Canoe / Kayak - what options?

[nobodyknows]

My 10.5yr old daughter keeps badgering me about kayaking, something I've never done & to be honest I don't even know the difference between a kayak & a canoe?

Also have a 7.5yr old son so looking for options on getting the three of us on the water without spending a fortune. I have a good sized garage so storage not a problem, until my 996 sells though I only have a Clio to transport things with, even with roof bars will this be big enough?

[davepoth]

Kayak is the closed one, canoe is the open one.

[moribund]

Clio would be fine for a couple of kayaks

Best thing to do is find a local club, chances are they'll be very welcoming and will have either come & try it session in a local pool or river. I'd not buy anything until they had some experience with club kit as there are a lot of disciplines and they need to find out what they like (white water stunts, river touring, slalom, sprint, surf etc - all using different boats)

Great sport though and lots of fun whatever they do

[moribund]

Good place to start: http://www.bcu.org.uk/clubs-i-centres/

[nobodyknows]

moribund said:

Good place to start: http://www.bcu.org.uk/clubs-i-centres/

Thats great, we have one in our home town so I'll start by contacting them.

Thanks for all the help

[anonymous-user]

there should be loads of places on the coast that do taster days, this might determine if its something that will catch on or just a fad.

like bikes, there is pretty much a kayak for every possible intended use. closed, sit-on, sea touring, river etc etc... have a look around here for a guide to prices as most quoted prices will be for the kayak itself and not paddles, bouyancy aids etc www.kayaksandpaddles.co.uk

we have a feelfree corona sit on kayak which is used for bimbling around the coast, i would love a full on sea tourer but time and space prohibits.

[Athlon]

We bought Ocean Kayak Frenzy's as multi purpose muck about jobbies, sit on top, super stable, happy on lakes or the sea and will take a good bashing and shrug it off.

They are not fast, nor are they super steering but I ain't doing white water rubber dinghy rapids stuff or huge surf so they fit the bill perfectly.

I thought it would be a bit boring to be honest but it is awesome fun and you get away from people, second time out we did a lap of Bala lake and I am far from fit! In fact you get a great sense of self satisfaction as your stroke improves and you realise you are actually making good headway.

Bigger surf next for me!

Edit to add that Frenzy's stack as well so transport is a breeze, I can throw them on top of the Mazda on my own with no hassle.

http://www.oceankayak.com/kayaks/single_kayaks/fre...

Edited by Athlon on Monday 15th August 18:28

[Ali_D]

davepoth said:

Kayak is the closed one, canoe is the open one.

Kayak is the sitting down one canoe is the kneeling one (even if it has seats!).

A canoe club is probably the way to go! Otherwise book a course to see if they like it - I was at Llangollen on the River Dee and they had taster courses for rafts & kayaks for ages 8+ on the white water.

[toxicated]

Hi

I bought a Sevylor Hudson

about 3 weeks ago and have been on rivers and mackerel fishing in the sea 8 times so far.

It's made of very tough fabric, takes me about 5 minutes to inflate, packs into a smallish bag and is huge fun. You'll find them for £300ish - try Decathlon. One of my best buys for keeping our 5 & 6 year old boys happy. The (just turned) 5 year old is able to paddle and turn it around himself so it's really easy to control.

Difference between canoe and kayak possible answer #33: kayak uses paddle with blades on each end, canoe is a single bladed paddle.