I have some canoeing experience(3yrs). I was introduced to some white water kayaking over the weekend and I wanna give it a shot but don't know the difference between boats and styles. I have found two boats locally that are play boats one is an eskimo nano the other is a liquid logic airhead. I'm 5' 10" 200lbs my girlfriend is 5' 6" 135lbs we are interested in playing around and having fun with the boats but our local rivers have some distance between the playing spots, we can can get to some white water with in about an hours drive. I'll have my canoe for the leisure rides but don't wanna take fun out of the trip going from rapid to rapid down the river. I have done some kayaking in an old town otter. any help would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks
Kenneth Flippen

If your serious about playboating then i would say choose the airhead over the nano for starters im not all that familiar with the eskimo and quite frankly i dont know many people that paddle them. Liquid logic on the other hand is a great company with a great reputation. The airhead seems like the boat you are looking for cause it caters to the bigger paddler and you should be able to throw it around alot better than the longer more volume nano once you progress to that point. The only problem i can see with you getting the airhead is since you dont have alot of whitewater kayaking experience it may be a bit tricky for you at first to learn how to roll it. But once you do you will pretty much be able to roll anything out there. If your still looking for possible options as far a boats i would recommend you and girlfriend to look at jacksons because of the choices as far as sizes go you can get something that will fit perfect not something you have make deal with. They have a model called the fun which is what i paddle and its a playboat/ riverrunner so once you get to a wave or hole you can mess around in it but your not limited to only those features and they are extremely easy to roll and they are tough as hell because of the different type of plastic they use. Another great feature is they are a couple hundred dollars cheaper than most other manufactures. Hope this helps enjoy Happy Paddling

You may find the airhead at your weight to be a bit big to throw down. It has huge amounts of volume you would be better of with the Space Cadet or maybe a Ronin 59 which are very comfy and a nicer boat all together