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| Woodmill Activity Centre & Canoe Shop |
Today a friend of mine with only a little experience in short white water boats, had his first time in a full sea kayak. I volunteered my boat for him to use as he wanted to try a boat with and without a rudder. I hired a boat from
Woodmill Canoe Shop (link here), it was a yellow P&H Scorpio and they cheerfully offered me a choice of demo paddles including several made by Werner. I think the half day charge of twenty pounds is very reasonable for close to two thousand pounds worth of boat and paddle! I am not affiliated with the canoe shop in anyway and am happy to recommend them to anyone. They have a large fleet of demo boats and demo paddles and will let you have a short trial (10 or 15 minutes) for free or you can hire a boat for longer. They can be found at the tidal limit of the River Itchen near Southampton and have enough water to paddle for about 2.5 hours either side of HW Portsmouth depending upon whether its springs or neaps.
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| Today's selection of paddles |
We swapped paddles during the session and it was really good to be able to compare them back to back. The yellow paddle above is a fibreglass Aqua-Bound Manta Ray 215 cm; the red one is a Werner Camano 220 cm and the wooden one is my homemade Greenland paddle 225 cm. Not surprisingly the Manta Ray with the largest blade felt most "planted" in the water, then the Camano with the Greenland being the least "solid" at insertion into the water. They all felt about the same effort while cruising. It was surprising how noticeable the weight difference was between the Manta Ray at 1180 grams and the other two both weighing about 800 grams. I didn't have a set of scales to weigh the Camano, the Werner website quotes the weight as 780 grams for a straight shaft Werner, but doesn't give the length or whether that is 1, 2 or 4 piece. I'm inclined to believe 780 grams is the weight for a 1 piece 205 cm straight shaft, as the 220 cm 2 piece I used today did not feel lighter than my Greenland paddle. The difference in feel was immense, none felt better or worse, just different.
My friend found the Kodiak more stable than the short boats he has used in a pool, which I think were Dagger RPMs. Just out of interest he is about 6'1" and 13 stone 7 (189 lbs, 86 kg), the Kodiak was otherwise empty. He didn't have any scary moments and despite practicing edging and sculling draws, no low braces were needed. Stability is subjective, would I recommend the Kodiak for any novice - absolutely not, but it is appropriate for some. After an hour of paddling without the rudder his response to using it first time was "That feels like cheating". In my opinion, the Kodiak unloaded, needs a rudder when the wind gets above force 5. It is definitely more of a mile eating machine using the rudder in any wind strength.
