Who has brought their folding kayak through surf over about 3 feet in height? What was your experience? Was your broach controllable? Anything break? Did you have to swim the boat in? Curious about the durability and perfomance of popular folders in surf 4 feet and up. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Dave Kruger wrote: >Who has brought their folding kayak through surf over about 3 feet in height? >What was your experience? >Was your broach controllable? >Anything break? >Did you have to swim the boat in? >Dave Kruger > Dave, I've landed through surf about 3m high (about 10ft) in Greece. I spent several days just playing in that surf, landing and going out again and again. The boat I was using was a Nautiraid Grand raid 520, 17ft boat. For those who don't know it, it's a folding double, usable as a single. It has big open cockpit like Klepper does, covered with a spraydeck which has a cockpit ring to fit the normal sprayskirt onto. I had no great problems to put in, just got the boat bow-on to the surf, jumped in and paddled like hell to get out of the zone. Landing was not difficult, but was "interesting" when trying to side-surf in, mind you, it was my first attempt at side surfing. The GR 520 is not the kind of boat you want for side-surfing. Landing bow first was possible (soft sand), but not a good idea, the surf pushing the stern sideways much too hard as soon as the bow touched sand. The best landings were stern first. The GR 520 with the rudder lifted will turn in it's own length, so it's quite easy to do a 180 degree turn on top of the last or last but one roller before hitting the beach. the second the stern touched, I'd jump out, grab the bow and lean my weight on it. The surf then pushed the boat up the beach, with me as sea anchor at the bow. Broaching was controllable and easy to get out of, if I was still a few yards from the shore, but the boat being very wide, I had to almost throw myself out of the boat to get the boat on it's side and do a sharp reverse sweep stroke at the same time. No breakages! Two very bruised thighs after a few hours playing. Playing rough, I suppose ;) Cheers, 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/ ***************************************************************************
Dave wrote: - >Who has brought their folding kayak through >surf over about 3 feet in height? G'Day Dave, Don't have much experience surfing in a Klepper but as there haven't been too many responses thought I'ld send in my recollections of several years back. - I started learning to surf in a Klepper, waves about 3 ft, - Broaching was OK but required a lot of strength and a strong paddle, the paddle vibrated as I held the broach - Surfing and turning around on non breaking waves about 4 to 5 ft was OK, better than a Mirage in similar conditions - During the learning process I trashed the Klepper in front of a couple of amused lifeguards several times - nothing broke except my pride - when accidently full of water it seemed possible to paddle the Klepper backwards over waves more easily - Peter Rattenbury knows way more about surfing Kleppers than I do and I believe he prefers to swim in behind the Klepper in bigger surf but best ask Peter Rattenbury. All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** 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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