By Keith Sylvester
West Virginia
I use a kayak to go in rivers and creeks for the purpose of relic hunting for Civil War and Colonial era artifacts with a waterproof metal detector.
I make videos of my adventures and publish them on my YouTube channel. I find items such as Civil War cannonballs, bullets, a colonial era shoe buckle, and sometime I get wildlife footage such as a black bear crossing the river.
My interest in a Wavewalk was primarily so that I could use a small gasoline motor in order to get to more remote areas that are too far to reach by paddling.
I have a “Swamp Runner Mini” long tail rig with a 3 HP motor that I thought would couple nicely with the W500. I was looking for a lower-cost alternative to a Mokai.
I found a sand-colored one with Joe Stauder, Wavewalk’s dealer in PA, and I drove up there to pick it up.
I have everything rigged up and ready. I made a short test run over the weekend and it went upstream very quickly in a fast current. The rivers here are all high right now but as soon as they come down, I’ll take it out and get some video and photos on the water.
Thank you Keith,
Very cool!
I’m glad it works for you.
We avoid publishing a competitor’s name or brand on this website, out of courtesy to them.
In the case of your review, I left the name Mokai unedited because your comparison of the W500 to this exciting jet-drive boat with a kayak look is disparaging to neither of them. In fact, I feel that what you said about the W500 fitting your criterion for a low cost alternative to the Mokai makes the W500 come out pretty good 🙂
The Mokai has been around for over twenty years, and it’s still an exciting watercraft, as many online videos show.
I think that the ability to paddle the W500 and pole it in shallow water and over obstacles, and the ability to both drive and paddle it standing, give it a certain practical advantage in comparison to the Mokai.
But the Mokai comes with a 7 HP motor, and it’s much faster than a W500 outfitted with a smaller motor, of course. Driving fast is fun everywhere, including small rivers 😀
During the preliminary stage of designing the S4, we considered offering it with a jet drive, but we decided to stick to outboard motors for various practical reasons. We figured that for fast, shallow rocky streams, as well as for muddy and shallow water, an S4 outfitted with a surface drive would do very well.
Price wise, an S4 outfitted with a $500 surface drive kit for 8 HP to 16 HP motors, and an 8 HP or even a 13 HP motor (add $200 to $400) is a combination that’s less expensive than a Mokai, and it can offer more in any dimension, from maintenance to speed, mobility, and load capacity.
Yoav
Good job. Looks impressive. I would like to see some more videos.
Awesome video. Great example of the small hp mud motor working perfectly on the wavewalk! That same set up would be great on W700 as well! Thanks for for sharing your rig.
Very cool indeed.
That long tail motor really gets you moving.
The shallow water will be no problem for you, that bad boy will take you through the skinniest of waters.
Great video and pictures, you’ll have to do more videos and show us some of the treasures you search for.
Tight Lines and MoPaddle Safe All.
Rox
And we’d also like to see pictures of your dog sitting on the platform that you made for her, of course 🙂
Yoav
Thanks all. The waether has been so bad around here with rain that I really haven’t had much of a chance to get out on the rivers. The water is high everywhere but I’m hoping it will be coming down soon. I got cannonballs ta find!
Rain, yeah… we’re moving to Rhode Island today and in the next couple of days, under torrential rain…
Yoav
And here is a new video from Keith, with some footage of his motorized W500 in action –