According to the dictionary, we perceive something as being beautiful if it is attractive to us (e.g. a beautiful woman) or pleasant (e.g. a beautiful day), or pleasant to look at (e.g. a beautiful dress), or if it’s done or made very well (e.g. a beautiful goal in the second half), or with a lot of skill (e.g. a beautiful roast).
Beauty can be associated directly with sensory pleasure, or with indirect, social value related to monetary value, or prestige (e.g. a beautiful diamond), or with both.
In case of a product such as a kayak, the beauty we see in it is a measure of how much we appreciate its performance in terms of what’s important to us, subjectively, whether as something we’ve already experienced with this kayak, or something we believe we would experience, if we used it.

In this sense, the saying ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ is perfectly true.

What’s important?

What’s important in a product varies according to what different people are interested in. For example, if you’re into kayak racing, you’d be interested in kayaks that are as fast as possible, and very fast kayaks would seem beautiful to you, but if you’re into kayak fishing, you’d be interested a number of things, including stability, comfort, storage, etc. offered to you by that kayak. In other words, for a kayak angler, the beauty of a kayaks depends first and foremost on its fishability, which is a composite measure of a fishing kayak’s performance.

For example, if you’re into kayak fishing, and you saw a kayak that’s very fast but also very unstable, it would seem useless to you, and therefore unattractive.
Most anglers fish from motorboats and not from kayaks, mainly because they perceive kayaks as being too unstable and too uncomfortable for fishing.  Therefore, for the majority of anglers, a fishing kayak is just a too small, too uncomfortable and therefore unpractical and consequently ugly fishing boat.

Beauty and love

The more satisfied a kayak angler is with the performance of their fishing kayak, the more they see beauty in it, and in fact, some kayak anglers get to love their kayak, following the good experience they’ve had with it, and the good time they anticipate having with it in the future.

False beauty

Anyone who’s interested in fishing kayaks can see that the common fishing kayak is essentially just a chubbier, more accessorized, and sometimes fancier version of its ancestor the recreational kayak.

The common fishing kayak is very wide because of the desperate need to increase its stability, even at the cost of sacrificing both speed and tracking capability, and most importantly – taking away the pleasure of paddling from the person who paddles it. This is what kayak anglers refer to as ‘a barge to paddle’, and the reason why some touring and sea kayakers still won’t consider fishing kayaks as kayaks at all…

Too much is too little

The multitude of accessories is sometimes required to compensate for a fishing kayak’s deficient functionality. The perfect example is the rudder that most fishing kayaks are equipped with, and most kayak anglers hate, but they have to use it simply because without it their kayak wouldn’t go straight, due to its poor tracking capability. Another good example are the hatches – an uncomfortable, often dysfunctional solution to the critical problem of storage, or lack thereof…

In this context, it is easy to see why manufacturers who offer pedal driven kayaks are more successful in the market for fishing kayaks than in any other kayak market: Common fishing kayaks are so hard and unpleasant to paddle that a hyped, ill conceived solution is seen by some as better than nothing, at least until they realize they’re not necessarily better off pedaling…

When fancy becomes ridiculous

A product that is essentially lacking in performance, and therefore not  attractive enough, is a problem for its manufacturer, and they would attempt to increase its attractiveness by whatever means they have, even if such means present no advantage at all to the client. The typical example for this in fishing kayaks is increasing the amount of foam in the kayak’s seat, which cannot really solve the basic problem of the passenger pushing their lower back against the backrest with all the power their legs have. But extra foam may look more ‘ergonomic’ to some people, and if it’s promoted as being ergonomic, some people could get convinced to buy the kayak – until they realize that’s not what they had bargained for, and get tired of this game, go back to fishing from a motorboat, or switch to a W kayak.

Another common example of overdoing things is the form of the fishing kayaks themselves: Some kayaks feature very elaborate hulls, or decks, or both, as if the extra detail could improve anything as far as stability, speed and comfort are concerned. To the unprofessional or inexperienced viewer, such extra details could seem like an indicator that the kayak is more ‘advanced’, but the truth is that overdoing things can only diminish actual performance, by definition. In other words, nothing beats simple effectiveness in design.

