Break Description

The Break is a kayak brought to you by Pelican International. Read Break reviews or submit your own review to share with the paddling community. Check out a few other kayak recommendations below or explore all kayaks to find the perfect one for you!

Pelican International
Break Reviews

Read reviews for the Break by Pelican International as submitted by your fellow paddlers. All of the reviews are created and written by paddlers like you, so be sure to submit your own review and be part of the community!

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5

My boat has the name "Pursuit…

Submitted by: paddler234728 on 8/23/2012
My boat has the name "Pursuit 80X" on it, but is the same as the Break from what I can tell. I am 6'2" and 235lb. I fit. Flat water has the boat's waterline at about an inch below seam in the highest place. Now this boat carries a 200lb rating, but I find that its not bad with my weight. No tippier than my 10' Old Town Otter, although not quite as fast, and does not track quite as well.

Bought the Pursuit recently at Academy for 150+tax, and find that, for a boat used for fitness, it fits the bill nicely. Please do not expect to track like a Carolina 14, or have the speed either. I estimate that flatwater speed on the Pursuit is around 5-7mph without pushing too hard.

It tracks quite well for such a short, light boat (8 feet long, 26lb), and much better than a cheap inflatable, which is how I began kayaking. A shorter paddle helps me to remember to make more vertical strokes, to keep from wagging the vessel side to side.

Pros: very light! cheap, easy to carry and store in hotel rooms on trips. This boat will be along with you on a trip, in the water, while the big 14' 54lb wonder-yak collects dust.

Cons: a bit of a let-down if you are coming from one of those high performance longer boats; does wag a bit side to side; not for choppy waters (as mine would sink with all my weight in it plus a few inches of water).

Overall a great boat for cost, transport and basic, 2-hour flatwater usages. Highly recommend for these purposes. Full disclosure: I am a bit of a minimalist... for those who are not: go spend 6x the money on a boat twice as heavy and twice as long, with umpteen options and accessories; you do the math:)

5

i have one of these but mine…

Submitted by: paddler233638 on 6/9/2010
i have one of these but mine says sunseker then break on it and picked it up at Canadian Tire. I'm 150 lbs 5'7 it fits me well. I just love it for it's portable its not a fast boat but if your just looking to get out after work pop it on the car go out for 2 hours - its perfect for that and I live in a apt. so it fits in the elevator and can stand it up in the corner in my apt. It's 8 feet long most ceilings are 8 feet high and I just put the life jacket and paddle inside so its a good apt boat then one of them inflatable suck kayaks. The last boat I had I think was one of my not so well buys they do not track well and verry slow and its also ugly looking
5

The break has proven to be a…

Submitted by: guest-paddler on 4/9/2009
The break has proven to be a great starter kayak for me and my girl. We purchased 2 of them during a christmas holiday sale for about 170 dollars each. It started as something to try out, but ended up being a wonderful treat. We've since been on many fun trips, mostly in rivers and creeks of eastern shore maryland. The small size made the marshes of well known Janes Island Md very easy to maneuver the shallow and narrow waterways. Currently we are looking to add bigger kayaks to our collection and definitely plan on keep the breaks for friends and to continue using in smaller creeks.
5

This is my third review of Pelican's little Break kayak. I am going…

Submitted by: paddler232035 on 1/22/2009
This is my third review of Pelican's little Break kayak.
I am going slowly mad. Winter has hit the high country of Arizona, and all my local lakes are now suitable for ice skating, and not at all good for kayaking. So I tossed little "Pelikan" (his name) onto my car and headed for Havasu! Havasu is a large artificial lake on the AZ-CA border and at about one thousand feet MSL it is warm.

The day was about seventy Fahrenheit and with only slight breezes as I set out in my cheap short kayak with a very rare and costly (NOT!) Stearns "High Performance Four Piece Kayak Paddle" in my hands. For three and a half hours this happy threesome wandered about on Havasu. I crossed to touch California and then quickly returned home to Arizona - glad to live where I do. I toyed with sporadic boat wakes and sang a boat wakes song I made up to the old Barnes and Barnes "Fish Heads".

