WAVEWALK KAYAKS

The W300 first appeared in April of 2004, and it was called ‘W boat’. Later, its name was changed to W-Kayak, and in May 2009, when we launched the new W500 series, we renamed the early series W300.

The W300 represented a breakthrough in paddling and fishing, from every aspect:

It introduced stand up paddling into the kayak world, as well as stand up fishing. To this date, no other kayak has shown such performance, except the W500.
The W300 also introduced the W saddle, and the Riding position, as well as the freedom to switch between a variety of comfortable positions – none of which is the infamous L kayaking position.
The W300 broke the records in kayak mobility and versatility, and was the first kayak to enable its operator to move fore and aft along the saddle, thus enabling to change the boat’s center of gravity (CG), and thereby gain the best control in strong wind, breaking waves, and fast current.
This was also the first kayak to offer leaning into the turn as means to facilitate turning – a feature that some kayak designers had argued was a fiction, until we proved it to be real in online demo videos

The W300 gained fans in 4 continents, among kayakers and canoeists as well and anglers, who outfitted it with electric motors, outboard gas engines, and sails.

The W300 made people happy, whether they were 80 years old, or 5 years old. It was used for both solo and tandem paddling, and I loved playing with it in the ocean surf.

The W300 enabled people with sore backs and other health issues to paddle and fish again – Without it they would have had to stay at home, or go in a motorboat.

The W300 took 3 years to design and build. Jo Mares, a boat builder and offshore kayak fisherman from Key West, Florida, said about his 2006 W300: -”…still thrilled with the W and not have been able to improve the basic concept without detracting from it in some other way. The W really is the best”
This was an important sentence for me, since it forced me to work harder in designing the next generation of W kayak – the W500 series. The challenge we took upon ourselves was to improve everything… and today, one year after we launched the W500, it’s possible to say we succeeded:

1. The W500 weighs just a little more than the W300, yet it’s much bigger and roomier.
2. The W500 is just 12″ longer than the W300, yet its redesigned hulls make it go much faster.
3. The W500 is just 3.5″ wider than the W300, yet it’s much more stable, without being harder to paddle.
4. The W500 is a true tandem kayak, yet small children and elderly people can control it very easily.

Customers who already owned a W300 and tried the W500 unanimously said that the W500 was much better. Some of them sold their old W300, and some kept them as ‘guest’ boats

New customers kept ordering the W500, and praising it, and the W300 became so much less popular in comparison to the new, bright star, that we finally decided to discontinue it. However, we’ve kept all the customer reviews on it on our website – for sentimental reasons  – We simply love this boat

Most of the kayaks we ship are to customers in the continental US and Canada, naturally, but we do happen to ship to overseas clients, and this is the first review we got from Australia. Since Australians use the metric system, we added the info in US units.

Hi Yoav, it’s all good – I’m enjoying the W500.
I did get out in the surf the weekend before last, and managed a bit of stand-up action in some 1m [3'4"] swell – only fell out once!
I did manage to get out on Saturday morning – the weather was good for autumn [Australia is in the southern hemisphere, so the seasons there are reversed...] – the sea was flat and comfortable! I also used the anchor for the first time and that worked great.

Shaun’s W500 fishing kayak rigged for offshore fishing
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I was happy to get 3 nice calamari squid in a short time. The largest is 35 cm [14"] total mantle length.
I’m still not that game to go too far offshore – about 500m [500 yards] is my limit so far.

Close-up on the 3 calamari squid Shaun caught in his W500 fishing kayak

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This weekend I’ve planned to give it a try in a local river, the Onkaparinga, and maybe flick a few bream lures around.
It can get a bit chilly here in mid winter . The coldest month is July, with a mean 9am temperature of 10.4 Celcius [50F]

The piece of water I was catching dinner from is the Gulf St. Vincent.

If I’m any good, I’ll eventually be able to send you pics of yak-caught King George Whiting, Yellowfin Whiting, leatherjackets, Snook, Garfish, Salmon and Salmon trout, Bream, Tommy Ruff, and (fingers crossed) Snapper -All fantastic sport fish and great on the plate.