Simple is beautiful

This is the simple truth in design, and it’s even more true in fishing kayaks, which are judged by their performance: A fishing kayak is a technical product that needs to deliver results in terms of what the angler can achieve with it, and how they feel while doing so, as well as after the fishing trip is over.

If a kayak allows you to launch or beach in a spot that another kayak doesn’t, it performs better, and therefore it’s more beautiful. If a kayak allows you to stay inside it for long hours, while no other kayak allows you to do that without inflicting discomfort and pain on you, that kayak performs better, and you’re going to like it more, and therefore see more beauty in it.

These examples come to show that it’s not the amount of time invested in designing or manufacturing a product that appeals to our sense of beauty, but it’s the real life performance of that product, and our own experience with it.  When we realize that in order to get a certain level of performance, the product needed to be made in a certain way, we appreciate the way it was done. And if the result was achieved by simple means, we tend to appreciate it even more.

Once people realize the advantage for themselves in a certain design, form, or feature, they see the beauty in it, and sometime even develop a warm feeling for it, a feeling called love.

Beauty and marketing

Being a technical product, the way to judge and evaluate a fishing kayak is by doing a feature by feature comparison, and preferably by validating the results of such comparison in a live test.

There is no fishing kayak, fishing kayak design, or concept that rivals the W kayak in any of the important requirements from a fishing kayak, which are Stability, Comfort, Ease of Paddling, Passenger Room, Storage Space, Versatility, Tracking, Handling, Mobility, and dollar for dollar Value. Value is not a technical feature, but in this case we’ve included it in the list because it represents certain technical attributes of W kayaks that reduce their cost of purchase and ownership, compared to other kayaks.

Years ago, Wavewalk’s competitors used to criticize its product by raising doubts about its actual performance, such as speed, comfort, tracking under wind, etc.  These doubts were based solely on imagination, and had no basis in anyone’s real life experience, and over the years,  as the evidence presented by Wavewalk improved, and more of its customers contributed positive reviews, this type of critic has subsided.

However, some competitors still say, occasionally, that W kayaks are ‘ugly’, and when such comments are made on online discussion forums, they are intended to create some kind of negative ‘peer pressure’ on kayak anglers who are interested in the W kayak. The problem with such tactic is that if a general and broad argument such as ‘ugly’ is brought forward without any substantial, technical evidence to back it, it sounds hollow, and basically meaningless. But if the ‘ugly’ argument is backed by a specific, technical argument, the reader could go and check its validity on Wavewalk’s website, through the demo movies, technical articles, and customer reviews, and they could then see for themselves that it’s a moot argument.

The challenge that Wavewalk is facing is to convince thousands of anglers who fish from kayaks that W kayaks are better, and worth switching to. We also need to convince millions of anglers who fish from motorboats that they need to give kayak fishing a second thought, and that fishing kayaks are not necessarily ugly, if they can provide a higher level of fishability that’s comparable to what these anglers are used to get in fishing boats, as W kayaks have proved they could.

In sum, the W kayak holds the key to making more people see the beauty in kayak fishing.

Read more about motorizing your fishing kayak >>

Dictionaries define fishable as an adjective meaning ‘that may be fished in’. By extension, the noun fishability can be used to describe the usefulness of a fishing craft for catching fish, from the angler’s well being and performance standpoints.

Basically, you can catch fish just sitting on a log in the middle of a pond, or a river – so being able to cast a line and catch fish from some floating object doesn’t automatically mean it scores high in fishability. Similarly, the fact you’re catching fish from your kayak, and you know other anglers who fish from kayaks, doesn’t imply your kayak or similar ones score high in fishability. In fact, they might score very low.

How to Measure Fishability?

Different anglers require different things from a fishing boat, and value different things when they rank the qualities of a fishing kayak. Such attributes and priorities can be subjective, but it’s possible to use them as well as professional design standards to create a universal fishability score system.

The Fishability Score System

Since fishability is a multidimensional notion, a fishability score should refer to the different factors that contribute to the kayak’s fishability according to their relative importance.

