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 Kayaking enjoyed for its relaxed ‘smell the flowers’ pace
By ARNOLD MARKOWITZ
Waterfront News Writer
According to a 2005 estimate of dubious accuracy but interesting anyway, 1.8 million canoes and 791,112 kayaks were paddled in Florida in the year 2004, by a total of about 3.5 million paddlers — not all at once, to be sure. It was assumed that Florida had a bit less than 8 percent of estimated nationwide paddle craft totals. Canoes, it was guessed, outnumbered kayaks by about two to one.
Five years later those numbers don’t look quite so crazy, especially if they’re reversed. It does seem a safe guess that kayak paddlers now outnumber the canoe crowd, at least in new boat sales in Florida.
That can’t be documented accurately either, but if you look around, it’s easy to conclude that kayaks are significantly more popular now. Go to any public launch site on a weekend and keep score of what goes in and out. Kayaks will use up all your fingers on one hand before your other counts a canoe.
Why the popularity of paddling? The cost of gas to run an engine is too obvious an answer. Formal launching sites often are unnecessary; any shoreline with a gradual slope is suitable. Portability? Those are conveniences, not visceral reasons.
Whether it’s done with a kayak or canoe, paddling’s fundamental appeal is to those instincts that murmur to us to slow down and sniff the flowers. You see the sea — or the lake or the canal that runs through your neighborhood — as a duck sees it. Waters you cross every day at 60 mph feel like different planets.
We also like the way it’s expressed by Jeff Bingham, who calls his two Broward County stores Kayak Jeff.
“How many times have you seen people who’ve never been on a kayak or a canoe and never saw a little green heron, never saw manatees? You do it in a motorboat and in 30 minutes you’re in and you’re out, and what did you see? When you’re in a kayak, you see things up close and personal. I like to say we paddle at the speed of life.”
Bingham, and Frank Woll who owns Florida Bay Outfitters at Key Largo, both will tell you that deciding between kayak and canoe depends on where you plan to paddle. For open waters, exposed to boat traffic, they favor the kayak. So do their customers, and their inventories reflect that.
While Bingham was busy with a customer, Waterfront News walked around his 2-year-old shop and counted the craft on racks, walls and the floor: 60 kayaks, one paddling surfboard, four canoes.
That gives you a good idea of the public demand, at least for southeast Florida.
“We sell maybe a dozen canoes in a year,” says Bingham, and that’s counting the second store he opened last May in Pompano Beach.
We also took a look at the website of Florida Bay Outfitters in Key Largo, where Frank and his wife Monica sell and rent new and used canoes and kayaks. There were seven kayaks listed, with four already marked “sold” and just one canoe. FBO was started by Woll 17 years ago. The Wolls conduct kayak-only tours and run a club called Paradise Paddlers.
The popularity of kayaking has surged in the last 15 years or so, with a sub surge in kayak fishing that Woll says began about 10 years ago.
Could it mean that paddlers are switching from canoes to kayaks? Using both?
“I don’t think people necessarily switch. We still paddle canoes even though we use kayaks here in the Keys,” Woll says. “It’s just another type of paddling and most paddlers will use the boat appropriate to where they are paddling, but that’s more my opinion.
“A lot of our customers, though, come in to try kayaking. It’s not like they have been or plan to get into it.”
Depending on how long ago your own “old days” happened, you might think of kayaks as boats meant for swimming and of kayakers as people whose idea of fun is purposely overturning their boats in a realistic simulation of a fatal accident, then up righting.
That’s called the Eskimo roll, and you’d better be good at it if you’re a whitewater paddler. For calm-water touring, fishing and low-risk recreation paddlers, the roll is good to know – important, some would say — but not so crucial.
Except in whitewater, flip-overs aren’t a serious design concern, Woll says.
“Most sea kayaks and recreational ones (which includes sit-on-tops and rec boats) are stable. People think they are tippy. Say, have you paddled many kayaks yourself?”
