Re: [Paddlewise] Sea Kayaker Reviews

I like Sea Kayaker's basic review format and can't think of a whole lot
better way to do it to be fair to everyone involved than getting a variety
of opinions from a variety of experienced paddlers. I totally agree with
those who said you can't know a kayak unless you paddle it yourself. Even
after you paddle it you really can't know a kayak really well until you have
used it empty and loaded with gear in a wide variety of conditions. If we
could limit the reviewers to experts who have owned the kayak for several
years, paddle it a lot, but own several others too and are willing to tell
us all their niggling little frustrations with it (because they don't have
their ego invested in their recent purchase) that would be even better.
Unfortunately that would also be somewhere between impractical and
impossible. I have encouraged SK to use reviews by owners if possible but
also to make sure to tell the reader that that reviewer is also an owner.
Long term owners can be much more critical of the kayak than a short term
tester. New owners are still "blinded by the shine" (and maybe how much
better they like it than the kayak it replaced). If owner hasn't tested a
lot of other kayaks they also don't have much basis for comparison.
As for a kayak test Czar (even if it was me and had paddled over 500
different sea kayaks) I think at best that still only gives one kayaker's
opinion. A kayaker who is of only one size and has their own built in biases
of what they like and want a kayak to be able to do. Thanks for all the kind
words from those who would make me or trust me to be Czar, but I think that
would be a mistake. The manufactures aim their designs at a target audience,
why should they be criticized because I'm not a member of that targeted
group and can't relate well to them. I think it is important to have the
manufacturer say up front what their kayak model is all about and think
giving them a chance to respond to the review is both fair and gives Sea
Kayaker more leeway (with their advertisers) to be critical.
In the case of some plastic kayaks you can't know how it handles unless you
paddle the actual one you will buy. This is due to the large variability
that can exist even in the same model out of the same mold. Of course
because of this variability the actual kayak a reviewer reviewed may be
different than the one you buy (or the other reviewers tried in another part
of the country). I have seen huge differences in turning times on retesting
the same model (times I record when I test a kayak design). So much so in
one case that I called the designer and asked if he had changed the original
design from what I had tested years before to a much more rockered one. His
frustrated response: "No, ....they're ALL different.!"
I too can read between the lines in the kayak reviews. Some criticisms are
niggling little complaints and some are, in my mind, fatal flaws. My biggest
criticism of the Sea Kayaker reviews is that the reader is usually left to
figure out which is which. Expert SK review reader's can do that for
themselves (and may well disagree on what is important to them and what
isn't) but this doesn't help the new paddler when the "fatal flaw" gets one
sentence and is immediately followed by two or three sentences of favorable
comment on some relatively insignificant aspect. I'm not sure how to correct
this though because my "fatal flaws" might not bother you at all and
visa-versa.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com



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