Recently I bought a plastic mega maverick surf kayak, and i need advise from seasoned surfers as to how to 'tame' it.

The boats remarkable heavy, (i also have a liquid logic cr250 which isn't a small boat and that's featherweight compared), there's no hand holds or grips anywhere on the boat so its a nightmare to carry any great distance even ignoring its weight.
Launching if off a beach seems outrageously hard as either the fins dig into the sand and you become a beached whale or you get into it in deeper water and due to the cockpit, sitting on the back deck and sliding in results in the boat filling with water as the boats stern has little buoyancy ignoring incoming waves.
And finally the boats outfitting is remarkable uncomfortable, with my thighs burning and cramping up after 20 minutes, whilst I know the 'badass' outfitting in my LL is good, this can't be right.
Although saying this the boat is very fast and good on a wave if a little unstable.

Am I majorly missing something, does this type of boat require a trolley system to launch it into water. I'm not a weak guy but carrying it down the beach at mid tide, half exhausted me. I'm used to using playboats / various creekers and in some cases portaging them long distances, but this was something else.

Please Help it would be very much appreciated.

Harry

It seems like this kayak just isn't the right size for you, are the thigh braces adjustable? How tall are you, weight? Some kayaks require a trolley as they don't have handles - this is normal. The mega maverick has a veryy wide base, as its a surfing kayak and the more surface area the better it planes giving it an incredibly easy surf - at the same time it is going to be much more difficult to launch the kayak because the fins and also because it has a wide base, more surface area rubbing on the sand - causing more friction. It just seems like this kayak is just not user friendly - but from what i hear it surfs incredibly well - so in the end if you really like the surf, it's worth the hassle. As for the weight - that's just one more thing that isn't user friendly.

It's up to you to decide whether the weight and the problem with the side braces is worth it, if not i would suggest a different kayak.

From your post you've outlined 3 things: the kayak is too heavy, its hard to get into the water and you dislike the outfitting.

I can't help you with the weight, and it's up to you to try and fit the boat out to your body shape. As for getting in the water, it is often quite tricky to do this, it just takes practice. If you watch the shore line, every now and then you will get a wave that washes much further up the shore, and every now and then the water will recede a little further than usual. Generally it's a matter of getting in your kayak and waiting for one of the larger waves. Sometimes it can take 2-3 minutes, but it will usually come and wash under you and float you up.

The other alternative is to wait for the waves to recede a bit more and be very quick in getting your spraydeck on. This option works well when you get in quick, but if you don't make it in time, you'll end up with sand everywhere! Note: I paddle a playboat in the surf that doesn't have fins. Fins will make it a little more difficult, but the same principle applies. It's just about practice, there's a lot of little things like this that actually take a while to master when it comes to kayaking in the surf.

The other option is if there's other people around, just ask one of them if they can give you a push once you jump in. Most people are keen to help and actually quite fascinated with the small kayaks.