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An update to my original post, and I see I'm not the only one. One Month after buying these the foam pads were shot. They're disintegrating very rapidly, cracking apart. It's not like I live in Phoenix or anything, I'm in upstate NY, so it must be UV not heat. Perhaps soaking them in good ol' 303 would've helped? I would send them back for replacing, but I think I'm going to customize them with padding that actually fits my yak so, in the words of Homer S., 'it's still good, it's still good...'

I largely agree with the first post. We have a pair of Impexes and have used a single locally made J-hook on a Yakima rack on a Civic for about a year. This worked great, she'd put hers in the cradle and I'd strap mine onto the backside, no problems. One day she was having trouble reaching the straps and asked me to help. I had just placed mine on the rack and leaned it against the hooks. As I grabbed the strap, and wobbled the car, I saw, in very very slow motion, my kayak begin to roll away and off the rack, onto the concrete below. $700 dollars later I've got a water-worthy yak again, and a new pair of Yakima Hull raisers. They're great. Sturdy as all, nicely padded, and I can tip them down to make room for the windsurfboard. I'd give them a 9 if it wasn't for one annoying tidbit. I can't reach the hook to put the strap on w/o climbing all over the car. The locally made pair and nice and tall, which makes putting hte strap through easy, not so the Yakima. Why didn't you buy another local pair you ask? They're really made for wider yaks and at 21"... Yep, I like and would buy them again. I just gotta come up with a way to cheat the strap on...

Useful if you're portage is over pavement, more of a nuisance if it's through the woods. I've tried to use this cart for a simple 1/2 mile portage over a dirt/mud hiking trail that leads from our house to a stream, but every few yards the cart gets banged out of alighment with the yak and you have to stop to adjust or re-attach it. I followed the instructions, I used extra straps, I wrenched down on the straps to the point where I began to worry about damaging something, I made sure all contact points were clean and dry... to no avail. There's got to be a better solution.

Wind. Fantastic. Had it for a year now, it been in creeks, streams, Lake Ontario when it's not so pretty, and off the coast of Maine in trying weather. I've swapped out with other kayakers to give their paddles a whirl and am always glad to have ol' Red back. Now if they added a slight bent shaft to this design... hmmmmm. The only time I have ever wanted another blade is on some faster flowing creeks. There it's just a simple matter of power per stroke, so more area would be nice. Looks like I need a Mid Swift!

My wife and I bought our 160T about 2 years ago with minimal experience in the sport. Money, as always, was a serious consideration.

Mainly we just use it to put around in the local lakes, bays, and streams. It's extremely comfortable and handles quite well, either together or solo. We've been on rather fast flowing streams and in windy open lakes and have had no problems with tracking that others have mentioned here. (Our combined weight is about 260 and we carry very little gear, so it's not like we're low in the water.)

We are, however, in the process of replacing the Loon with 2 single kayaks. The reason for the switch is weight. We're both fairly small and taking the 160 out by myself can be a little bit of a bear, but my wife simply can't handle loading and unloading the boat from the car. Overall it's been great fun, I'd have to say it was well worth the money and a very nice kayak to use.

Our Loon does not have the rudder.