hi
i am fairly new to kayaking and am looking to sell my perception method and get a playboat. I was looking at the wavesport transformer as i can get one for about £300 and i was wondering wheter it is any good? also any other suggestions and if anyone has any used playboats for sale for around £300 in the south of england.
thanks

How heavy are you? And what size is the boat? T1/T2/T3/T4?

It's a nice hole boat, pretty slow on a wave. Not a bad river runner. Boat is slow but stable.. broad. I've squeezed into a T2 a couple of times.. And a T4 once. T4 is huge.

I would not recommend a Transformer.
Had a T3 a couple of years ago, the boat is very slow, very wide and just bulky.
If you are thinking about it seriously - make sure to go one size smaller then the weight range sujests. And do yourself a favor - demo the kayak. If you feel that it is too big and bulky - you will probably NOT change your mind or get used to it later.
Adrian is asking the right question - weight V size.
There are better boats out there... not sure about the price range though.
Good luck!
D

I would also not recomend it. It is hard to roll so it is bad for beginers, in addition it has a wierd feel to it. It only likes to be comletly verticle when cartwheeling. stay away from it

OK thanks for the opinions and as the boat is a T3 and im light i will stay away from it. I have not got a very good roll so i think i will stick with a boat that is better for begginners. thanks

What a great first playboat it was. I was able to throw blunts, backstabs, loops, cartwheels, freewheels, lean cleans, stern squirt and many more moves. It is a slow however it is a great beginers boat due to its stability and forgiving edges. It was also easy to roll. Now I'm in a Liquid Logic V56 (an amazing boat very fast but unforgiving due to its hard rails). The V56 is so fast that you must think two moves ahead or you run out of time. It also goes HUGE on waves. But as a beginer it would not have been a good boat, I would have learned much more slowly. So to make a long story short, the Transformer is a good beginner boat.

One thing which really was great about the Transformer is that it also made it easy to link combo. moves. It bounces well and is stable. I learned to do all the moves mentioned above in one season. Did I mention that I was also able to do all the moves in both directions. It's a great hole boat, but a bit slow on waves and it does run rivers well. I wouldn't pay more than $300 US dollars for it.

Make sure you check the screws along the cockpit rum for cracks. Wave Sport boats have a history of cracking along the seat bolts along the cockpit rim. Especailly the Transformer, EZG, and Kingpin.

Hope this helps,
Whitewaterules