Hi i was just wondering from anyone who surf kayaks how fun it is?? It looks so kewl!! Ive gone to my beach house and surfed numerous times with my project 52 but I'm thinking about purchasing a surf kayak. What boat do you think I should start with? I was also wondering what it is like and compared to using a playboat?

Yeah surf kayaking is amazing i think its the way foward for the sport. in regards to equipment i paddle a carbon mega fury and i think its great but it takes a long time to get used to and anything over 4 foot and you take an absolute beating trying to get out.
My mate just got a plastic neutron and its really comfy, he does not have much trouble getting out and it seems really fast and snappy, the only downside is it is quite heavy

Hi,

Surf kayaking is an awesome form of kayaking and has exploded over the last few years. Once you get into a surf specific kayak a whole new world opens up. There are surf kayakers now combining waveski, playboating, surf and squirt moves from big ariels to cart wheels the choice is yours. Not to mention it is super fast and loads of fun... Plastic means heavy, composite means light, for me if you can afford it get a composite surf kayak every time.

In terms of boat you can pretty much use anything however it takes a life of its own when you use a composite kayak. If you are in the UK contact me and maybe we can arrange to meet up at some surf and you can have a go in one.

You tend to sit higher in a surf kayak so at first they seem really tippy, but once you are on that wave..... wow..... Start by trying as many designs as possible checkout the build quality weight and performance, it is a steep learning curve but once you have licked it you will love it.

Good books are kayak surfing by Bill Mattos and Surf Kayaking: The essential guide by Simon Hammond.

Manufacturers in surf kayaks are now

Mega for plastic and composite www.surfkayaks.com

Valley for plastic and composite www.valleyseakayaks.com

Murky Water www.MurkyWaterKayak.com

where could i find a dealer in the USA?? Ive looked on the mega website and followed their dealers link but all of the dealers said they do not carry mega boats

Sorry about this, don't want to promote other boards as this one is great. But,

Try posting on www.paddlesurfersunited.com dedicated to surfing with a paddle.

You will be hard pushed to find any shop with one in stock, at the moment it is still a really small market and most composite surf kayaks are made to order by enthusiasts. If you get stuck let me know and I will see what I can find out for you.

Like Slaphappy said: I don't want to promote other boards over this one but also check out www.boatertalk.com/forum/surfzone.

It is basically the original forum the paddlesurfersunited forum spun off from after a certain member got banned because of poor netiquette so he just started his own forum. (for the record: BT Surfzone is the orignal one and actually has calmed down now).

Anyway, it can't hurt to look at the other forums but keep posting here as well. We need more coverage of kayaksurfing

i hope i don't state the obvious, but as an indea, you can also use the playak forum watch and search in it for 'surf' to have all surf specific postings in one list. and that covers the forums you guys mentioned as well:

playak.com/paddle-news.php?cat=Forums&lg=en&search=surf

Dealers are rare (new boats are generally purchased directly from the manufacturer), second hand surf boats are few and far between but if you can get one they are awesome.

Personally I am paddling a Mega Neutron (Composite) at the moment and am loving it. I have paddled quite a few composite surf boats and would have to say that at the moment Mega does seem to have the best designs, the only people I have heard contest this for a while is other manufactures and people that paddle / work for these manufacurers i.e. no unbiased paddles!

Mega boats are not imposable to get hold of oin the US but are not the easiest either, your best bet if you are interested in a Mega boat is to contact Malcolm at Mega and see if he can't help you.

Denzil

P.S. anything made of plastic does not compare to a composite surf craft (although the plastic Neutron does come fairly close)

It's like having a carving board for snowboarding... you can carve unlike any other, but give up freestyle moves and catching good air. You may just want to buy a surf board. Choose between kayak days and surf days... or bring both.

Erm, give up on catching good air? Check out www.surfkayaks.com/ and watch Darren Basson fly (just wait for the pictures of the tigerstriped surfkayak). That guy is higher up in the air than most freestyle boats..

You're right about the air thing but i don't think you can compare the two styles greatly - carving off the lip gets huge air but it is a different sort of energy to the way most freestyle boats get air. Each to their own i say.

Siddhartha wrote:
Cough cough....



Denzil

They may be slightly different as in the photos darren is using an aerial move to exit his ride!

But the principles of getting air are pretty similar you need to gain speed via carving and this is one of the best ways to get air borne river or sea sure you can bounce but its not as dynamic and personally i feel that you cant get the same air time or height but each to their own!

Yet again i surf kayak alot so butt bouncing seems very alien to me and there arent that many river features in the uk to let you do this regulary

Hi Urge, so your on this forum too.

I agree that the sequence shows an exit move but I chose this particular sequence to shoot down the quote \"...but give up freestyle moves and catching good air...\" as it shows great air and a freestylish move (a kickflip) just as an end move rather than a down river move. If I had a photo sequence of them I may have used one of James Hawkers huge pan ams or Chris Harveys Air Screws (airial barrel roll along the wave).

Essentially whatI amtrying to say is there are still plenty of way cool freestyle moves that you can pull in the surf (and often pull much biggher than you would on a river) and you can still get huge air.

Denzil

P.S. at the 2005 worl surf kayaking champs an American dude (afraid I can not remember who) managed to pull a phat Helix in a 3m Jester Cyclone! admitadly it was out of competition and would not have scored anyway (360's are not allowed in international class) but it was damn impressive.

The great thing is that any fairly decent paddler from either discipline can pick up the latter fairly easily as they are similar yet both still have a considerable difference.
I for one am a regular freestyle boater and i can't wait to get my hands on fluid's new surf boat to reach high speeds and pull off those awesome lip moves that i can't usually do in a regular playboat.

So who needs to give up anything...