Vapor 10XT

I really like the maneuverability of this kayak. It is light and easy to transport and an all around great time on the water.

We have the 10XT, along with a couple of Dirigo 106s and a Heron. The Vapor 10XT is the heaviest of the four, but has great dry storage and a bigger/longer cockpit opening for longer legs. I like the fixed handles that allow me to use a security chain effectively, but my wife prefers the bungee handles on the Dirigos because they are easier on her hands to carry. The vapor tracks reasonably well and is very stable. If you need the extra room and don't mind the extra weight, this is a good kayak.

Great fun in this boat. Agile on rivers. Not suited for whitewater, but neither am I. Not the best on lakes but still a lot of fun. Stable, comfortable, good for beginners, but after 3 years I still love my boat.

After working with a rental company using Vapors for the backbone of our kayak fleet, I bought two for my husband and my personal use. I love these boats. We're lake and river paddlers who like to cruise along checking out wildlife, but when we need to get from point A to B the Vapors move along nicely too. They track well, have a nice drybox for packing a picnic, and you'd have to make a serious effort to flip one. The large cockpit makes getting in and out easy for almost anyone.

I added a foam, wedge seat from the dollar store to make the seat more comfortable in mine, but my husband doesn't seem to mind his. Adjusting the seat back and the foot pegs is very simple. I've recommended the Vapor to a lot of folks looking to buy a rec boat. They're solid without being cumbersome, and even after a couple of years in the rental string, they don't show much wear beyond scratches on the bottom of the hulls from repeated put-ins and take-outs on the concrete ramp.

If I were going to replace mine I might go up to a Camden, another nice Old Town boat, but I have no plans to do so any time soon.

As my first kayak, I couldn't have chosen a better more friendly kayak. The large cockpit allowed me to adjust to kayaking. I used this boat for three years and didn't find anything wrong with it. My kayaking dog buddy, Jackson, liked the large kayak since it afforded him space to nap during trips. The only reason I traded it in was that I developed a passion for sea kayaks.

The Old Town Vapor 10XT kayak is likely the last boat I will personally need for recreational kayaking. The construction is heavy roto-molded polymer, the boat is 10 feet in length, and the weight is 48 pounds. My particular boat is molded in the limited edition black cherry color and is one of the singularly most attractive kayaks I have ever laid eyes on. I have gotten a lot of comments on the color from other kayakers due to it being so unusual.

The XT has some features missing in the base model, including a day well cover (more on that shortly) and a really nice, padded adjustable seat. The integral paddle keeper system is a nice touch, but brings its own issues also.

First, the good points: this kayak is well-constructed and fairly well thought-out. The cockpit opening is huge at 48 inches – pay attention when you’re kayaking during warmer weather or you’ll get an unpleasant surprise when you find your legs have been sunburned because you are used to smaller cockpit openings and forgot to put sunscreen on your lower body. Otherwise, the large opening makes for really easy entrance into the kayak and fairly easy exits – you can almost fall down in the general direction of this kayak and make it into the seat, which is perfect for those like myself that tend to be a little klutzy.

The seat is very comfortable – I am sure an aftermarket pad would make it even more so, but I have spent upwards of five or six hours at a time in the seat with no ill effects.

Stowing gear is a breeze also, and with a hauling capacity of up to 325 pounds you can comfortably fit a lot of gear in there, even with the floatation at the front and rear of the kayak. This is a perfect boat for overnight adventures with ample space for a small tent, sleeping bag, and the other goodies you will need for kayak camping.

The boat is ridiculously stable in the water – the running joke among my friends is that with a 28.5 inch beam and the Vapor’s inherent stability, the only way to fall out of this kayak is to stand up and jump (with scant few exceptions mentioned further below).

The boat cuts through the water well, though obviously not as smoothly as a longer, narrower boat.

Next, the not-necessarily-so-good points: the hatch cover on the day well in no way impedes the flow of water, so anything inside the day well had better be in a dry bag or box. That said, there is no attachment point to tether a dry bag or box to inside the day well, so if you use it I would advise that anything you put in it floats. I have seen the small shock cord retainer allow the hatch cover to come open during a capsize (note to self: don't get caught crosswise in a fast-moving stream and freak out, as you are only inviting trouble and a lot of good-natured ribbing from your fellow kayakers). The hatch cover makes it impossible to carry anything in the day well larger than the interior dimensions of the well, so in retrospect a bungee system around the well might have been the better choice for stowing bulky items in a dry bag, etc.

The built-in rest is OK for a quick place to drop your paddle, but storing the paddle crosswise to the kayak makes it difficult, nigh impossible, to pull alongside another kayaker (or anything else, for that matter) without removing your paddle and stowing it somewhere else, which (for me, anyway) kind of defeats the primary purpose for the paddle rest. I added a side paddle bungee on my Vapor and use it 95% of the time instead of the factory rest.

