By Captain Larry Jarboe
Larry also offers guided fishing and diving trips in the Key Largo and the areas that surround it »
DIY fiberglass twin-hull kayak from Russia
By Vadim Fofanov
Russia
This is my kayak. It is not painted. The kayak is made from fiberglass.
Dimensions are 3.65 m [12 ft] *0.9 m [35.5″] * 0.4 m.[15.7″]
A few of my favorite things and “the best money I ever spent”
By Jill Toler
Hello my Wavewalk friends! It’s been way too long since I posted a story about my most awesome W700 and how happy it makes me.
So, last October I traveled a little ways to a town called Vandemere, here in North Carolina. It’s actually not too far from me as the crow flies but, the crow didn’t build the roads. The town just prettied up the boat ramp and surrounding land to make a very nice area for the public’s pleasure. I really wanted to try a new technique and fly combination that my good friend, Capt. Gary Dubiel invented, to catch some fish. It’s called the Pop-n-Fly and although I didn’t catch anything on this particular day, I caught a bunch the day after Christmas fishing with Capt. Gary. The area was just beautiful and I really enjoyed fishing and paddling. What I didn’t enjoy was the skunk. I don’t care for getting skunked so, I had to come up with Plan B.
Plan B was to slide in at Lee Landing to fish the Upper Broad for redemption. Plan B was executed and yielded a great catch of sunnies. Sitting in my kayak tossing little poppers and catching sunnies is just about as close to perfect as you can get, as far as I’m concerned. My “happiness” meter pegs out every time.
On June 3rd of this year; yes, it was a looooooong time between kayak trips, I thought to myself: “Self, you should give Northwest Creek another try”. I have not had the most success in Northwest Creek; except for that awesome day after Christmas fishing with Capt. Gary, with catching much of anything. Fish are hard to come by in that area for some reason. Anyway, loaded up the kayak the evening before so that I could be on the water early and execute what I thought would be an outstanding time of fish catching. Yeah; not so much! I’m pretty sure I will NOT return to Northwest Creek until at least November or December.
Knowing how I feel about getting skunked, I bet you can guess what I did that afternoon? Yep. Lee landing and Upper Broad Creek kayak fishing time! After some lunch and a nap, I took the W700 back to it’s roots and commenced to redeem myself and the day in a fantastic manner. So much so, that my smartypants phone became overheated from taking pictures and being out in the sun that it refused to take the picture of that 3 pound bass that I caught. My thought of course was, “Seriously!” My words were more like “son of a biscuit eater!” Here I have been fishing with one little popper and catching a bunch of fish, when this big bass sucks that popper down like a grape slurpee and runs around that kayak like a dirt track racer and my smartypants phone suddenly becomes sensitive to Eastern North Carolina weather! It even displayed a bright red thermometer in case I didn’t quite understand the displayed message of, “phone must cool down before use”. Well, I considered dunking it in the relatively cool water to help with the hot flash but, my inner adult thought better and just politely tucked it inside of my new favorite bag that I found at Academy Sports.
The bag is actually a kayak fish keeping bag that I discovered held ALL of my stuff and sits just beautifully on the saddle in front of me. I do secure it with some cords that have a ball on one end and a securable hook on the other so if I flip the yak it will still be attached. I slide the ball up under the teeth of the saddle and it stays in there nice and tight.
Back to the epic afternoon of fish catching… I managed to catch a whole bunch of sunnies and some bass in a relatively short period of time. The time of day was just right and the barometric pressure was falling, putting those little fish tummies on chow down time. My adventure evidently caught the attention of some folks that live on the creek as well as a couple of fellas that were trying to duplicate my success. After explaining fly fishing everybody wanted to know about my ‘boat” so, I showed it off and answered all of their questions.
This past Saturday, the 10th, I slid out to Upper Broad Creek very early and paddled way up the creek to an area that I had not fished. The morning was just so beautiful and peaceful. At least until the Saturday bass fishing tournament guys came screaming up the creek. The fish were very picky that day and although the numbers of fish I caught were low, the size was impressive.
I still regard my Wavewalk kayak as “the best money I ever spent” and I am looking very forward to paddling and fishing this year. Y’all take care and keep the stories coming as I love to read all about your adventures.
