Hey,
I am currently searching a new freestyle kayak. I'm sick of paddling my Wavesport Project 52, because after a half hour of paddling my feet start to hurt. There is just not enough footroom for me.
Now I'm trying to find a comfy playboat which fits me perfect. I tried the Jackson Allstar and loved it, but with this silly Happy Feet thing there was also not enough footroom for me. How much footroom is there without the Happy Feet System?
Unfortunately I wasn't able to try the Pyranha REV M-L or the Dagger Agent 6.2 any opinion on these boats? Are there other comy freestyle kayaks without too much volume?

Size: 180 cm
Weight: 78 kg
Feet: 45 / 11

cheers

You could get a Project 62, if you like your 52. Also, Jackson sells 2 sizes of happy feet, so if the large is currently in the boat, see if you can swap it at your local shop for a small. Also, you may want to wait until next season and get a LL Biscuit. There are so many playboats out there that I can't say that you should get a certain model, but look at Jackson/LL/Fluid/Pyranha because they have fairly strong plastic. Dagger and WS both are owned by Confluence Watersports, and many people complain about soft plastic. however, Prijon, which has some of the best plastic in the market, has only 2 playboats, the smallest coming in at 7' 8". Have you looked at a LL Ronin 59? most of your local paddling shops will have these on sale because they are discontinuing it at the end of this year. In other words, the best way to find a kayak is demoing and looking for sales since it is already nearing the end of the paddling season.

hey bud, check out my thread on outfitting the p52.. might help your feet situation..

Also, I've been in the Dagger Agent.. a TON of foot room you'd love it!!

In my older All Star (06) I use a small happy feet for river running and a large happy feet for playboating.
In my Super Star 2008 I use an extra large happy feet.
I am about the same size as you. You should fit an 2008 All Star with no problems espicaly with a small happy feet.

I couldn't fit into the Jackson All-Star when I first bought it with how the happy feet is. I had to re-arrange it for my feet. I'm about 6ft and have large size 12 feet. Once you move it around there's PLENTY of room. The way I have it is so that my feet go really far up the front, and the bag pretty much wraps around my feet. I had to blow it up first and use my hands a bit to move most of the beans out of the way then jump in and put my feet into the hollow bits I made with my hands. It is very comfortable and if I wanted, I could push my feet to the very bow and just have the happy feet around them making them comfy (i.e. you won't get any extra room without the foot bag, and its very comfortable for your feet with it there).

Having said that, I still get numb legs after not a long time in the all-star. I'm convinced that the issue is that the end of the seat is pushing my hamstring area near my butt. The kayak is comfy, but I think just gravity when my legs are relaxed causes this. I've also read/heard/been told that it's the NERVE being pushed on, not the blood veins. I'm going to try the happy seat/thruster thing. I believe that the soft cushion of the happy seat will push up from beneath my legs and this should stop my legs going numb.

I think you just need to spend time outfitting your kayak for you, instead of investing in a new kayak. If you look at the star series and the project series side by side, the design of the kayak is very similar anyway. It's mainly the outfitting that's different, so just spend some time setting it up for you. Or maybe try something like the happy seat under your legs if you're having the same problem as me?

Good luck!

Pishk wrote:

The way I have it is so that my feet go really far up the front, and the bag pretty much wraps around my feet.

Is that safe? also, try taking out the happy feet and replacing it with minicell foam. that should make it comfortable and more customizable.

It's perfectly safe. There's still footbag in front of my feet, and around it. Also because the bag forms around your feet, I have a lot more of my foot's surface area in contact with the bag, which means if I hit a rock or something there's a lot more padding.

Maybe you got the wrong idea about what I said, but it's quite comfortable and safe. Much more than any foam would be, unless you can shape it perfectly like the foot bag to go in front of and around your feet for maximum support.

All I meant was that you can shape the bag however you want, and removing it will not give you more room. Because if you fit without it, you just have to make it so your feet are in the same spot with it in, and the beans are in the other area's, which is quite easy to do.

The biggest reason for feet falling asleep in a kayak is that your legs are angled fairly straight. so what you are doing is pinching your nerves as you are stretching them, a lot of pressure on your butt as well, were you pinch the nerves as well. To relieve this what you need to do is purchase some angled foam blocks, or a foam seat pad (in which you cut off the back end half), and you place the foam at the front of the seat under your legs to force your legs up, bending your knees and relieving that pressure that causes your feet to fall asleep.

If your feet fell asleep in a JK boat, then what you do is inflate some air into your sweet cheeks, then shove all the foam beads inside to the front of the seat, suck out the air, then you get the same wedge effect. You could also purchase something like the JK happy seat, which is a bag that goes under your hamstrings and once inflated will push your knees into your knee pads, and thus relieving that painful pressure as well.

Good luck with your boat choice, all good ones.

you could try a Bliss-stick rad 185 or 195 woul be pretty comfy

I am paddling a Pyranha 4-twenty M/L, its super comfortable for me (193cm, size 45, 80kg)!

_Danger_ wrote:

If your feet fell asleep in a JK boat, then what you do is inflate some air into your sweet cheeks, then shove all the foam beads inside to the front of the seat, suck out the air, then you get the same wedge effect.

I tried lots of different ways to shape the seat. Especially pushing more beans up the front and middle to make sort of a 'crotch block'. But in the end, nothing worked. The more of a peak you make with the beads, the more pressure on them and after a short while they get flattened out. Putting some foam under the sweet cheeks might be a good idea though. I'm going to try something like their happy seat to push up from under the thighs.

yea it's funny, my feet fell asleep in every boat I've paddled and even in my JK 4Fun .. But, I did the foam block thing to my current boat and no problems and super comfy