NorCal Kayak Anglers
Kayak Zone => Kayaks => Stealth => Topic started by: bink on September 27, 2014, 02:33:28 PM
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Just purchased ...
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More pictures please. :smt004
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One pic ??? Such a tease !!! :smt044
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Nice ride Michael. Lets fish again soon. :smt006
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Just got home. More pics...
Michael
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Bad ass. Congratulations man.
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Okay, now that I am home, I can give a more complete write-up.
As you may know from a previous post, I have been shopping for a new kayak. Today, I had an appointment to demo, the Stealth Evolution 430, Viking Profish 400 and Eddyline Caribbean 14. I made the long drive out to Lodi, with great anticipation. I arrived at the boat house at the allotted time and started out in the Evolution. That was probably a mistake, but it was the order in which I tested. Getting in, it was slightly more tippy than my Trident, but not too much so. I paddled it around Lodi Lake practicing sprints and steady forward strokes, sweeps and a few braces. It was fast but still felt a bit tippier than I was used to.
I then got in the Caribbean. It was a nice and light boat, but it didn't feel a lot faster than my Trident. However, perhaps it suffered in respect to the Evolution. Paddling into the wind it also didn't feel a lot better than my Trident. Practiced the same set of strokes but came off the water feeling somewhat underwhelmed by the Caribbean.
Next I paddled the Viking Profish 400. It is a bit heavier than the other two boats, but still seems quite a bit lighter than the Trident. The 400 is about 13' 2" long, almost 31" wide and weighs in at around 55 pounds. Due to its length and width I expected to be the slowest and least nimble of the three. Once I started paddling it around the lake, it was quite responsive and seemed to be quite a bit more speedy than the Caribbean both up and downwind. The Evolution was still the quickest.
There were a couple of things I disliked about the Evolution on my first test, so I fixed them to see if I might like it better. I needed to move the foot pegs up toward me a notch or two and I also decided to try it with just a back rest and no seat. With these two changes, I liked the Evolution a whole lot better. It was super responsive and fast. The lower center of gravity allowed me to feel confident in the kayak so I could really push it around a lot better than I was the first time around.
After the on the water demos, I was pretty much set on the Evolution. I did some on land inspection as well as lifting and moving the yaks around and all of them did pretty well. Based on the above demos I decided that the Evolution would be my kayak of choice.
Went back over to the shop and found there were only two Evolutions left, an all white one and the red/yellow demo. I liked the color of the red and yellow demo (the yellow will keep the memory of my OK Trident 13 alive :) ) so I purchased that one for a slight discount. Made the long drive back and now it is in my apartment ready to go out on the water.
Now I need to check the hookup section for tomorrow :-) .
Michael
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Awesome boat!
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Nice boat. Congrats!
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Congrats on your new yak Michael.
Jedmo
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Great choice Michael! admittedly I am a little biased, but I do truely love these kayaks. Let's get together and catch some fish.
ruben