Cheers,

Shaun

Since 2007, the movie Walking On Waves has shown kayak paddlers and anglers what a W300 fishing kayak can do in the ocean surf, and that’s something no other kayak to this day has been able to come close to showing, including SOT fishing kayaks that are up to 42 inches wide, that is over a foot wider than the 25″ wide W300.
Interestingly, no one has shown anything similar with any fishing kayak that’s outfitted with outriggers, or features integrated outriggers, since these fishing kayaks are simply neither stable enough, nor can they they offer the maneuverability and control the W kayak design has.

At first, the movie was uploaded to Google Videos, but after some time it was moved to YouTube, where it got 25,000 views.

More interestingly, no paddling or kayak fishing magazine – whether printed or online, saw the importance of this stand up paddling performance, although they’ve all published articles about other fishing kayaks that allegedly offer stand up fishing, when in fact what they offer are tedious, lackluster and often hazardous gimmicks that not too many people seem to take seriously.

No wonder these media don’t benefit from much trust from their readers…

Here’s another video clip from the beach:

This time it’s two brothers, aged 9 and 12, who perform whatever is possible considering the waves at the beach weren’t that great

This is our latest wave walking video (2 minutes long):

The ocean didn’t deliver big waves that day at Jenness Beach, NH, so we had to surf play using a more subtle technique. Anyway, there’s hardly ever a dull moment when you’re wave walking in the surf. You can always find new challenges that don’t necessarily involve surfing but rather measuring your skills against the waves in various angles, turning sharply, and more. Even staying in place while being battered by small breakers can be fun, if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t you lose balance and may end up swimming, but that’s no big deal, really.

Sometimes you might need to drain water from the bottom of your fishing kayak, for example if a big wave breaks right on top of it, or if you capsized it and it overturned.

Whitewater canoeists and kayakers as well as touring kayakers use either bilge buckets or bilge pumps for this purpose.

This DIY hand bilge bucket is easy to make, lightweight, and above all – effective.

You can use any 1 gallon plastic bottle (E.G. milk bottle, water bottle) to make such a bucket – Just cut the bottom and secure the cap so it won’t fall, and you’re all set.

This square, 1 gallon standard size fits the width of the W kayak hulls perfectly, which makes such a bucket more efficient.

Naturally, you should attach the bucket to your kayak, so that you can find it when you need it…

Brandon Cutter and friends, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts play with Brandon’s 2008 W fishing kayak in the surf in Nantucket. They paddle in parallel to the beach – hopping on breaking waves. They launch, surf and beach. (1 minute)

One of them easily recovers his overturned boat, and then keeps paddling.

Tom and Jenny Buddington, from Florida, are continuing their exploration of their 2008 W Kayak’s performance envelope:

Today Jenny invented a new kayak surfing style that she called “W Kayak Tail Surfing” (temporary name, probably). To us it looks like surf dancing  -Isn’t it super cool?

Photography: Tyler Buddington

Tom and Jenny on another day – enjoying surf paddling.

Tom Buddington recently wrote us from Florida:

-”Just thought I’d post a follow-up review after having several more experiences with this truly unique boat. Recently my daughter and I were caught out in what I estimate were 25 knot winds (higher gusts I would bet for certain) and the river became dark and menacing (Gosh it was so calm and peaceful moments before!). The waves were like a white water washing machine. It just happens with those out of nowhere summer storms; I try to be careful, especially with my daughter with me, but you might not ever go out if you worried about the possibility of a storm that wasn’t even predicted. THAT’s the moment of truth. 30 minutes of dark weather paddling at first into and against 20-25 knot winds and 2-3 foot storm slop and then having it on your tail (which is worse in my opinion). We just strapped on our PFD’s NICE and TIGHT and worked it with the Wyak. And she kept us out of the water and got us home. I was impressed the whole time with the stability of the W kayak in serious conditions. We used her best attributes (those twin hulls) and the geography of the Indian River Lagoon and ducked into a safe little cove and waited for things to get calm (we were in the middle and had a long way to go to get to that cove mind you). I can’t stress enough that the ability to alternate between significantly different positions (i.e., standing to riding and a few others) in the W kayak and use different muscles made this one a story with a happy ending. Would have been wiped-out exhausted in any other boat that day.

I speak from the perspective of a guy who loves the water and lives on the water and has been a waterman for, oh, say 30 years. I have 7 other boats of differing designs, 2 of which I have committed to sell to make way for my next Wyak . The W is an incredible craft and I like it.”

And here’s another picture of Tom and Jenny surf paddling at the beach:

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