Submitted: 10-27-2003 by GC
I'm new to kayaking, and still have not bought one. The XL139 was the third boat I've tried on a day trip. The large cockpit was welcome, given that I'm none too limber these days. Very good initial stability.I thought it was a fairly speedy boat - until I tried to keep pace with a few other people in my group, who were in sleeker boats. They were paddling at probably half my effort, and were 100-300 yards in front of me within minutes. When just drifting after a stroke, they kept on going, and the XL139 quickly ran out of momentum. At the end of 2 1/2 hours I was feeling the soreness in my arms. Legs and butt were not that comfortable either in terms of the seating. Although it was an improvement over the Loon 138, and has more speed and somewhat less resistance, it's still too heavy and slow for anything but recreational paddling. |