Hi All,

Can anyone kindly help with some advice. My wife any I would like to start out with a double surfski and are looking for the most stable boat, but with adjustable seating / paddle arrangement. We are used to a beginner K2, such as the Accord or Yetti, and quite often do the dice at the PMB drift. Any suggestions? Many thanks.

I don't have alot of time in the boat yet but I can certainly recommend the Custom Kayaks Apex. My wife and I just got one and are very pleased with it's design,performance, comfort and stability. It's well built and is very user friendly (easy to re-enter). The only other double I have seat time in is the Huki S2X and they are WORLDS apart both in stability and design. Others I'd look at would be the Fenn XT double.

Dave

You could also look at the Red 7 Surf 80 ski, which is very stable, very comfortable and has adjustable front and back buckets. Its a very fast ski on flat water and small downwind conditions, but suffers from being too flat when the conditions get a bit wilder, although you're not likely to encounter that problem on Camps Drift!

Just be careful about handing over your money upfront to Red 7... I had a bad experience with Peter Mote when I bought my ski and paid for it in advance. I waited absolutely ages for it and then when I finally got it he sent me a glass ski instead of the Kevlar one I'd paid for, and never reimbursed the difference which he agreed to do.

Can't comment on the Red 7 or the Huki, never paddled either. As far as I know, you can't even get a Red 7 in Canada, but I do know the Fenn xt double. Have paddled it in a variety of conditions and it was stellar. Boringly stable, yet fast and able to get on runs.

Story to go to the skis' credit. At one of our races a few weeks ago, one of our regulars brought his 8 year old daughter to race with him (she's a regular now).

While dad was working away in the front, she was sawing logs. She fell asleep in the back and stayed in. That is a stable ski.

Beg, borrow and steal the opportunity to paddle one if you can. Its worth it to try as many different ones as you can.

Sean

PS - To any parent who might think its not wise to sit in the front and not be able to see your kids. Don't worry - she was tied in with a leash. If she had fallen out while sleeping, he'd have felt the drag. Matt is strong, but not that strong. Good luck at the Mayor's Cup my friend!