One man's rush to jump on the kayaking bandwagon

Out with the old. In with the new, yet only slightly different.

I got a great deal on my ExplorerHV. So good that I could overlook at few things that were wrong with it. The seat was a little off, the skeg fluttered every once and a while, and it was an HV. Coming from the world of super-sized rec boats, the cockpit on a normal Explorer seemed fairly cramped. At the time, I still wasn't sure why you'd want your knees to actually touch the boat. What a difference a year makes.

After playing phone tag all week with Lamar, I drove down to Barrier Island Kayaks early Saturday morning. I wasn't sure which kayak I wanted until I got there. Lamar had a slightly used 2007 that was just like my HV, British Racing Green with yellow trim, a dark blue with white trim, and the slate blue with black trim. The British Racing Green color resulted in a lot of positive comments, but it shows every little scratch and it just sucks in the heat and it's fairly hard to see. I wanted something that was easier to see and lighter. The slate blue kayak was perfect.

I took it out for a quick paddle just to make sure everything was as it should and let's just say it's an NDK. I found a small hole in the gellcoat that holds in the bulkhead between the back of the cockpit and the day hatch. The back hatch also has a very small leak somewhere, but I was unable to track it down. There's also quite a bit of excess gellcoat. It's an NDK. It has character.

I can't say enough positive things about Lamar, David and the other guys at Barrier Island Kayaks. They really know their stuff and the location is great.