One man's rush to jump on the kayaking bandwagon

The TideRace kayaks are the best made kayaks I have ever seen. The finish is nearly perfect and the design is just smart. You can clearly see the localized reinforcements along the keel and the top deck. I've read online that these boats have foot plates, but both boats I paddled had SmartTrack foot pegs.

This boat felt like a slightly faster version of my Explorer. Like my Explorer, it felt a little unstable while sitting still. The seat in the particular boat was loose. I've read about the complicated seat adjustments available on TideRace boats on other sites, but I don't remember seeing them on this boat. The 4th hatch just forward of the cockpit is very nice. While not as big as the one on the Cetus, is should be big enough to store a GPS, camera, radio, or snacks.

I want this boat. If I actually did what I wanted to do, this would be the perfect boat for me. Considering what I actually do, I just couldn't justify spending the money. This is still an amazing boat. The fit was tight, but perfect. The initial stability was rock solid and the secondary was more than enough to immediately feel comfortable on edge. It seemed to accelerate fairly quickly, but I felt like I was easily hitting a wall. Without a GPS or an actual timed run, I'm not sure if this was just an illusion caused by the significant bow wake or if the boat really is slow. The tracking was nearly as good as the Explorer. The skeg flopped around quite a bit when down. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not. Even with the small hatch in front of the cockpit, I would miss the day hatch. I would have to somehow add restraints inside the bow and stern hatches as I find it very annoying when gear slides around in the hatches. This boat is going to make a lot of people very happy.

After paddling the TideRace boats, I wanted to compare them to the Cetus LV. I'm still very impressed with the LV. It feels much faster than the Xcite S, but as I said, its really hard to tell. I also don't know how either would handle in less than ideal conditions.

If I were really in the market for a new boat, it would be a tough choice between the Cetus LV and the Xcite. Since the Cetus LV isn't available, I'd go with the Xcite S.