However, since little data are available about anglers’ exact preferences, such score system should not be portrayed as scientifically accurate, and therefore should not use numbers or other standard grading method.

Fishability Factors

Stability

Fishing kayaks are wider than average kayaks are – anyone can see that. The reason for is that being wider makes sit-in and sot kayaks more stable, and stability is a basic, very important attribute that any fishing kayak should offer. The problem is that being wide doesn’t necessarily make a sit-in or SOT fishing kayak stable enough. In other words, those fishing kayaks’ fishability is diminished by the fact they are not stable enough for most anglers to feel fully confident while fishing from them. This is why you’ll see an increasing number of sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks outfitted with outriggers, and other sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks who are excessively wide – to a point where paddling them becomes too difficult, even with a rudder.

When stability is concerned, W fishing kayaks score much higher in fishability than any other fishing kayak does, whether sit-in or SOT. It’s possible to say that W kayaks are the only kayaks that are stable enough for fishing.

Comfort

Comfort in the ergonomic sense is by far the most important attribute a fishing kayak has to offer, and the main factor which determines its fishability. This is because kayak fishing is practiced as a sport, and a leisure activity, that is for fun. As such, it is required to enable a pleasant, relaxed and non-painful fishing experience to the user, and that’s where sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks fail completely. The reason for this failure is that all sit-in and SOT kayaks feature the same sitting arrangement comprising a seat and footrests, that lock their users in a single, uncomfortable, non-ergonomic posture called the L-Position, without offering them a chance to get some relief by switching to other positions. This leads to a range of undesirable physical sensations ranging from fatigue and discomfort to leg numbness, leg pain, butt pain, and back pain (yak-back). In some cases the impact can be back injuries.

Another discomfort factor is the wet ride: Being forced to paddle and fish while getting continuously splashed and sprayed isn’t acceptable for many anglers, who won’t fish from sit-in and SOT kayaks for this reason.

These ergonomic problems are obvious, and most people perceive them as a turnoff albeit the efforts of kayak manufacturers and vendors to play them down and dismiss them. As a result of these problems, not too many anglers are drawn to kayak fishing, and out of those who start practicing this sport many end up quitting – sooner or later.

In other words, sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks’ fishability score is very low, if only for these reasons. In contrast, W fishing kayaks feature a comfortable saddle offering multiple, interchangeable positions, including standing and full stretching. This is why W kayaks are the only ergonomic fishing kayaks, and therefore the only truly fishable kayaks in the long run.

Deck and Cockpit Functionality

Sit-in kayaks have tiny, restrictive, and therefore less than adequate cockpits, and SOT kayaks feature no cockpit at all, since in essence they are just paddle boards outfitted with backrests and footrests. This greatly reduces these kayaks’ fishability, since it makes it hard for anglers to fish out of them comfortably when handling gear, tackle and fish are concerned.

Remember: In order to score high in fishability, a boat or kayak should feel great to fish from, and ‘possible to fish from’‘ simply isn’t enough.  The only fishing kayaks that feature a real, full size cockpit and deck are W kayaks, and this is why they are truly fishable.

Storage

Fishing requires gear and tackle, as well as space for storing fish. Sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks feature hatches, which are too small, not absolutely watertight, and hardly accessible to the angler once he or she is seated in the kayak.

This is clearly unacceptable in fishability terms, and the golden standard is set by W fishing kayaks that offer plenty of internal, dry, and always accessible storage space.

Mobility

Mobility is about being able to start a fishing trip anywhere, go wherever you feel like, and beach whenever and wherever you want.

When compared to most bigger boats, fishing kayaks offer advantages in accessing certain spots, mainly in shallow water, and obviously in no-motor zones.  Still, sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks don’t offer the same degree of mobility that W fishing kayaks offer, because W kayaks enable launching and beaching in places where launching and beaching other kayaks is too hard. In addition, while going over obstacles present an absolute barrier to other kayaks, W kayaks offer ways to overcome such restrictions in mobility.

It terms of fishability, W kayaks score considerably higher than sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks.

