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Five stars because it's really good at what it's intended to do, be comfortable and easy for beginners. It's extremely stable and it's rugged and durable. All at a low price and relatively low weight.

The only downside is that it's kind of slow, even for a 10' SOT.

I don't have a lot of experience with other PFDs, this is only my second. But I've been happy with it. It's comfortable and fits well. Totally unrestricted arm movement. High enough to clear even a high-back seat. I've read that not all kayaking PFDs will turn you face up, but for me this one does, reliably.

It's hard to review a product like this. It's easy to install, it does what it says it will and it does it well. Great so far, right? The problem is that it damages kayaks. The V block is made of a hard plastic that will scratch and leave black marks on thermoformed (and maybe other) kayaks. Black marks that are VERY hard to remove. It's a big design mistake in what is otherwise a well designed product. I gather that Malone used to put some sort of pad on the V block, I don't know why they'd intentionally make a product worse, so it's confusing.

Of course if you cover it with a bath mat or something, it won't damage the kayak any more. But you shouldn't need to do that, and if the mat slips you're back to damaging your kayak.

Terrible design, good quality

The tubing seems plenty sturdy to me, and the suction cups hold tightly to my minivan roof as long as I wet it first. But the foam roller pads are a VERY poor design. On most rollers of this type, the foam roller pads are conical to steer the kayak back to the center and prevent it rolling off. These are not. They're flat, an invitation for the kayak to roll off. With any kind of V hull, there's a strong tendency for the kayak to roll off the sides of the rack. Also, because there's a gap between the two foam pads, if you have a V hull, the bottom of the hull won't be riding on a pad, instead riding on the hard plastic part between the two pads. It's not good.