When later at home I took out my map I found that I had - in this eight foot piece of Tupperware - paddled at least ten to eleven miles! That is a speed of at least 2.8 MPH. The boat took the wakes well and ten miles is pretty okay for an old broad of indifferent health in the cheapest least sexy yak made.

I score this thing a thousand!

5

Let me update my review of…

Submitted by: paddler232035 on 9/5/2008
Let me update my review of the Pelican Break kayak now that I have had it a while and have been out a dozen times or so on various lakes.
Basal conditions - I am female. five foot twelve and a hundred and a half pounds. I am severely asthmatic and have some neurological condition that has left me weakened. Light weight is a requirement.
I use Stearns 4 piece performance kayak paddle - not the lightest, but okay.

Havasu 1.
I arrived about 1300 on 22 August 2008. I placed the boat into a nice bay and enjoyed glassy and clear water. Then as I prepared to exit the bay, I found buoys saying that watercraft are not allowed in the bay! So I beat a hasty retreat so not to be ticketed. Was okay because the days air temp was very high. I did some land recon in preparation for a second go at Lake Havasu.

Havasu 2.
Launched off the city beach. Much water traffic. Noise and confusion and fumes. But the reward was boat wakes! Yip! There was about a one foot swell from SSW due to wind on the lake's fetch area. Then a foot to foot and a half chop - distant wakes and very confused. I had no spray skirt as it had not arrived yet.

Boat dealt with the surface well. No handling troubles at all. I took waves on the bows, from astern, on the beam and quartering. No trouble. I sat still and took chop from all sides and no trouble. I dove into two foot wakes bow on and then another set beam on. No trouble.

I got wet by spray. No blue water over decks. I never had to either bail or brace. Stability was good in roll, pitch had bows and stern floating nicely over the waves and tracking was no problem at all.

Speed seemed about the same as I get on calm water - as judged by my progress past the shore. I liked it.

Kaibab with GPS. Kaibab is a closeby lake. Elevation near 7000 MSL. Day clear water calm with discontinuities to about nine inched. Periodic wind from about ten to about fifteen MPH. My cruise was an easy pace that I can hold for a while. No wind was about 2.9 to 3.0 MPH. With 10 MPH wind following I had speeds to about 3.3 MPH. Against the wind at about 10 MPH I made about 2.7 MPH and with a harder wind of about 15 MPH I got about 2.5 MPH. Cross wind I had a solid 2.8 MPH. Flat out and with appreciable effort and splashing and some nosing of the vessel I could do an even 4.0 MPH.

As the hull speed - with a middle constant of 1.34 is about 3.3 MPH I think all the above is quite acceptable.

Meanwhile - the aftermarket Harmony spray skirt did not fit. But I just got the real Pelican item. Fits great. Wish I had this a week ago, I was in California and would have surfed him.

I think the combination of speed and stability is very good for an 8 foot boat. No complaints at all. I raise my evaluation from 8 to 10.
I have a spray skirt. Now I want to find some four foot waves! Yip!

4

Okay, so the little Break…

Submitted by: paddler232035 on 8/15/2008
Okay, so the little Break perfect? No. It is short, and its short LWL makes for low hull speed and less than stellar fineness and prismatic ratios. It has no deck rigging and no hatches. A fast efficient and capacious boat it is not.

But. . . I have a major physical issue. I have been weakened by some sort of neurological disease, and there is a very low limit to the weight I can get from car to water and back, and then onto the car. If I cannot get the boat wet, it is of small use to me no matter how wonderful it might be in the water. And the Break weighs all of 26 lbs! While any of them would be easy to handle in the water, this one I can handle out of the water too.

And it floats and it is not so slow as one might think it would be. Does it track wonderfully? No, but that is where technique comes in.

And it is tough. Already I have run it hard aground on sharp basaltic rocks lurking in the local lake's shoals. It gets small scratches, and laughs.

Workmanship seems okay. And it was a tad under three hundred including tax - bought locally. Hot dang! My last inflatable (seemed a good idea given my issues with boats out of the water) went hiss in a hurry - and not from rocks, it leaked topside. The Ram-X Break will not hiss. And it is pretty good.

I give it a eight because it is not a superlight Kevlar boat. But it did not cost three thousand too.
Thanks Pelican!