Kayak Adventures

My first kayak was a birthday gift from Winnie in July 2010, a 10-1/2 foot “Trophy 126” deck kayak. From the first time out, I was completely hooked on kayaking as a sport, exercise, and just a pleasant way to spend an afternoon out on the water. Of course, a person just can’t get by on only one kayak, so over the years I’ve added both hardshell and inflatable kayaks to my fleet.

Winnie started kayaking with me in 2018, and she quickly mastered paddling around. We now regularly go out paddling together, either in our tandem inflatable or each in a single-seat kayak. We’ve also mastered the art of launching an inflatable kayak from our 18-foot boat Sea Dragon.

Photo Gallery

These are photos of my kayaks and some of the beautiful views I’ve enjoyed while kayaking in different places.

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Use the “Slide” link to step through the photos in sequence. Move your cursor over the images to read the description.

Special Kayak Adventures

Desert Kayaking

This link will take you to a collection of photographs taken on a kayak trip down the Colorado River, starting from just below Hoover Dam, on April 30, 2015.

Mallows Bay Ship Graveyard

This link will take you to a collection of photographs taken at Mallows Bay, Maryland side of the Potomac River, and the largest ship graveyard in the western hemisphere. Photos were taken May 20, 2015.

Bonus Video

Winnie captured this video of two horseshoe crabs playing in the salt marshes off Gilgo Beach, on Long Island, New York, while we were kayaking.

The Boats

I’ve owned a variety of kayaks since becoming hooked on this sport. Each one has a name and a story.

Trophy 126

My first kayak is a Future Beach Trophy 126 named “Arrau.” An arrau is a South American river turtle commonly found in the Amazon basin. Purchased in June 2010, this boat kicked off my love-affair with kayaking.

Since then, this has become our best-used boat. I used it on a regular basis until Winnie started getting interested in kayaking. Then it became her primary boat. It’s also the boat of choice for our guest paddlers to use. It’s proven to be a rugged, versatile, and very stable kayak.

Sea Eagle 370

In 2013 we purchased an inflatable Sea Eagle 370 and named it “Nemo.” Winnie suggested naming it after a clown fish, and I made the connection between a clownfish and the movie “Finding Nemo. The name just seemed to fit.

Winnie and I used this boat quite often over the next several years. We paddled tandem on local waters, took it on our road trips, and even figured out how to launch it from our power boat Sea Dragon. I also used it on occasion for paddling solo, when using Arrau was not possible. It proved to be a great boat for our style of casual paddling.

This boat suffered a casualty of multiple deep scratches and cuts on the bottom while paddling in March 2024. These scratches apparently penetrated the fabric, causing leaks and rendering the hull unusable. The scratches were too long to repair, so we scrapped the 370 hull and retained the original seats and paddles. Then we replaced it with another Sea Eagle 370.

We named our replacement Sea Eagle 370 “Nemo II.” Because why not?

Sea Eagle 330

I bought a used Sea Eagle 330 in June 2017 from a private seller, who had stored it outside in his backyard – inflated – for at least the previous several years. The boat was filthy dirty, and the nylon rope rigging was already dry rotted, but it cleaned up nicely. The name “Lucky” just seemed to fit.

I wanted the smaller boat for solo kayaking as I found the 370 was just a little difficult to handle by myself, and a little too large/heavy for easy transport. The 370 seats, foot pump, and paddles were all compatible with the 330 and I had an Ikea “Humlare” duffle bag that the smaller boat fit into quite nicely. This was also suitable for taking with me on business trips. The duffle bag kit was well within size and weight limits for checked baggage on airplane flights.

I used this boat for five years. In April 2022 some of the dry-rotted seams between the floor tubes torn open. This allowed water to flood the boat, but the air tubes remained inflated. It wasn’t worth trying to repair her as more seams would just keep opening. We decommissioned and sent her to the great kayak home in the sky.

HO Sports Beacon

We replaced “Lucky” with an HO Sports Beacon inflatable named “Dragonfly” in 2022. The boat was colorful with a patterned green and blue nylon that resembles the colors of dragonfly wings. The boat handled quite nicely, and had some nice features, but was built flimsy.

At the beginning of the third season owning and using this boat, the seam of the nylon covers separated. Given the scope of seam separation, and that this was the second time seams had failed on this boat, we scrapped it.

Native Watercraft Max Slayer

We added a pedal-drive Native Watercraft Slayer Max 10 kayak to our growing fleet in October 2023. More of a one-person boat than a kayak, it’s designed for serious fishing activity. I’ve named this boat “Pedal Fish,” a play on “Paddlefish,” which is actually a real type of fish.

Pelican Kayaks

Winnie had been talking about getting herself an eight-foot hardshell kayak for some time. As a smaller person, she felt an eight foot hardshell boat would be more suited for her. I had been looking for a lighter-weight kayak for paddling with Winnie in separate boats. So, in December 2024 we bought an eight-foot Pelican “Clipper 80X” for Winnie, and a ten-foot Pelican “Clipper 100X” for me. These were early Christmas presents for each of us.

These boats fit both our size and weight needs, as the 80X weighs only 27 pounds, and the 100X only 38 pounds. I have to admit, part of the pleasure of kayaking is finding boats that are suited for specific purposes.

Parting Thoughts