Wavewalk S4 with 2 HP Honda outboard in strong wind, lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada
By Pyt Rotary
Ontario, Canada
Lake Simcoe is a 280 square mile lake in Ontario.
12km/h [7 mph] with Honda 2Hp against wind of 24km/h [15 mph]
Lots of fun except my rocky mistake to not have enough gas with me.
I got excited and let the boat run for 15km straight into the lake and realize I am out of gas.
I paddled back half the distance and got gas from shore.
Now I know… From now on I will carry enough gas with me.
Luckily I paid with just one blister on my hand.
I did come back at night and feel SUPER SAFE in it.
It is a great, fantastic boat.
(added comment) –
The S4 is SUPER, SUPER, SUPER stable. It does not sway at all.
I have been in bigger boats with V shape hulls.
Those boats don’t have the same stability on the water as the S4. The waves hammer them straight in the teeth.
The catamaran design cut the waves like a knife cuts through butter.
Definitely there is room for more HP on the S4.
It was my fist ever trip with a gas motor, I do use W500 with an electric motor but never played with gas before. Lots of fun. Now I can reach easily lots of my fishing spots.
Regards from Ontario, Canada.
(added later) –
After 7 years of tests I think I found the best way to store the rods on Wavewalk, at least for me.
The challenge was in S4 where drilling on the back side where the gas engine reside is not much appealing to me.
So what I did was to buy 2 Homer Tool boxes from Home depot $10 each and use the box to store dry different items at the tip of the S4.
The end of the fishing rod where the reel is, rests on the box and the tip is secured on the upper side of the kayak with sticking Velcro (same Home Depot).
I had some exist on water testing and I can carry easily 4,5 fishing rods in S4.
Since I like the concept I start to think how I can fit that in W500.
I got 2 plastic rings from dollar stores (shower curtains rings) and secure them with a round screw inside the tips on back side under the transom. The handle of the rods rest inside the rings, the tip of the rods is secured by same sticking Velcro in front of W500. 2 rods can be stored easily inside a W500 this way.
Now I am still in doubt to install the same rings in S4 as well since the setup is so successful for me in W500. I will still used the Tool boxes as storage (2L of gas, gloves, tackle, ropes, anchor).
Wavewalk S4 kayak repair after a crash at 55 mph
Rafael Francke
California
Here are some pictures from before and after I repaired the damage in my new Wavewalk S4.
The S4 took flight off my truck on the freeway, taking with it the metal rack off the truck. The forward rack had actually disengaged from the truck bed.
The S4 was still tied to the truck bed at the back…
Imagine a truck going at 55 mph in heavy traffic, and towing an overturned S4 kayak with its bow pointing backwards, without a trailer, and with the bow used as a trailer wheel…
Not a good thing, but the damage in the S4 was light relatively to the driving speed and the distance I had to drag it until I got to the road side, pass three lanes of freeway.
The boat is fixed, strong, and the bow has the same flex as the rest of the boat.
I also did a “reverse” leak check. After the tight job I had done I did not expect to see any leaks, and after I filled to bow with water there were indeed no leaks.
The boat is ready for use again.
Thanks to Wavewalk for the Polyethylene sheets.
Before the repair
After the repair
Repair –
First I clamped the location of the damage in order to close the gap in the boat’s wall.
Then I used a commercial heat gun. It’s a kind of heavy duty hair dryer that will reach a temperature that allows to solder copper tubing.
I heated the location of the damage to a point of “shiny looks”, just before the Polyethylene surface starts to melt completely. Then I let it cool off, and the boat was back to its original shape.
I cut the repair PE material to 1.5″ wide strips.
Holding the strips at one point, the other touching the repair location, with the heat gun aiming at the touching point of the hull and the repair material, I heated again to the point of almost melting and laying the repair material on the needed location (it feels like a wet rag) using a patty knife (knife also heated by being close to the location) I spread the material to be smoother, and I rounded edges.
The boat doesn’t look like a beauty queen now, but it is bonded on both sides of the damaged area, with a healthy overlap.
I did cover the location twice over.
After all was done, I smoothed the rough areas with a sanding disk.