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Name: bradlepc

Most Recent Reviews

This is a wonderful boat, with some reservations. It's quick, tracks like an arrow, fun to paddle, and with practice it's surprisingly capable in waves. I've paddled it on lakes, rivers, even Long Island Sound. The goldenglass version is just 42 pounds and with the short length it's easy to cartop and launch. It accelerates fast and can keep up with a rec sea kayak, so it's good in a mixed group of paddlers. The seat adjusts front to back and has three heights. Definitely one of the most fun boats I've paddled.

Now the reservations. First, load limit is about 200lb. If you're over 190, you probably should be looking at a different boat, over 200, fuggedaboutit. Above the weight limit, it's just not fun. Several reviewers have mentioned that they had trouble staying right side up. The Summersong has very low initial stability and it can be twitchy in quartering seas, but if you make it a little bow light and you have some big water experience, it'll take on waves up to 2', and even surf. But you have to go with it, if you panic when it does something unexpected, yeah, you could roll it. The tracking is great in open water, but not a good fit for twisty rivers. Finally, because of the short length, there's a pretty hard hull speed limit so you probably wouldn't race it (but it'll still blow the doors off almost any rec canoe).