Critter

I bought a little grey critter that was filthy and stained for 100.00 bucks, cleaned it up, and restrung the deck bungees, and couldn't be happier. The one negative review I see here is that it isn't the best for a 17 mile paddle, and doesn't handle or track like a 16 ft touring kayak. And they are right. That's not what it's good at. It's short, sturdy - near indestructible, and stable. A kid won't have trouble paddling it, and an adult can still fit in it. It rides low in the water, turns and stops on a dime, and tracks as well as any other 9 foot kayak, and better than many. The seats are not padded, but a gel pad and or a 6 dollar stadium seat takes care of that. I use this one mostly on the local lakes and reservoirs, and not often on the river unless the water is gentle. I take pictures from it, fish, and just relax. I now have two more of the same mold, under different company names, that I let friends use. Never tipped one yet. For the uses I mentioned above, I highly recommend grabbing any used one that crosses your path.

There is NOTHING I can say bad about this craft! Had mine for 15yrs now. It's still bright, shiny, with just normal scratches. I did by an padded seat cover for it as it didn't come with one but I don't think many kayaks came with padded seats way back then. I have introduced and got people "hooked" just by a 45min drip down the Smith river into the Dan river......everyone loves the "orange one"!!!..lol. I'd like to know what is the closest to it as far as kayaks made today? Anyway, get u a used Critter and have a blast! Come down to the lil land of 3 rivers.

Kinda surprised by all the positive reviews. I bought my Critter second-hand, but as best I can tell this kayak is not made anymore. And it's probably just as well.

The good thing about this kayak is that it is roomy and stable, with a good, comfortable seat and lots of storage both front and aft. I've found it to be a nice kayak for paddling around on small, local lakes. If you have to negotiate a stream, however, forget it. It tracks poorly, hangs on seemingly every rock, and you will expends LOTS of energy paddling through those long, still stretches of water. Just yesterday, I did a 17-mile trip with a friend of mine and it fought me every step of the way. I really wish we could have traded boats about halfway through the trip.

If you want to use your kayak for something other than lake fishing, I suggest you get something with a keel.

Extremely stable. Tracks well. Able to go in and out of tight spaces such as coves and inlets. Paddles fast when you want to. Light and easy to carry. I have even rigged up a 30 pound thrust electric motor.

The Critter was my families first kayak. Because of its small size, we have progressed to the point where we are touring small fishing streams. We can easily maneuver under and, at times, pull over logs. We are able to view wildlife in places others can't reach. The Critter also has generous room fore and aft for food and drink.

We like the low ride height. Because of this, with a specially designed plywood rack we are able to fit our 3 kayaks in the back of a small pickup truck.

This little kayak has introduced many of our friends to kayaking too. We have 4 Critters/Blast and have not looked back or wanted anything else. Our touring is generally limited to 3-5 hours or half day trips.

The only modifications we made were for comfort and safety. We added seat pads and recovery ropes, (a lesson we learned on a fast stream where we almost lost the craft.) We started Kayaking 5 years ago. I was 10. Now I developed a technique where, because of the flat bottom, I can slide down steep banks and gain entry into ponds that don't have "perfect" entry points.

This little kayak really helped us enjoy the nature in our backyard we took for granted.

I love how well it handles and how easy it is to load. (only 41 lbs). The salesmen told me it was designed for women, children and beginners. So I bought it for my wife. She loves it too. we call it the rubber duck. It is big enough she can put our dog in it. He likes kayaking also.

I own four wilderness systems kayaks. Two sea kayaks, a Pungo, and a Critter. I like them all but for everyday use on small rivers, lakes, and sounds, the Critter is perfect. Light, tough, roomy, stable. My favorite kayaking is on a local river with lots of rocky shallows to negotiate and, for this, the Critter is an absolute joy. It will spin on a dime and keep me dry during those occasional times when I inadvertently try to negotiate a rapid sideways. It fell out of the back of my pickup truck yesterday and slid out into the middle of an intersection. I just stopped, picked it up, threw it back in the truck, and kept going. Great little boat!

I purchased the Critter for my college graduation. Kind of a reward to myself. I had never used a kayak before this, but I did have a lot of canoe experience. I was a little worried about stability and tracking issues before my "initial" launch. I have to tell you, I was amazed at the ease and stability of this kayak! I believe itto be much more stable than my Alumacraft canoe. I even began feeling a little brave and started to challenge the river by taking "shortcuts" through all the tree "snags". It slid easily over limbs a few inches under water. (Kansas has mud water, visibility less than 1mm) I never felt as if it would dump me or even kick me out! I did manage to dump it when I got between the current and a tree snag, but it was easy to bail out of and get downstream. This is a very forgiving Kayak. Dumping the water from the kayak was a chore so I recommend a bilge pump of some kind. Tracking is so-so. It is easy to get headed in the wrong direction with one sweep of the paddle, leading to overcorrection to the other direction, and back and forth. With practice it is easy to overcome. I purchased a Pelican spray skirt about 1 hour before an overnight 25 mile river trip. Saturday went with no excitement, but Sunday we got trapped in a severe thunderstorm (KS is known for them), with 30mph wind and 40-50 mph wind gusts (estimated), lightning, thunder and even some pea size hail. Rain was heavy limiting visibility to less than 50 ft!! We stopped when it began to hail and used our kayaks for cover. With a quick look on the GPS we discovered we where within 5 miles of our destination. So we put back in and set an insane pace for our destination. Without our spray skirt we would've been in trouble, probably would've spent half the time bailing, and half the time paddling. Wind was not much problem, except when heading into it. It didn't affect tracking all that badly when paddling horizontally with the wind. Waves were around 8-10 inches but never really swamped the cockpit. The boat did cut through the waves nicely, making me feel very comfortable, and with only minimal overlap of the bow. I recommend this kayak to who ever wants a kayak for any reason, experienced or beginner it is a fun little boat. Size is conservative making overnight trips a challenge for overpackers! We're planning a 3 day 2 night trip to the Jacks Fork in MO. It will be a challenge, packing wise and we'll see how it goes. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions, I'd be happy to answer any that I could.