WAVEWALK KAYAKS

Once you get used to your W Kayak you’ll find that you’re likely to be out paddling it and fishing from it on windy days, when other kayakers and kayak fishermen prefer to stay at home or simply can’t use they kayaks because of ‘windage’ problems.

Thanks to its exceptional, ‘catamaran’ tracking capabilities the W kayak has less windage issues than traditional SIK and SOT kayaks, including sea kayaks. In addition, your ability to move fore and aft along the saddle as well as lean sideways give you effective means to counter affect the wind.

• Side Wind

You’ll be able to track well while a strong side wind is blowing once you’ve mastered the following things:
1. Position yourself in the middle of the cockpit (not in the back for this matter). In case of exceptionally strong side wind you can even position yourself a notch forward and by that let the stern ‘trail’ behind the bow. Generally speaking, you will find that your location along the saddle can help you in more than one way.
2. Lean into the wind, similarly to leaning into the turn – You can use the difference in the hulls’ height to act as a powerful ‘rudder’ that would help your W kayak track.
3. Apply the appropriate paddle stroke on each side of the kayak, that is use a weaker and regular style stroke on the side from which the wind is blowing, and a stronger, longer stroke on the lee side. By doing so you will compensate for the wind’s tendency to deviate your boat from its intended course.

• Head Wind

Interestingly, much of the headwind passes between the W hulls, and eddies have a lesser effect on it than they have on monohull kayaks that have broader hulls.

You can paddle against a strong head wind in the Riding position (recommended) or one of the Kneeling positions.
The more you lean forward the more power you’ll be able to apply in your paddling.
The paddle itself might become a mini ‘sail’ when a strong wind is blowing, therefore it is advised to keep the paddle at a low angle above the boat, regardless of the direction from which the wind is blowing.

It’s been a year since the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) exhibited a W Kayak in its Engineer It! exhibit.

The DMNS chose to exhibit the W Kayak to represent technical innovation in boat design.

You can pan through an online interactive view of the exhibit by clicking and dragging your mouse cursor on the frame (requires Apple QuickTime viewer)

The organizers of this exhibit reported that the visitors loved the boat.

I thought that event worth remembering since it was the first time the W concept was officially recognized.

Yoav



Although it’s still winter, which means that here in New England we can’t do much paddling or fishing, it’s nice to remember that in a few months we’ll be able to hop back into our W kayaks and ride them into the waves…

John Forney has a new web page where he presents his work in designing and building kayaks  and small boats. After this beautiful wooden W fishing kayak John’s next project is a skin-on-aluminum-frame W boat.

I went in the Intercoastal Waterway this weekend. Saturday morning was my first time on open water and I was very nervous. Just grabbing a fishing pole from the rod holder was scary. I ran across an oyster bed and scratched the hulls.

Sunday morning was much better. I felt pretty comfortable moving around the cockpit to grab fishing poles, cast, etc. I was actually able to stand up and paddle when I got close to shore and knew I could stand up if I fell.
My son was able to instantly balance on the W kayak.

You should have seen the looks I got from the nearby paddlers/fishermen. One guy actually approached me after I pulled my W out of the water and asked to look at it more closely.

Thanks again for all your help and advice. Everyone I meet who has any interest in paddling thinks my W is very interesting.

Here’s a photo of my son with his first speckled trout caught on a Wavewalk near Caladesi Island in Clearwater, Florida

Scott

What would a kayaking magazine have to say about this picture?

This picture represents a new paddle sport that’s beyond the experience and possibly even the expectation of the kayaking community, including the editors of kayaking magazines. Can any of the editors of those magazines seriously test a W Kayak if all they know is traditional kayaking?

In order to be able to form and express a valid opinion about the W Kayak these people would have to invest time in learning, and that’s something that some experts don’t necessarily like to do because they’d rather believe they already know everything worth knowing in their domain of expertise…

I think a (good) picture is worth a thousand words, even if those words are printed in a kayaking magazine.

Yoav

This video has been embedded in other kayak fishing blogs, so I thought it would be appropriate to have it in Wavewalk Kayaks’ blog as well.

It’s eclectic and fun to watch:

Yesterday I had a long conversation with a man who has built and designed fifteen small boats in recent years, including kayaks. He’s an avid fisherman too, and we naturally started talking about kayak fishing.
When the conversation got into details it became clear that although kayak fishing has grown tremendously in recent years the number of people who fish from kayaks is still very small in comparison to the number of people who fish from motorboats.

We easily agreed that sit-in kayaks, and recently SOT kayaks don’t provide a comfortable enough platform for fishing, and outriggers were an invitation for your fishing lines to get caught in them.

He found a funny way to summarize the situation, saying: -”Kayak fishing is a great idea with the wrong boat.”

Needless to say that we found it easy to agree that the W is the kind of boat that can take kayak fishing to the next level.

Yoav

It’s freezing here in Massachusetts, as it usually is this time of year, but it feels nice to get pictures from customers who take advantage of better weather in others parts of the country – whether they paddle of fish, or both.

This is a picture that Dennis sent me from Lake Bartlett, Arizona.

Dennis is planning to outfit his W Kayak and turn it into a high tech fishing machine.

Brandon, a W Kayak fisherman from Cape Cod landed this 37 inch, 30 lb striper off a beach in Chatham, MA, casting only 30 feet from shore.

-”I wish it was from my Wavewalk” he says

More on Brandon and his W Kayak: Brandon’s F2 -including pictures of fish he caught from it