Hobie or keep my Malibu stealth 14

[Fish Taco]

Originally Posted by jorluivil

I think this might be a natural human reaction.... The minute your body goes sideways for a split second your first reaction is to hold onto something...

I'm thinking that the only reason you don't feel the same way in your Stealth is because your hands are holding onto something(paddle), your mind is telling you its OK because your hands aren't free. If you peddled as fast as possible, drop your paddle and a wake came your way what would be your first reaction? I'm betting the farm that your first reaction would be to grab onto something. Do the same thing but don't lay the paddle down and I guarantee you your first reaction will not be to hold on....why? because you can't.

I do see your point... somewhat... but I'm not convinced my experience was this at all.

First of all, the Outback I water tested was rigged with a Torqueedo Trolling motor... and initially, I tried out the yak with just using the power of the motor. Then I went back to the dock, and asked that they put the mirage drive in, cause I wanted to test the yak just using the mirage drive as well. Upon first putting my feet in the stirrups on the pedals, I immediately realized that my feet were positioned much higher in the air than what I would have expected... in fact, it seemed to me too high. I don't feel that I had the urge to grab onto something because I felt unstable... the Outback felt like a very stable platform to me... it was instead almost as though by grabbing onto something it was giving me better leverage because I felt my legs were angled too high in the air... it was strange and not comfortable. I will say, that when I pedaled hard, that Outback really moved at a nice clip! But never felt like I could pedal comfortably while leaving my hands free... perhaps the pedals being so high is just the design of the mirage drive, and it just takes some getting used to... but initially, I wasn't diggin' it.

Has anyone ever heard of mirage drive users raising their seats to combat the angle of the pedals being so high... or was it just me?

As far as my Stealth... my hands aren't always on a paddle at all... remember... I have a Bassyaks motor installed on my Stealth... so yes, I do paddle sometimes... but certainly not always... and my hands are free and I don't necessarily feel like I always have to grab onto something if I take on a wake.

Not saying you don't have a point, just don't think in my case of what I experienced that was the reason I had the urge to grab a hold of something using the mirage drive. Do your feet feel like they are angled too high in your Hobie? I'm curious is all...

Thanks for your feedback...