Beginner Vs Advanced Kayaks. What’s the Difference??
Are you looking to buy your first kayak?
Should you buy a beginner kayak or jump the shark and go straight for a more advanced model?
What exactly makes a kayak beginner friendly or geared more toward advanced paddlers anyway?
There are numerous features and hull designs that categorize a kayak one way or the other. Today you’re going to find out what those features and designs are and more importantly, you will know whether or not you will be better off buying an easy to paddle beginner friendly kayak or a more advanced one that you can grow into.
Like a Pair of Skinny Jeans!
Advanced kayaks tend to be slim. They have narrower beams, which is the widest point of the boat, than their recreational counterparts, and the cockpits, which is the part that the paddler sits in, tend to have tighter fits.
Greenland Skin on Frame Kayak
Advanced kayaks like this skin on frame have tight fitting cockpits and are very narrow.
Beginner kayaks are usually very beamy (wide). This extra girth along with a flatter bottom, gives them more primary stability which as (Watson, n.d.) explains is how stable the kayak is when on flat water (para. 1). Primary stability feels very reassuring to the beginner kayaker, since these kayaks are very easy to keep upright when in calm water.
But to truly control your kayak you want to be able to edge it. The proper way to turn a kayak, for instance, is to lean toward the opposite direction that you want the kayak to go. If you want the kayak to turn left then lean your weight to the right.
For this reason more advanced kayakers will appreciate a kayak with a greater emphasis on secondary stability over that of primary.
A kayak with good secondary stability is more stable when it’s on its edge thereby making it easier to lean turns. A kayak with greater secondary stability is also easier to roll, because it will find a balance point more quickly and will have less of a tendency to fight you along its path to being right side up again.
Greater secondary stability makes it easier to do advanced tricks in general such as a balance brace which is when the paddler literally lays on the water perpendicular to the kayak. A kayak with good secondary stability is easy to hold on its side in this position, whereas one lacking secondary stability having good initial stability instead, will want to roll all the way over on top of you.
Balance Brace
A kayak with good secondary stability like this hard chine skin on frame will hold its position on its side more easily, enabling tricks such as the balance brace.
So if you want an advanced kayak, look for one with a narrower beam. A beam of 20 to 23 inches is a pretty good beam for an advanced kayak, but your size and weight will play a big factor in how long or wide your kayak should be, so don’t forget to consider that.
Advanced Kayakers Like it Tight!
A recreational kayak is going to have a great big cockpit that pretty much anybody could fit into. This feels very safe, because there is practically no chance of getting stuck in it. If the kayak capsizes then the paddler will fall right out of the cockpit whether they want to or not.
But the truth is, coming out of the kayak when you capsize is a mistake. You want to stay in the kayak because getting back in can be very difficult in choppy water.
An advanced kayak is going to have a tight fitting cockpit. In-fact, advanced paddlers will often use foam blocks to tighten the fit even more than the factory settings.
This may seem crazy at first. Why would you want a tight fit? Why take the chance of getting stuck in the kayak if it capsizes?
Well… the less beamy a kayak is and the tighter the kayak fits, the easier it is to roll!
An advanced kayaker who capsizes wants to stay in the boat so he can roll it back over. Getting out of the kayak is a last resort, only to be considered if you can’t roll it for some reason.
A tight fitting kayak is easier to keep from flipping over too, because the paddler will have more control over it.
If in a tight fitting kayak, then the paddler can more effectively brace when hit by a big wave or maneuver out of danger’s way. Tight fitting, narrow, kayaks with good secondary stability, in the hands of a skilled paddler are far more stable and sea worthy than the widest, seemingly most stable, beginner kayak. But the same kayak in the hands of a beginner would be very unwieldy and difficult to keep upright because it takes skill to control such a boat.
Speaking of bracing against waves or rolling, the tighter fitting cockpits of advanced kayaks tend to be shaped with the intention of working with an essential piece of gear called a spray skirt. This is a skirt that encloses the paddler in the kayak which keeps the water out! This is important for paddling in rough conditions since the waves can flood out the cockpit if you don’t have a skirt!
Seals Spray Skirt
Seals has been making super high quality spray skirts since 1983. Seals is the first and last place you should look to buy a spray skirt!
So when looking for an advanced kayak, forget about the ones that have big roomy cockpits. Remember that, generally speaking, the tighter the kayak is, both in terms of beam and the fit of the cockpit, the more control you will have over it which will enable you to learn more techniques and tricks so you can paddle in a wider variety of conditions!
Let's Rock and Roll!!
Advanced kayaks tend to have a lot more rocker!
What the heck is rocker?
The next time you see a kayak laying on flat ground take notice of the hull shape. Does the kayak lay mostly flat along the ground, or are the ends noticeably flared upwards?
