If I were to dive out of a kayak in a serious boat that could handle ocean conditions and paddle efficiently, I'd look at Kazkasi kayaks out of S. Africa and imported to Florida. http://kaskazi.co.za/kayaks/index.shtml They make a number of fiberglass SOT's. including a diving/fishing one called Dorado II which has a tank well and a large storage compartment accessed by a hatch located between the lower legs. It is just under 16ft. and about 25in wide. Another promising boat is Paddleyak's Kingfisher. I looks good with a fine entry topped by a mild bow foil, a bit like a lifeguard spec surfski. Wouldn't you know it's another S. African boat. The back has a well designed to fit a cooler or fishing crate, so it may not be good for diving tanks. There are very few fiberglass SOTs outside of surfskis. Hop-on-Top turned into Heritage Kayaks, which I believe was later sold. They discontinued fiberglass kayaks, making a plastic version of their 16 ft. Nomad. They eventually dropped this model. We have the fiberglass Nomad which sits the paddler too high and has a rear hatch instead of a tank well. It's actually quite good in the ocean and surf as long as one is not in high winds. A plastic one to consider is RTM's Midway. RTM is a French company that bought the molds from Ocean Kayak who made the most popular fishing/diving SOT's for years. I have RTM's Disco which is a few inches shorter than the Midway and has a lot of rocker. I've taken it the ocean off Oregon and actually had no problem keeping up with people in longer British style fiberglass boats. It's a mystery to me how this can be so fast. The Midway has a different underwater profile with sharp rales rather than rounded with some V profiling. It's a little small to dive from, so I think the Midway would be better. Bill O'Brien Corvallis, OR On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 9:02 AM, Michael Orchard <mspadorchard_at_comcast.net>wrote: > Main point: > > Is there an ideal diving kayak. One that is light wt, has a seaworthy > hull, sit on top boat, efficient to paddle and move through the water, and > has space to store the usual judicious amount of necessary gear: tanks, wt > belts, regulator, an anchor system, bc device, etc. Plastic tub style > boats don't cut it... and are really not all that interesting, or fun to > paddle imho. > > Background of my interest: > > In the old days... ie early 70s, I used to dive with an inner tube, and > use one tank in a day, and mostly snorkeling to assure the best use of that > tank. > > I did come across two fellow divers who had fiberglass sots with all the > above, and were quite good in the water... but I have yet so see something > like that for sale anyway, esp now that I have an interest in buying such a > product. > > After eventually putting diving aside due to costs and time issue, I > eventually started paddling... ww, then sea kayaks... and now, esp since I > have two boys who are interested in diving... would like to find a way to > combine the two interests, and slowing getting my boys interesting in > paddling as they dive... since the have not gotten the bug of sea paddling. > I suspect a dual purpose boat would reallly snag them... and eventually > turn them into paddlers, while making diving more interesting to them, and > me. (I am not really all the interested in diving anymore.... but would do > it with my boys.) > > Thanks... > > Mike Orchard > Vancouver, Washington *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:55 PDT