All over the US, and in other countries around the world, people young
and old stand up in their W kayaks, paddle them, and fish from them in
this position, in full comfort and confidence that come both from the
extreme stability this patented craft offers, and from knowing that in
case something happens - they can fall down on the saddle, and instantly
regain their balance.
Whether you paddle standing up in a
kayak, or fish standing in one, losing balance is not a matter of If, but When...
And then what? -
Do you want to go swimming, or be able to regain your balance instantly, easily, and intuitively?
The 14" high W kayak saddle offers you this Safety 'Plan
B' that no other kayak does >
How about a stand up offshore motorized kayak?...
What
Stand Up Paddling Means In W500 Terms
Riding Tropical Strom Irene Standing In A
W500 Kayak
Stand
Up Paddling From Your Point Of View
The W-kayak is
the only
kayak
that was developed for high
performance stand up paddling and stand up fishing in moving water, and
it's the
only kayak that fits both these extreme applications in terms of safety
and comfort.
Here are the facts we recommend you know about stand up padding and
fishing from kayaks and other small crafts:
Are kayaks safe enough for stand
up fishing
and
paddling?
Since many things can and will cause you to
lose
balance
if you choose to stand up in or on top of a kayak, you must be able to
react effectively and regain balance even in adverse conditions, and
our W-kayak enables you that while no other kayak does. Our
patented W-kayak is the only kayak that offers each of your legs to
stand in a hull
of its own, and it is the only kayak
created
especially for stand up paddling and stand up fishing.
Sooner or later you will lose balance (stuff happens - you can be sure
about that!), and for such cases you need to have a 'Plan B', which
would be to fall down on
something that's high enough to stop your fall as well as support you.
You don't want to fall all the way down on your kayak's deck
since it will cause you to fall overboard. You definitely don't want to
slip either, and therefore your feet must be secure where you stand.
Our W-kayak is the only kayak featuring a 14"
high
saddle that you can fall down on at will, swiftly, and when you
choose. The W-saddle has a hull on each side, and you ride it with each
of your legs supported by its own hull, and your feet planted at
the bottom, several inches below waterline. Being positioned that low
is what makes your feet really effective for stabilization and control.
For these reasons you'll never be truly confident
or comfortable standing on top of any sit-on-top (SOT) kayak,
even if staged pictures and movies may show you people standing on
their SOT kayaks and fishing.
You must remember that neither sit-in nor SOT kayaks were
invented for stand up paddling or fishing in the first place.
Some people are capable of pedaling a unicycle while juggling oranges,
and others can hop between wooden logs floating on a river. Does it mean
you can do
it? Would you even like to try?
-What's the point in taking the risk of falling overboard anytime you
go fishing? -Would you feel confident standing up on an unstable
platform?
Are
kayaks
stable
enough for stand up fishing and paddling?
They aren't, except for our W-kayak.
Achieving dependable stability is an extremely difficult and complex
thing when it comes to very small crafts such as kayaks.
In a nutshell, you need to combine several factors
in the kayak''s design if you want it to make it stable enough for an
adult
to stand up comfortably and paddle or fish effectively.
Neither wishful
thinking nor marketing hype have been found to improve any kayak's real
life
performance (or the performance of any other product for that matter).
Between sit-in kayaks and SOT kayaks the latter are considerably less
stable to begin with.
What about
very wide SOT
kayaks?
SOT kayaks with very wide hulls track poorly and are hard to paddle,
and they may be stabler than narrow ones, but definitely not stable
enough
when it comes to paddling and fishing in confidence. This is because
most of a SOT kayak's
buoyancy (that's what actually supports your weight) is distributed
along its hull's centerline, where it is useless for effective
stabilization. If you want a kayak that's stable you need to design it
with all its buoyancy on its sides - exactly as it is in the W-kayak.
In
fact,
the W-kayak has no buoyancy wasted along its centerline since
100% of its buoyancy is located on its two sides - as far as possible
from the centerline.
And what
about SOT kayaks
with
outriggers? (stabilizers)
The use of outriggers, whether as add-ons or integrated into the hull
can improve your kayak's stability, but not enough for stand up
paddling and fishing in full confidence, which is what you really need.
This is because kayak outriggers are located in the back part of your
kayak's hull, and therefore may
support extra weight and pressure only if you apply them towards the
back.
Such outriggers are nothing more than a gimmick if you're applying your
weight forward and sideways, and you can be certain that when you're
standing up you'll have to do that often.
Remember: stuff happens in real life, and water is always wet, and
sometimes it can be cold, and deep.
Between attached and integrated outriggers the latter offer reduced
stability because of the fact that their center of buoyancy isn't
located as far away from the kayak's centerline, where it would offer
more support. It's simply a bad idea when stability is concerned, and
traditional outriggers offer a better support.
Furthermore, integrated outriggers coming out of the main hull form a Y
shaped hull which is probably the most ineffective form ever
created when it comes to paddling, or any other form of propulsion. In
other words don't count on such design for paddling.
Differences
between kayaks
for
stand up paddling and stand up fishing Both need to be extremely stable, but there
are
differences in requirements.
A stand up paddling kayak is required to be narrow as possible, since
it makes it easier to move the paddle efficiently and ergonomically, as
it is in regular (seated) paddling. A kayak that's too wide would under
perform in stand up paddling, as it would in seated paddling.
A stand up fishing kayak needs to be even more stable than a stand up
paddling one because the paddle may help you balance yourself, while a
fishing rod would be ineffective for this purpose. This is where the
location
of the kayak's buoyancy becomes critical, as does the location of your
legs and feet.
The W-kayak is only 25" wide, that is as narrow as a high performance
sea kayak. Yet, due to its revolutionary design that was granted a US
utility patent, it enables both stand up paddling and stand up fishing
in full confidence even in adverse conditions.
This means that
once you've learned to properly operate the W-kayak, you'll benefit
from its unique
features, while other kayaks simply don't have such a broad performance
envelope to begin with, and would never offer you anything that even
comes close.
Again, we recommend the you watch our demo
movies
for a start, and judge for yourself.
What happens
when you
catch a
fish standing up in a kayak?
After casting for some time you'll probably hook up a fish. If that
fish doesn't manage to make you lose your balance and fall overboard
you'd need to land it in or on top of your kayak... and then what? If
getting up from the seated position and going back down to it is hard
to begin with, how does it feel when you have sit down while holding a
fishing rod in one hand or both hands, and there's a good size fish
dangling at
the end of your line?
Obviously, this doesn't make much sense, and it's another example that
shows how important it is to have something to fall back on easily and
intuitively (a 'Plan B'), which in this case means (again) safely and
comfortably.
This is where the W-saddle comes into action: It's 14" high, and it's
waiting for you to sit down and drop the fish in one of the hulls,
where it has nowhere to go, and won't cause you any problem.
In
comparison, other fishing kayaks feature a seat that's as low as
possible - practically at deck level, and nowhere to park the
struggling fish except in your lap...
If you're interested in learning more about kayak design for better
stability, we recommend the following article.
Never
judge a
kayak by stand up pictures or movies shot under regular conditions - It
may look nice and cool but it's meaningless for you since it doesn't
show performance in 'what if' conditions.
Many things can and will destabilize you, including fish, wind, eddies,
waves, wind and your own, inevitable moments of inattention.
What you need to be able to judge is the 'what if' performance, and our
demo
movies will prove to you that nothing compares to our W-kayak.
Jeff McGovern paddling standing in his W500 fishing kayak,
Florida:
Big and tall guy: 6'3" tall, 245 lbs Jeff
rescues a
lure caught up in a tree top, while standing in his W500 fishing kayak