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From: Matt Broze <mkayaks_at_oz.net> subject: Re: [Paddlewise] 1st Kayak for 6 yr old---AND---She Needed a Rudder Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 04:15:49 -0700 · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:23 PDT

  Joe P. wrote:
<SNIP>>>>  Since you're in South Jersey, there's a livery outfitter called
"Kayak
King" down there in the Pine Barrens who builds kayaks especially for
children.  They're not expensive, either.  Sorry, no phone number to hand
but it should be in the Yellow Pages somewhere....<<<<<<

Got this from a Google search:
Kayak King
PO Box 17
New Gretna, NJ 08224
(609) 296 8002

Had this in my database (and I'd gotten the info from Oct. 95 Sea Kayaker
magazine):

KAYAK KING INC:Don Bragg (Olympic gold medallist--note: pole vault 1960)
P.O.Box 171, New Gretna,  NJ  08244,  (800) 682-8002
 Kidwee (7-6) (fiberglass kid's kayak)   introduced before 1995
($249-says Oct.95 SKMag)  25" wide  90" long   cockpit 24" x 12"

I don't know which one is correct as the P.O. Box and Zip Code are both
slightly different (and I don't know yet which address is in error). I
suspect either phone number would work.

I agree with Scott, kids will find almost any kayak stable. Mine started in
a kid's Olympic trainer. A kayak that I once inadvertently capsized in calm
water even though I'd paddled Olympic kayaks far more often and managed to
never capsize one of those. My kids did just fine in the trainer. I think it
is good to have a kayak narrow enough to be able to lean at will and that
means a lightweight small paddler will need a kayak much narrower than a
larger person needs. Kids will also need a kayak much shorter and lower to
have much hope of turning it in even moderate winds. Learning balance and
bracing is probably a good thing for paddlers to learn and most likely they
won't learn that in an overly stable kayak.

This brings up the woman Dave Kruger says needed the rudder on the Pygmy
Osprey. Perhaps if she practiced in a safe place in those conditions she
would have learned, as Dave apparently has, how to handle that kayak without
a rudder. It didn't seem like she had much experience without a rudder in
difficult conditions previously. Often times a rudder addicted paddler
spends their time pushing harder on a fixed foot pedal trying to turn the
kayak when they can't get their rudder fix. A paddler in this fix needs to
unlearn ingrained habits before being able to learn to use the paddle and
body english to control the kayak. A paddler who never develops skill
without a rudder (because they don't practice without one in difficult
conditions) may someday find themselves in quite a fix when their rudder
breaks. The woman without the rudder at least had the sense to make the
crossing with skilled paddlers who knew a remedy to compensate for her lack
of skill. If she goes back to a rudder, and as a result doesn't develop the
paddling skills Dave has developed, hopefully she will always paddle with
somebody else who can help her out if the rudder breaks. Often when the
waves or wind make a paddler nervous they are unwilling to lean it to help
them turn (even if they have learned how this works and are practiced at it
in calmer conditions).

The paddler accustomed to a rudder tries a kayak without one and, at first,
can't control it in even mild or calm conditions. I've seen it happen many
times. Once the same paddler develops their skills and work up to more and
more difficult conditions there is no way they will go back to using a
rudder (even though they are still paddling the same kayak they could hardly
paddle earlier). The beginning paddler who starts without a rudder has an
easier time of it because they don't have any habits to break when learning
to PADDLE but then when later they try a kayak with a rudder they have
trouble controlling that kayak (with the rudder) at first. I think the
lesson of Dave's story isn't that rudders are necessarily valuable rather
the lesson is that you learn what you practice.

If I read Dave's story correctly the woman was having her bow blown down
wind. If that was the case, the water ballast should probably have been
moved to in front of her feet (or removed). If the 20 pounds of water was
behind her that may have been one cause of her problem. moving ballast
forward would not be the best move for traveling downwind but I get the
impression that the course the RUDDERERS set was across the wind and the
wind and waves were pushing the bow of her kayak down wind more than the
heavier stern. Was that the direction to the wind Dave? Towing is a good
technique here, however she might not have had as much of a problem if
someone else hadn't been setting the course or she wasn't so slavish about
trying to stay exactly on that same course at all times. Individual kayaks
usually have several angles to the wind where they balance easily on and
others in between them that are harder to maintain. A paddler should not
spend a lot of effort fighting to stay on a course when angles of less than
30 degrees or so off that course (in either direction) would be a lot easier
to maintain. Even those kayaks with a rudder (that may be able to force the
kayak on course by dragging the rudder along at a greater angle) might be
better served (efficiency wise) to find the courses the kayak itself
balances on (on each side of the desired course) and switch often between
them. The distance covered will be a little longer but the energy output
could still be less. This is a skill much like an experienced paddler uses
when she changes course in order to use the eddies near shore to move up
current when the novice is likely to remain (on course) out in the middle of
the channel and keep struggling against the stronger current.

I have friends who shipped their rudderless kayaks all the way to New
Zealand because they couldn't rent a kayak there that they wanted to paddle.
One of them learned what he could rent on his previous trip there (when,
incidentally, he met Alex).

I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Symposium testing 57 more kayaks and
still didn't get to all of them that were available  to me there (that I
hadn't paddled before). Friday afternoon and evening I spent measuring kayak
dimensions. This compulsion to try everything is getting out of hand!

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com

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