Profile

I've owned this boat since summer of 2017. I'm an amateur WW kayaker. Three years ago when getting into WW kayaking, I rented a few WW kayaks, and eventually settled on a JK AntiX medium (I'm 5'10", ~185 lbs). What I like about the boat - has nice edges (can eddy out/in readily), it's highly stable, easy to roll in, is nice boat to learn how to surf, and decent bow for most large water (I mostly do class 3 creeking and river running). There are cons - I wish boat had more speed, as sometimes when I'm on 6-8 mile WW river trip, I have to paddle harder to keep up with the paddle buddies in larger boats, so it tracks OK, but would not recommend for long river trips. I do a lot of creeking in the spring, so sometimes wish I had more bow volume (antiX medium is about 63 gallons), but overall, I am pleased with the AntiX medium as it can do a little bit of everything (to a certain degree). Overall, great boat to learn in, with respect to rolling, surfing, and doing class 3 whitewater. If I were to do creeking full time, or multi day trips, I would probably select a boat with larger volume and that is faster. Overall, the antiX is nice in between on the playboat/river running spectrum. I am happy with the purchase, and looking forward to learning more tricks in this boat.

When I got into kayaking a couple years ago, I wanted something that could handle up to class 4 whitewater, but also be good for taking my kid out on the water with as well as doing overnight trips on the river. I ended up choosing the 380x. No regrets. It is a great IK if you are beginning, and even great if you are doing whitewater and are an amateur.

Stable kayak, versatile - from lakes, big rivers with calm water (put the fin on), and even fast flowing creeks with serious whitewater (unleash the self-bailers). I've done all different kinds of water in the 380x and have had great results. My only con really is storage and length sometimes. It's not really meant to do long 5+ days on the river, unless you pack efficiently. Can be difficult fly fishing (fishing is good with the fishing seat attachment). Also, the length can get you into trouble if you are whitewater kayaking creeks or small rivers with tight corners and eddies and tall canyon walls. I have slammed into rock walls and trees on challenging whitewater. The 380x kayak still held up, and I haven't had to patch it yet with about 20 river trips thus far, about 10 in whitewater.

I recommend for the newcomer and even the amatuer whitewater kayaker. This kayak covers a lot of ground.