Kayaks that have more pronounced upward swept bows and sterns, almost like a banana shape, have more rocker than those that lay flatter.
What is Rocker?
Notice the upward swept stern on this kayak. This kayak has a good amount of rocker.
Rocker tends, and I do say tends intentionally, to be preferred by more advanced paddlers while flatter kayaks are more of a beginner thing.
This is because, for the beginner, a highly rockered kayak, like the famed Valley Anas Acuta, comes with some serious drawbacks. The less rocker that a kayak has the more of the hull is in the water at all times which translates into better tracking and more speed (Lang, n.d., “Curve of Hull = ‘Rocker’” section., para. 2). And boats that go straighter, more easily, and do so faster, tend to be easier to paddle for less experienced paddlers.
Kayaks with a lot of rocker tend to be very wishy washy. It’s difficult to get them to go in a straight line. You may be paddling the boat straight then it suddenly starts to go to the right for seemingly no reason. A less experienced kayaker will find this very frustrating.
But to the advanced kayaker this is a very simple problem to solve. If the boat starts to veer off to the right then lean your weight to the right. This will make the kayak straighten out by pulling it to the left.
But why would anybody want a slow boat that likes to randomly veer off to whatever direction that it wants to go and therefore needs constant course corrections?
Because kayaks with a lot of rocker are far more maneuverable than their straight and arrow counterparts. And maneuverability equals fun and more control over the boat!
A kayak with more maneuverability is more versatile. You can use it in flat water, albeit with more frustration than a less rockered boat, but a more maneuverable kayak will handle rough water far better. It will dart and weave around the waves almost as if it has a mind of its own. They also surf better, because they have far less tendency to pearl.
Pearling is the awful phenomenon that occurs when you are riding a wave in a kayak where, due to the stern getting picked up by the wave, the bow gets buried in the water in front of it thereby causing the kayak to flip over. And it really is not a fun way to wipe out when surfing a wave. Believe me.
But since highly rockered kayaks have upward swept bows, pearling is less of an issue, because the flared up bow is harder to bury in the water for the simple fact that it's higher out of the water line.
There is also another way in which highly rockered kayaks tend to behave better in waves, a less obvious way.
One of the toughest things to deal with when surfing waves is the stern being picked up by the wave. This causes the aforementioned problem of the bow getting buried in the water in front of you, but even without that, getting picked up by the wave puts you in a more vicarious position where you are higher off the ground and more likely to get slammed if you eventually lose it and fall off the wave. But a kayak with a lot of rocker is less likely to be picked up by the wave in the first place!
This is because of the curvature of the hull. Think about it like this. Put the end of something straight, like a yardstick, on the edge of a table, and rest the other end on the floor. The stick will probably stay there. But if you did the same thing with something that was curved like a banana then it would probably slide off the table and fall onto the floor.
The same thing happens with a highly rockered kayak! When the wave tries to lift the stern, the kayak is more likely to slide off the wave and end up back out in front of it, which is exactly where you want to be!
Highly rockered kayaks really do have a mind of their own that help you to deal with rough water, and that's why, unless you're into speed racing, most advanced kayakers would be better served with a kayak that sports a good amount of rocker!
Don’t be Like the Titanic!
Beginner kayaks tend to lack a very basic feature that not only allows you to use your kayak for long excursions where you will need to carry a lot of gear, but also act as a major safety feature, and that would be bulkheads!
Bulkheads are watertight compartments that divide the hull into sections. They are typically at the stern and the bow of the kayak and can be accessed through a hatch cover on the kayak’s deck.
Bulkheads
This kayak has 3 bulkheads. They’re are under the hatch covers at the bow, behind the seat, and the stern
Typically on an advanced kayak you will have at least two bulkheads, though oftentimes it’s three. The third one is usually directly behind the seat. It’s a smaller bulkhead that can be accessed from the seat and is called a day hatch. Kayakers often use the day hatch to store their water bottles or other items they may need while out on the water.
If you’re planning a camping trip or some other long excursion then having bulkheads is very advantageous. If your gear is stored in the bulkheads then it will be kept dry and more importantly you won’t lose the gear if the boat gets hit by a big wave or if you flip over.
If you keep your gear stored under the bungees on the deck, for instance, then a big wave could wash it all away, but this isn’t going to happen with your gear safely stored inside the bulkheads.
So… What About the Titanic?
The Titanic had bulkheads too. Due to the design they didn’t work so well… But why are we bringing up the Titanic anyway?
Because the Titanic sank!
Bulkheads can stop your kayak from sinking!
