The only number that matters at the start is length against the water you actually paddle. On the Bot River lagoon and the dams behind Kleinmond, anything over four metres is a nuisance to turn and a nuisance to get off a roof rack on your own. Short and wide is slow, and slow is fine for two seasons. Sit inside a boat and you are committed to it. Sit on top of one and coming off is wet and nothing more, which is why almost everybody who has never paddled leaves here on a sit-on-top. A touring hull is faster and holds a line in a side wind, and it will punish you for a year before it starts rewarding you. A carbon paddle is worth about four hundred grams. That is the whole of it. Four hundred grams is worth paying for if you are out for three hours at a time and worth nothing at all if you are out for forty minutes. Buy the boat first and the paddle in the second season.
Every hull on the floor can be paddled on the lagoon before you buy. Saturday mornings, 07h00 to 11h00. Tell us your number, which boat and which Saturday and we will hold a slot.
