I have been kayak fishing for over 10 years. My friend recently bought this kayak and the first time we went out he tipped over 3 times! So today he brought his wetsuit and decided to try to practice his re entry skills. This boat is designed so that it is nearly impossible to get back inside after capsizing. The sides are very high and when you reach over and try to get back in with your arms the kayak just wants to tip over. It was just about impossible for him to get back in. I then told him to try to get inside my Scrambler XT and he got back inside on the very first try.
I tried to paddle this kayak and it is not stable at all. He is going to sell it and get a more suitable kayak for fishing...
We have had two of these kayaks in addition to a Hobie Lanai and Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100.
Anyone that states these boats are unstable must be total dorks. For entry level general purpose SOTs these boats are hard to beat. They may not have any bells or whistles but they are stable, light, fast enough for tooling around the lake and inexpensive.
The folks that have left such horrible reviews might need to look at a touring kayak so they can safely sit inside. These kayaks are great. Buy one if you can still find one.
Bought 2 of these boats yesterday and after reading some of these reviews considered bringing them back this morning without even trying them. I called the dealer and he assured me that he would take them back but wanted me to try them first. Me and my girlfriend who has only used a kayak once took the kayaks down to a black water river and then into a shallow stumpy swamp and really gave the boats hell.First what did I like about them: They are light, and fit perfectly in the back of my pick-up truck, no rack, no ropes nothing, just throw them in.
They seemed very stable in the water and after a few minutes of paddling we were very impressed with how they tracked and how NOT tippy these boats are. We took them into some really shallow stumpy areas and they will go shallow with no problems maneuvering over submerged stumps, logs and branches. They turn very easily and track very well even when rowed backwards. We eventually tried to intentionally turn them over and it wasn't easy. Tons of storage space.
These designed to be stacked on top of one another and take up very little space in the garage. These boats are keepers. Take them back, hell no way!
By the way there was nothing about the boats that we didn't like!