[I'm new to this list, I'll give a proper introduction later.] My chief paddling companion is my wife, who is barely five feet tall. She also lacks wide hips and finds most boats not for her size. I have had her try a few fiberglass hulls, such as the Pacific Water Sports Wigeon, and from what I've heard the Mariner Elan would be a good fit as well, but I've had my mind set on getting a folding boat for various reasons. I attended the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium with the hope of trying out some Feathercraft folding kayaks, but was fairly disappointed that even the K-Light was still a bit too big. The cockpit seemed to clear her elbows well enough but the foot pedals did not allow her to brace her knees near the cockpit of the boat too well. Having seen what people have done with foam and pads to create a proper fit was encouraging. It seemed to me adding velcro strips for removable hip pads might be a sufficient solution. It seems knee pads that weren't glued wouldn't be very strong. It seems like it'd be pretty much impossible to have her fit well in a kayak 25" wide like the K-Light, without having her bend her knees a whole lot. How much should a kayaker bend his knees? I usually have little more than a 20 degree bend, since my legs are quite long. One of the Feathercraft people said to just turn the foot brace around and it'd be okay, like they were afraid they really didn't have a boat for her size. And then I wonder if I should just give up on the whole idea and get a fiberglass boat and find a place to store it. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Sep 18 2000 - 18:06:36 PDT
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