A quick note: don't get it in your head like I did that you're going to add a deck bag to this kayak. The front deck area of the kayak is miniscule due to the massive cockpit opening and most normal deck bags won't fit. Add to this the distance of the deck from the actual seat and a deck bag turns out to be pretty impractical anyway.

Overall impressions? I love this kayak, perceived shortcomings and all. As mentioned, to combat the paddle rest issue I installed an aftermarket bungee system. I plan to remove the hatch and add a bungee kit around the day well to better secure a dry bag. I’ll probably add a small (four point) bungee kit to the bow sometime down the road, but it really isn’t a big deal.

I will say that in retrospect I would have purchased the Vapor 10 model instead of the more expensive XT. The few additional amenities of day well cover and upgraded seat the XT model offers aren't really worth the additional $90 or so I paid for them, at least in my opinion.

I am a beginner at kayaking. I purchased my Vapor 10xt just after labor day (I had spent the weekend out on the gulf on a Pelican SOT, first kayak experience). I've used it every weekend since on local lakes and rivers. Very stable, a blast to fish from. Halloween my wife and I went to Panama City Beach. I took it out on the Gulf of Mexico equipped with a Seals spray skirt and had a ball. Water was rough out past the second sand bar but no problems for the yak. I did capsize once coming in a few feet from shore when I got sideways on a breaking wave. I went back out and deliberately got sideways and found that with a little weight shifting I could stay upright even parallel to the wave. The spray skirt would have kept all water out of the cockpit if I had plugged the rod holders with something. I highly recommend this kayak.

This is my second kayak the Vapor 10xt; first one is a Swift 9.5. The body shape and the larger opening is what sold me. Yes you will need the 230 paddle as the side are high. Tracks well and is very stable. Drain plug is in a bad location and you need to find the sweet spot to get all the water out. Drain plug should be at the stern like most are. Seal splash deck will help keep the water out on smaller rapids.

I purchased two Old Town Vapor 10XT kayaks a few weeks ago.
We selected the Vapors because my 6' tall son could fit comfortably in the 10' boat. Many 10' kayaks do not have sufficient leg room for long-legged paddlers, making it necessary to move up to a 12' boat. We were looking for something with a little storage room - something in-between strictly recreational and light touring. The Vapor has a hinged storage compartment that is easily reachable while paddling - a great feature. The hatch is molded into the top of the boat, meaning it is a separate well, not just a hole to the inside of the boat. Unless the kayak capsizes, the stuff in the hatch will not come in contact with water from paddle drips in the bottom of the boat. Most of the hatches we saw were only openings to the floor of the boat and they could not be opened and closed while paddling.

A word of warning...buy LONG paddles with this boat. Not only is it a typically wide recreational boat (28.5"), it's higher in the front. We're used to the Otters we've typically rented, which have no rise to the front of the boat. I bought two 220cm paddles and regretted it. We kept bumping the sides of the boat while paddling. I've since bought longer paddles. We'll use the 220cc's as back-up paddles.

The reason the boats are taller in front is the pointed shape of the boat allows it to really slice through the water, providing truer tracking. We like that. The cockpits are more open than we're used to. I bought a couple of half-skirts/splash decks to close up some of the front of the cockpit to keep us a little more dry. We haven't tried them out yet. If you like a very open cockpit, you'll love this boat. We're used to a more enclosed cockpit, so these will take a little adjusting to.

The seat is very comfortable. I did purchase an extra seat cushion, but haven't felt the need to use it yet. The basic model has a lesser seat. It was worth it to us to upgrade to the XT model to get the better seat and hinged hatch.

The paddle rests are terrific. I like to take photos while paddling and it's great to have a place to quickly rest the paddles to get the shot. The food pegs adjust easily and have sufficient settings for the tallest of paddlers. The carry handles are great for attaching the bow and stern lines when the kayaks are in the roof carrier, but we found them rough on the hands when carrying the boat. I wish they were padded or made of a softer plastic.

I can't imagine carrying my IPod or GPS out in my kayak, but we still found the bungie supplied for this purpose to be very useful. I clipped my keys there. You could also attach your paddle leash to that loop. I'm sure we'll discover even more uses as we take the boats out more. The thigh pads are great, but really tall paddlers may not benefit because their legs are likely to hit too far forward. If that's a major issue, the XT comes in a 12' size. It wasn't a big deal to us.

Color selection is limited on this boat. We ended up with two lime green boats. We like the color (don't see too many lime green kayaks out there), but it would have been nice to get two different colors. We just didn't like the other colors available.

For the money, these are great boats. We've always rented Old Town Otters, so I had in mind that Old Town made durable boats. If they can stand up to beginners in rivers, hitting rocks and getting caught in downed trees, they must be mighty forgiving!

At 48 pounds, my 16-year-old son and I can load and unload the kayaks from the roof of my SUV. We purchased a Thule Stacker system, which was significantly less expensive than purchasing separate carriers for the two boats.

We're happy with our decision and would recommend these kayaks.