As for pedal-driven fishing kayaks, those score even lower than regular, paddle activated sit-in and SOT kayaks.

Stand Up Fishing and Paddling

Being able to fish while standing up is an important aspect in evaluating a boat’s fishability, simply because standing up is natural, and especially desirable if you have you spend long hours fishing seated.

While certain kayak manufacturers claim some of the sit-in and SOT kayaks models they offer are suitable for stand up kayak fishing, nothing could be further from the truth: Some small stature, athletic people may be able to stand on one of those kayaks, and even cast lines, but this is far from being enough to have any of those kayaks qualify for stand up kayak fishing, because of serious safety issues:

When you stand in or on a small boat you will inevitably lose balance – sooner or later, and there are many things that can cause you to lose balance, including a moment of inattention, and catching a fish… So this is not a matter of if, but rather of when. And when anglers attempting to fish standing in a sit-in kayak or on a SOT kayak lose their balance, they fall overboard, and can lose some of their fishing gear and tackle. The result of such probable accident can vary from ‘unpleasant experience’ to drowning.

Fishing standing from a sit-in or SOT kayak is hazardous, and so is paddling standing in them, and therefore these boats score zero in stand-up fishing and paddling.

In contrast, W fishing kayaks are not only much stabler than sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks, but they also feature a 14 inch high saddle. This means that a paddler or angler standing in a W kayak and loses balance is likely to fall down on the saddle, in the most stable riding position, and avoid an accident in most cases, as well as losing fishing gear.

Tracking

Tracking is a factor that’s not related directly to fishing, as it can be measured only when the angler is paddling. However, we think it should be included in the fishability score system since it is a critical factor in paddling, and by that also affects both the kayak’s range of operation as well as it safety: A kayak that tracks poorly might become too hard to paddle in strong wind, and get out of control as the paddler suffers from exhaustion.

Sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks track very poorly, to a point where most of them require their owners to outfit them with rudder systems. Such systems are by no means ideal solutions, as they demand constant attention, and impede the kayak. A rudders might become altogether unusable in shallow water, and leave anglers struggling to control their kayaks in strong wind without any assistance. that is to say that sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks are prone to windage problems, and score very low in this fishability factor.

In comparison, W kayaks track exceptionally well, both in calm weather as in strong wind, regardless of the direction from which the wind is blowing. W kayaks require no rudder at all, since anglers who paddle them dispose of a range of effective means to control their directional stability (I.E. tracking) through changing location along the saddle, and by leaning into the wind.

This ability makes W fishing kayaks score high in the Tracking factor on the fishability score system.

-Our fishing adventure went very well as did the time spent in the W500s.  Ed is handling the boat like a champ now.
We spent five to six hours in the boats with one short break on shore where we shot a video. Ed found the W500 more comfortable and fishable than his pedal drive fishing kayak model.

Certainly handling the W500 in and out of the pickup and just getting ready to go is much easier than the longer heavier kayaks. Thanks to some incoming storms we did not have a chance to get the W’s into the Ranger Banshee for some mothership testing but that will be the next adventure.

Ed has spent some time customizing his W500, and he already added a cooler placement on top of the saddle.

Being upright to cast adds so much to the ease with which the W fishes over any other kayak on the water.  The other thing is your stored items can be accessed on the water without having to head to shore to retrieve them.  Nice when you are looking for a cold drink out of the cooler or making an adjustment to your tackle.  By the way this was Ed’s first fishing trip in his new W500 and he managed to slime the boat with a nice sea trout that was let go to someday become a big trophy sized fish.
As a long term user of the W series I was very impressed with the ease he handled the boat.  This is a boat anyone can use successfully the first time on the water.  The learning curve we have discussed in the past is just that, in the past.
It’s also a boat that becomes a tinkerer’s dream.  You can use it as is and be very happy, or you can add any number of modifications to suit your own personal angling style.
The larger hull space of this new boat allows even long flats fishing rods to be placed inside the hull for the drive.
Our two W500s fit easily side by side on Ed’s full sized GMC truck.

–Jeff