The surge in kayak popularity began with the introduction of sit-on-top boats, which, in their early designs, looked made for swimming but held much greater potential.
This was noticed pretty quickly by clever shallow-water fishermen like Dick Dillman, who rigged an inexpensive 8-footer with flyrod holders, a rope-and-anchor pulley system and a milk crate that served as storage compartment and backrest (see Waterfront News, May ’04). Arthritic knees, bum back and all, Dillman could pick it up alone, carry it to his compact station wagon and slide it through the tailgate.
By then, the kayak industry had caught on.
Kayak Jeff Bingham, a part-time paddling instructor and freelance outfitter at the time, watched it happening.
“People could jump on a sit-on-top kayak and say, ‘hey, I can handle a paddle.’ It doesn’t take a great deal of intuition or training. Knowing this, the manufacturers started gearing their boats to that novice consumer.
“Their thinking was, ‘if I can this set up so it’s a fishing kayak or a surfing kayak that anybody can jump in, that’s a real win.’ So your generic sit-on-top became your specialized fishing kayak or a highly specialized surfing kayak.”
Adding stability also made a difference. Even if you do tip over, a good built-for-fishing kayak’s bungee cords, lockable rod holders and gasketed compartments make it less likely to lose or ruin valuable equipment.
Now there are built-in anchor systems, rudders and even pedals to run the boat when your hands are busy fishing. There’s a kayak named Freedom Hawk with a scissors-like stern that opens to stabilize the boat so you can fish standing up and even pole it like a bonefish skiff.
Nice, but kayaks built for fishing are almost twice the size of Dick Dillman’s — harder to store and transport, heavy to lift without help and much, much pricier. Expect to spend about $1,400, and you’ll also need a set of portable wheels to move such a boat between your car and the water.
Then again, it isn’t necessary to spend whatever amount you define as big money. You can still buy a small no-frills kayak new for about $400. We saw a couple like that on the floor at Bass Pro Shops. Rental outfits like Florida Bay Outfitters sell their used rentals at prices much more attractive than new ones. If you’re handy with tools, you can improvise your own specialized accessories.
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Up close:
It isn’t hard to paddle a kayak or canoe, but it’s not as easy as it looks. Beginners should resist the temptation to buy one and hit the water without essential stroke and safety knowledge. Take a few lessons.
Rentals and tours offer the opportunity to acquire basic skills. Try out several boats and find the type of boat that’s best for you. Day-trippers don’t need as much cargo capacity as multi-day campers. Some kayaks are built primarily for fishing. Casual anglers might do better to add a few fishing accessories to a standard recreational boat. If you must carry plenty of gear and supplies, a canoe may serve you better.
Kayak Jeff has stores in Broward County at 354 E. Dania Beach Blvd. (954-926-5766) and at 1857 S. Dixie Highway in Pompano Beach (954-783-1688). Free instruction goes with every kayak purchased. Tours are conducted every Friday on nearby Whiskey Creek and West Lake. See the website at www.kayakjeff.com .
Atlantic Coast Kayak Company (954-781-0073 or 954-854-1014) runs a concession from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Richardson Estate dock, on the Middle River in Wilton Manors. They teach basic and advanced classes and offer weekend kayak tours. www.atlanticcoastkayak.com .
Florida Bay Outfitters’ shop is at 14050 Overseas Highway, Key Largo, on the southbound side of the road. 305-451-3018: www.kayakfloridakeys.com .
If you’re ready to buy, see what will fit in the space you have available. Check the boat’s weight. If you can’t lift it onto and off your vehicle, do you have a steady partner to share the effort? Are you willing to buy assist devices for lifting and for wheeling a heavy boat to and from the water’s edge?
The Paddlesports Industry Association’s website, www.paddlesportsindustry.org , lists affiliated outfitters and renters in many states, including 38 in Florida.
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