kayak design

[flydigital]

Originally Posted by sasha

Been browsing diffrent kayaks and found that the design changes for diffrent areas. Some of the very good looking ones are from South Africa. It also seems that here in the USA people like the kayaks wider and add alot of electronics and lets say alot of accesories. As someone who never been to South Africa i wonder are the seas over there are so diffrent that they need a totaly diffrent design for a kayak.. How hard is it to make the plastic kayak smooth on the bottom so there would be less friction with the water?? just wondering......

Sasha

Bigger water there for sure, so a more narrow design makes sense. Maybe they feel safer in a hard shell kayak if the tax man decides to take a nip?

You can smooth out your kayak bottom, any material... just give it a good wash, razor off any gouges sticking out, and put something like UV protector on it which is sort of waxy. It won't make much difference though!

Plastic is much better for mass production and market appeal. They are lots cheaper and more durable. There are plenty of US roto-molded kayak MFG's here in USA so its no wonder they are popular here.