Thanks for your comments Fernando, I wrote: > >... buy a boat with low volume stern and sharp chines. Anything else is a > waste > > of time in the surf, and your learning potential will be severely limited. > Fernando wrote: > Sorry Kevin, I disagree on this. Wayne is looking for a kayak he can learn > to > surf with, not a kayak that surfs by itself. These kayaks you suggest are > surfing machines with flat ends, good starting point from where to learn > enders, cartwheels, and all the difficult stuff. He´s not looking for a boat > to play 360's, but to run a wave safely, controlling speed, direction, and > capsizing. > > Even an RPM will be too different from any seakayak ! I'll insist on a > Dancer or any 2nd generation w.w. kayak. > > Just trying to help. Don't won't to start a flame here. > Well, I'm not flaming, but I will elaborate on my opinion expressed above. The basis of my assertion to go for a sharp, low volume stern in a whitewater kayak is thus: the skills used in whitewater boats are 100% identical to those used in sea kayaks. I'm talking about edging, forward strokes, sweep strokes, bracing, ruddering (with the paddle), and rolling. Did I leave anything out? But the advantage of a whitewater boat over a sea kayak is that the responsiveness of the boat to these strokes is much higher, thus giving the paddler better feedback on whether the skill was correctly executed. Even the venerable Dancer is much better than a sea kayak in terms of responsiveness in the surf. However, the sharp chined whitewater kayak is significantly more responsive even when compared to a Dancer. Thus the paddler will learn more about the finer points of edging, etc... The point is to learn those skills as fast as possible, so that they can then be translated to a sea kayak. The more responsive craft will speed the learning process. And having surfed dancers, pirouettes (the first sharp railed plastic boat), and everything else on up to the latest rodeo boats and hot-dog surf-only kayaks, I would say that buying a dancer would be a disservice towards the process of learning to surf. Having a low volume, sharp railed stern makes surfing ocean waves easier, because that reduces the tendency to broach, and allows for greater control on the wave through edging. In a dancer, all you can do is run straight down the face and then broach, in an RPM or better, you can carve across the face of the wave, thus learning more about edging, and waves. In fact, the RPM is probably the easiest boat to learn how to surf ever made. Happy paddling down south! Kevin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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