in it allday so you dont want to get numb feet after 5 mins.

Im sure ive probably missed something.

hope this helps

matt

what about a dagger outlaw. i can get a dagger outlaw boat, helmet, paddle, sprayskirt and life jacket for 500

As long as all of the gear fits snug and the paddle is the right size, I would say go for it. The only problem with used gear is that especially for the skirt, if it is 2" too big, it will let water leak in. I would definitely see how old the gear is, see if the PFD is torn/faded or has compressed foam from improper storage, see if the helmet has ever taken a hard hit, and see if the gear was ever used in an ocean/pool, since salt/chlorine can make gear weaker.

check these reviews out:

www.paddling.net/Reviews/showReviews.html?prod=635

U will have to copy and paste because im not very computer literate and dont know how to make a link!

Also check out the reviews on playak, u'll find reviews under the boatsDB tab at the top of the page.

Looking at UK prices you can get an outlaw for £500, so if you can get gear + boat it sounds alright to me.

But check out what type of gear your getting. My personal philosophy not just with kayaking is "buy cheap, buy twice)!

As most people have said to me just demo everything you can and keep your options open because different people get on with different boats

good luck

matt

You see i told you some1 who knows what there talking about would comment.

haha cheers cj

I know its not the outlaw that you gents are talking about.
In my opinion the best all round kayak outhere is the Fluid Spice. for your size I would say the medium should be good. There are various other "all round" yaks available but I have not paddled one yet that has the same winning combination of length and volume. The spice really is the best of both worlds. Enough volume and length to happily run some solid rivers (gr4 stuff) and plays well.
Other kayak that I did very well as river runner and playboat was the Wavesport X, this is a bit of an old design but I had many years of good paddling with mine back in the day when they came out.
I use a large spice for all my river running and creeking (not a big fan of the round creek yaks available)

either way hope you get sorted and enjoy paddling

thanks for all your replies! im taking whatever comes pretty much. i have to buy used i dont have the money to buy new.

what are your opinions on a prijon machine or a pyrannah inazone

ah the pyranha inazone, i had one for a while a 232 i think it was. The biggest problem was my dead feet. No matter what i did, or how i outfitted the thing i had numb feet after a while. Im 6ft 3in and 16st. But saying that it served me well, i learned to roll in it no problem. it handles well, is quite forgiving but its quite long so your not gonna be able to do much in the way of tricks. That was about 6yrs ago mind, dont know if they still make them or if they had a new design since i had 1.

cant comment on the prijon thou im afraid.

Overall like everyone has said just get something that feels comfortable and if its 2nd hand make sure its not been battered. check for deep scratches and gouges and check the ends for cracks and repairs as these are the most likely point of impact.