Kayaks are so last year!

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

How about one of these?
It's a sit on top, has two cavernous hatched compartments to store everything including a change out tank, the center seat area is bulkheaded fore and aft so if the storage compartments flood it still floats, 14' long and pointed at both ends so it's very fast.
It's a Vitog Nomad from the late 70's early 80's.
Problem is I can't use it because I'm too tall
 

Attachments

  • 001.jpg
    001.jpg
    45.7 KB · Views: 404
Take a racing surf ski...maybe the 19 foot variety that weighs about 35 pounds( carbon fiber), and get a sponson or pontoon for stability, and you have a platform that you can paddle at 6 miles per hour, it can easily handle 10 foot seas, and it can carry dive gear....:)
Who's diving off of a kayak in 10' seas?
 
Who's diving off of a kayak in 10' seas?
A few years back I was freediving occaisionally off my surfski, reefs off of Lake Worth public Beach...Horseshoe, Pauls and Casino. These are awesome reefs, about 40 to 55 feet deep, and about 3/4 of a mile from the beach....With a group of freedivers, each with their own kayak( mostly scupper pros), we would normally pick days that were flat or 2 foot seas or less....However, on more than one occaision, we began with very calm seas, and mid way through our freediving, it would start to blow, and a storm would move in....On one occasion, this happened so fast that our first real impression of changing weather, was seeing what looked like bullets being machine gunned into the surface as we headed back to surface from the bottom......At first, we elected to ignore this, as the diving was still awesome....After 20 minutes more, the storm was becoming brutal, the kayaks were pulling on us from the huge wind( we tow them while diving), and we all decided the big 6 foot and growing waves were killing the fun....so we aborted.....And once on the boats, the storm had gotten so bad we could not see which way the shore was....but the predominant wind was from the east, toward the shore, and this was the way the waves were headed, so this was the way we paddled.....
My surfski is made for surfing big waves between Islands in Hawaii type conditions, so this was actually kind of fun, until I realized that the waves were actually headed "out to sea", as the wind had turned....I had to alert the others, well behind me, and then the new course in was with the waves quite sideways to us, and not nearly as much fun.
Again, the surfski can handle anything imaginable, so it was just inconveniance. The scupper pros were not tipping, but they were wallowing in the big side waves.
By the time we reached shore, the surf had ten footers. This was not hard to come in on, as long as you time the wave, and make sure you stay pointing nearly straight in---if the boat gets more than 30 degrees sideways, the wave will overcome the rudder and you will be pushed sideways and have a nasty minute or so of being rolled. If you don't get up to speed and gain the ride on the wave, you can have your rudder go through the back end of the wave, and then you are ultimately in danger again of getting sideways---but most people with surfskis have tried play-days in the surf before, so this is more of a fun thing, up to 6 or 7 foot waves....Tens or bigger means you risk having the boat destroyed if you miscalculate and it gets thrown in sideways.....and then there is also the dismount prior to being thrown on the sand by a huge wave....also not good for the boat....
But my point was, weather can come up suddenly, especially if you are on an offshore reef. Alot can change in wave height in 30 minutes or an hour, especially in a full blown storm. It is nice to have a kayak that can handle anything we are dumb enough to end up in :)


Here is an article I did on the surfski as a Freediving platform, years ago.... SFDJ

---------- Post added September 10th, 2014 at 08:52 AM ----------

Here is an excellent video showing a Fenn surfski doing ocean waves in a tidal current environment--we have this type of environment at the Boynton Inlet in S Fl --of course a=ours is alot warmer than this one :)
Start at about a minute or so in to the video.

[video=vimeo;97145503]http://vimeo.com/97145503[/video]

---------- Post added September 10th, 2014 at 08:55 AM ----------

So Yeah...Kayaks are so last year.....:)
Surfskis are the way to go!!! :)
In Boca Raton Fl, we have Venture Sports/ Bruce Gibson, as the top distributer of Surfskis in South fl....
 
Last edited:
I took a look at the Surfski on google images.
From what I saw I think it would work as a freediving platform but to use as a scuba platform may not be so easy.
Also, it might work OK in some areas of the world with no kelp, but where I live we get some super thick kelp growth and many times we have to paddle over it. The rudder on the surfski would prevent paddling over surface kelp.
Even those newer kayaks that have the foot pedal propulsion system are a problem in kelp even though you can make them flat against to bottom they still snag kelp.
I'm still always looking for anything better so thanks at least for bringing my attention to the Surfski. It does look fun though.

I though of building a New England rowing dory and see how that would work. It would be possible for two divers to go out with full gear and they row very nice. They actually get more stable the more weight you put in them, and they were designed to handle very nasty sea conditions. I'm thinking of ways to get away from anything engine powered and only human powered.
Very simple, nothing to break down, no registration fees, no trailering, etc, etc.
 
I took a look at the Surfski on google images.
From what I saw I think it would work as a freediving platform but to use as a scuba platform may not be so easy.
Also, it might work OK in some areas of the world with no kelp, but where I live we get some super thick kelp growth and many times we have to paddle over it. The rudder on the surfski would prevent paddling over surface kelp.
Even those newer kayaks that have the foot pedal propulsion system are a problem in kelp even though you can make them flat against to bottom they still snag kelp.
I'm still always looking for anything better so thanks at least for bringing my attention to the Surfski. It does look fun though.

I though of building a New England rowing dory and see how that would work. It would be possible for two divers to go out with full gear and they row very nice. They actually get more stable the more weight you put in them, and they were designed to handle very nasty sea conditions. I'm thinking of ways to get away from anything engine powered and only human powered.
Very simple, nothing to break down, no registration fees, no trailering, etc, etc.
Many, if not MOST of the surfskis I have tried, have a pull up rudder....kind of essential for coming in with a huge wave, getting to shallow sand bar or beach.....So this could be pulled up when you get to kelp.

For the tank, I have seen surfskis with a tank shape formed in the outer deck, to drop the tank into like a well....gets the center of gravity lower, and keeps it easily stable.,...
Best way to then use the tank, is with a Brownie Kayak hose..since you would be towing the kayak anyway, and who needs a stinking BC ?,,Well, maybe not in the kelp...Dont think I'd be dragging my kayak through a kelp bed by a kayak air hose. :)


3-divers-On-Brownies-Third-Lung-Hookah-Diving-System-2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Many, if not MOST of the surfskis I have tried, have a pull up rudder....kind of essential for coming in with a huge wave, getting to shallow sand bar or beach.....So this could be pulled up when you get to kelp.

For the tank, I have seen surfskis with a tank shape formed in the outer deck, to drop the tank into like a well....gets the center of gravity lower, and keeps it easily stable.,...
Best way to then use the tank, is with a Brownie Kayak hose..since you would be towing the kayak anyway, and who needs a stinking BC ?,,Well, maybe not in the kelp...Dont think I'd be dragging my kayak through a kelp bed by a kayak air hose. :)


View attachment 192945
We generally anchor at the edge of the kelp beds then either work inwards into the kelp forest (freediving for abalone) or we go out to the deep side where there is no kelp and look for big lings and scallops.
You've got my wheels turing now. I want to see one of these and maybe design and build one for Norcal diving.

I also just found this:

http://liquidlogickayaks.com/versa.cfm
 
I'm watching this thread closely simply because some shore diving with a Nomad LT and 2 AL40's may fit the bill off of a SUP. hmmmmmm....
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

Back
Top Bottom