Last Thursday a lowlife criminal scumbag stole 5 kayaks from the community racks at our neighborhood park on Lake Austin in Texas. He got two of mine -- a Scupper Pro and a Tarpon 100. Both were locked to the racks with Lasso kayak cable locks, but he used a bolt cutter and cut right through the cables.

He tried to sell two of the kayaks on Craigslist later the same day, so we know who it is. He lives in our neighborhood. The cops can't arrest him without catching him with the stolen boats, and right now we don't know where those are. We're about to take up a collection to offer a $500 reward for info that leads to his arrest and conviction. This guy is a well-known boat thief who stole jetskis as a teenager and hid them on a creek off the lake. That was 10 years ago, and he's probably spent half that decade in jail.

This is something of a plea to kayak manufacturers, any of those who are reading this. We need better ways to secure our boats. Whitewater boats often have security bars for safety, but all kayaks could use some way of attaching a serious security device. On the two sit-on-tops I lost, there's pretty much nothing to use to secure the boats to a rack. If I get them back, I'm going to have my local shop put a pipe fitting through the deck piece between the kayaker's feet so that I can run a hardened, thick chain through the sucker. Like one of these: www.bikebone.com/page/BBSC/PROD/5018L

There is only one thing that I hate more than a lier and that is a thief.

I wish you all the luck in the world on getting your boats back, and I really like your idea about the pipe running through the boat. I can't see any reason why it won't work. It's just a matter of welding it into the poly.

what a n*b! what about a solid bike lock? like this but directly onto the kayak.
www.bikesyoulike.co.uk/category/241/ULocks