Winter is over, the Olympics have come and gone and South Africa is still the Rugby Champions of the World! All you need now to see the year out is a balmy day and a trusty kayak. Recent years have seen a proliferation of kayak types and getting into the action now can be quite a bewildering experience. In brief, here are your choices: CANOES. This is a generic term for all sorts of kayaks, but tend to refer to what many call Indian Canoes, open craft with wooden benches, used by fishermen, picnic-goers and river-runners. In South Africa, the UK and Australasia the term also refers to Olympic class racing kayaks: narrow lightweight craft used for sprinting and marathon races on rivers, lakes and dams. PLASTICS or PLASTIC PLAY BOATS: These are compact paddling craft used for fun and recreation. They can now be bought from most sport shops, departmental stores and online outlets. Plastics are being pumped out in their thousands currently and will become as common as beach umbrellas on the world’s beaches soon. Whilst fulfilling a need, they may create a recycling problem in years to come. SURFSKIS. These are narrow, less stable, one-dimensional paddling craft used for exercise and racing. Once limited to use by life-savers, they have become popular with the fast set. There are two trends currently: one is towards faster. sleeker and more expensive models, and the other towards more recreational ones, with even plastic versions appearing, effectively being surfskis in name only, but essentially becoming what is better described as sea-kayaks, which is another type of craft, offering more versatility. SEA-KAYAKS. These are the standard craft for kayaking at sea. They offer versatility, stability and are sea-worthy enough to take you on long journeys along the coastines of the world. They come in three types: sit-in, sit-on and a fusion or hybrid version, combining features of both sit-ons and sit-ins. PaddleYak Kayaks in South Africa won two national design awards for developing the latter type and to prove their use sponsored Riaan Manser’s circumnavigations of both Madagascar in the Tropics and Iceland in the Arctic Circle with such craft. NEW YAKS. Material advances and special needs from the burgeoning paddling fraternity have inspired designers to develop paddling craft which meet specific needs, specifically portability, transportability and packability. The challenge is on to produce more portable but still functional paddling craft, be they inflatable, skin-on-frame or sectional craft with nesting parts. Soonest available but less functional are budget, inflatable types from department stores. Leading the pack though in producing a functional new sit-on sea kayak with sectional parts which nest into each other is PaddleYak Kayaks with its TravelYak Split. Various sit-in and fold-up types are already available from select outlets worldwide, but the PY TravelYak, which has taken a decade to develop is set to become sought-after. The craft will become available from select agents only in South Africa, the UK, Europe, Australia and the US from 2025.
Novice and experienced paddlers wanting a change should consider where and how they are likely to paddle most often in future and invest in a type of kayak which will suit them best. Not all suppliers have or even know about all the options available, so make sure to speak to those with experience, like those at PaddleYak Kayaks, with over thirty years in the business and over fifty years of paddling in canoes, kayaks, waveskis, surfskis and sea-kayaks. Email info@seakayak.co.za or WhatsApp +27(0)825562520