One of the most common questions on sea kayaking forums is “I want to buy a sea kayak, which one should I buy ?”.
This is actually a very difficult question to answer simply. Kayaks are not like cars where anyone within reason can drive any size of car. Proper control of a sea kayak is far, far easier if the kayak fits you and is designed for the weight of gear you usually carry. So to answer this question you really need to know, the persons height and weight, perhaps even their weight distribution as well as what type of paddling they like to do. Even shoe size can be an issue. Will it be long camping trips with lots of gear, or a quick training paddle a couple of times a week for an hour or two ? How good is their balance ? Do they have any previous paddling skills ?
Even knowing all this you can put two very similar people in a boat and have one of them love the way it feels and handles and the other hate it with a passion. You really can’t beat paddling a boat before you buy it. Ideally you should paddle the boat on the sea (with an instructor if necessary) to get an idea of how the boat handles. Sea kayaks are designed for the sea and behave very differently to flat water designs.
This really is a situation where you either need to get yourself into a club and take advantage of the experience of local paddlers and the wide range of boats available to try out or go to a good specialist kayak retailer who can give you the right advice.
If you buy something from a camping store or on ebay, you may be lucky and it will certainly get you out on the water, (and hopefully back again) but you will probably find that you end up with a steeper learning curve and possibly have to buy a different boat completely to get beyond the basics.
I've added a few pages to discuss some of the choices and features you'll find when shopping. Hope it helps.