If your kayak flips over then the cockpit will fill with water, but remember that bulkheads separate your kayak into separate compartments, so as long as the hatch covers are on securely then water is not going to get into these compartments. So although the cockpit is filled with water, most of the kayak isn’t, so it will continue to float!
This is a major safety advantage that more advanced kayaks have that cheap recreational ones often don’t.
Your recreational kayak will sink like a stone if it fills with water. Just like… THE TITANIC!
What Are You Made Of?
Well… what is your kayak made of?
Beginner kayaks tend to be made out of polyethylene (plastic) and more advanced ones are usually made from fiberglass or sometimes kevlar or carbon fiber.
Poly kayaks are cheaper which is the reason that most beginners go for them. But due to the fact that polyethylene is flexible, the kayak will be slower because energy is wasted by the hull flexing. Poly kayaks also tend to be noticeably heavier than their fiberglass and especially carbon fiber counterparts.
Though poly kayaks do have one major advantage, and that is in their ability to take abuse! You can hit rocks with a poly boat and likely only scratch it. Do that with a fiberglass boat and you’ll end up with a big crack that needs to be fixed. That being said, fiberglass and other hard shell boat materials, due to their rigidness, tend to perform better than their polyethylene peers so they are preferred by more advanced kayakers.
Affordable carbon fiber paddle!
Due to their rigidness and lightweight, kayak paddles used by advanced kayakers are also more likely to be made from materials like carbon fiber.
Check out this affordable carbon fiber paddle from OCEANBROAD
Steering a Rudderless Boat
Lastly, beginner kayaks tend to have rudders and more advanced ones don’t.
Rudders are the big piece of metal hanging in the water at the back of the kayak. They are controlled by the kayaker with foot pedals and are used for steering the kayak.
Kayak Rudder
That big, ugly, hunk of metal at the back of the kayak is the rudder.
This is because, like we mentioned earlier, advanced kayaks tend to be designed to be more maneuverable. They do not need rudders, but recreational kayaks, which are primarily designed to track straight, may be difficult to turn, so they come with some assistance to the paddler in the form of a rudder.
Kayaking snobs such as myself will look down upon you if your kayak has a rudder, and the rudder is one more component of the kayak that is going to need maintenance and will likely break and need to be fixed some day, so let’s conclude that more advanced kayaks tend to not have rudders.
Advanced kayaks will have skegs instead, which are just designed to help you to go straight. This is because the added maneuverability of an advanced kayak can make going straight difficult, and although you can just edge it to fix this issue, having to edge the boat all day to correct for course deviations can suck the joy out of paddling for some people, so skegs are used in advanced kayaks to provide an easy fix for this problem.
Which Should I Get? Advanced or Recreational? The Conclusion!
Ok, so let’s wrap all of this up.
But firstly, if you’re serious about kayaking or paddleboarding, and you live in a colder climate, then you need to get either a drysuit or a wetsuit so you can extend your season. Click here for all the explanation that you need for knowing which one you should get. The answer is not as clear cut as you think!
And kayaking requires the purchase of some essential gear. In this blog we discuss some of the essential kayaking gear that other blogs often leave out!
But yes, let's tie all these loose ends together!
Advanced kayaks tend to have
narrower beams and tight fitting cockpits
more emphasis on secondary stability over that of primary
more rocker which gives the boat better maneuverability and handling of rough water.
bulkheads for storing gear and keeping the kayak from sinking
Better construction materials. Cheaper boats are made of plastic while better more advanced kayaks are made from materials such as fiberglass, kevlar, or carbon fiber
skegs over rudders. Rudders are for kayaks that aren’t designed for maneuverability which is why they tend to be found in beginner boats.
If you’re not sure of whether or not you should get a beginner kayak or a more advanced one, just ask yourself how far you plan on taking the sport of kayaking?
Do you just want to leisurely paddle around small bodies of water? Do you lack interest in developing advanced skills, of paddling in rough water, or of going long distance? Then a cheap recreational kayak may be right for you!
But if you want to learn as much about this sport as you can and dedicate yourself to developing the skills you need to paddle large bodies of water such as the ocean, or handle some waves, if you want to learn how to roll, then don’t waste your money on a beginner kayak. You won’t be a beginner for long and you will outgrow the kayak faster than you think.
Instead you should save up for a more advanced model and grow into it! It will cost you less in the long run and save you some frustration!
If you enjoyed this article then please copy the link and share it to your social media. Spread the word of mattysgear far and wide!
See you on the water!
References
Lang, D. (n.d.). Canoe Design: Hull Shape, Sides & Rocker. https://paddling.com. https://paddling.com/learn/canoe-design-hull-shape-sides-rocker
Watson, T. (n.d.). Kayak Stability: Primary vs. Secondary. https://paddling.com/learn/primary-secondary-stability
