So lack of wind has once again left me scrambling for other ways to get a salt fix. Apologies for the whingey tone of this post!

I find my current kayak too big and heavy to load and launch by myself, so am keen to get something smaller and lighter. With work, I find it really hard to find the time to telephone shops for advice during business hours. I've emailed a number of shops over the last few months seeking advice on a new kayak. I reckon I've had about a 10% reply rate. I do the same with windsurfing shops and find the reply rate is slightly better at around 50%. PLEASE - if you don't want to provide customer service by email, DON'T HAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS

With not much luck from paddling shops, thought I would check out sea kayak forums for advice. I think I've seen Laurie say before that there is no Paddling Forum on SB because there's already plenty elsewhere. Bit of googling and I came up with http://www.seakayakforum.com. Seems to be some good posts on there. Tried to register. Form reports errors telling me two fields are incomplete when they are definitely not incomplete. Cannot for the life of me see what I am doing wrong. Try to contact the site for help. Cannot find anywhere on the site that allows me to make contact with anyone including admin until I am registered. ARGH!!!!

I'm not sure if there are any paddlers on SB anymore, but can anyone pretty please recommend a good sea kayak forum for advice?? Or any other good sources of advice for sea kayaking?

My teeny exposure to another forum was a big reminder of just how awesome and user-friendly SB is. Thank you!!

Thanks Doc . I have a Dagger Apostle. It's 17' and 32-ish kg. I find I don't get out as much as I should cos of all the hassle loading and launching. You're right about the size having its advantages though. I guess that's what I'm curious about - can I go lighter and smaller without losing much capability? I still dream of doing some 2-3 day trips and would like to stick with something that can handle a bit of sea.

Thanks so much Wollemi. I have been thinking about a Mirage. How delicate are the kevlar kayaks? Could they potentially be damaged just from routine loading, launching and paddling in ocean waters? Or as long as you're a bit careful should they be okay?

I lost a dozen lures and totally spooled two rods a few weeks before christmas trying to land some long tail tuna from my kayak, the school hung around for three or so hours. they hit hard and then just run run run,

I've caught GT's, mackerel and barra all close to the metre mark from my kayak, but none of those compared to how hard or fast these tuna were striking.

y' know when you see a school of bait fish all break the surface at once...
that's what these tuna were doing, dozens at a time and somewhere around 40kg each

the only state theDoctor lives in is general disarray

and maybe total confusion

and possibly denial (though I've never been to egypt)

The Stealth and the Hobie both look awesome. Fishing kayaks have sure come a long way since my days of bream spinning in a little plastic Perception with zero features. I Googled the Doc's Hobie and think I just need to man up!! In a womanly kind of way. They make tug boats that are lighter than that thing!

this is my kayak rack with room for one more

theDoctor said...

this is my kayak rack with room for one more

And here I was thinking your only recreational pursuit was being a stalker.