Reviews for Ride 135 Kayak by Wilderness Systems

The Ride is super stable, so I thought it would be super slow. To me the yak does not feel slow at all. It is not close to being as fast as my wife's Pungo 140, but seems fast enough. With rubber golf balls in the scuppers, I had a perfectly dry ride.

I agree that the seat bottom needs more padding. After a few hours out I started to get a bit uncomfortable, so I pulled a cushion out of the dry hatch and solved the problem for the rest of the day. The height adjustment on the backrest slipped a couple of times. I might be ordering one of those 2010 replacement backrests. We will see.

The Ride 135 is perfect for fishing. It has a huge capacity and lots of room for coolers, crates, tackle boxes, etc. I like the grooves in the bow to place your rod tip while rigging the line. Another nice touch is the wealth of bungees located in strategic places.

Pros:
Very stable platform for standing to sight cast or scout river hazards. Lots of storage space and storage options. Orbix hatches are easy to operate and have a solid closure. Seat back gives good support. Tracks well in flat water and tends to coast once you get it up to speed. Hull material stands up to rocks. Scupper holes are well protected inside the tri-hull design. Shallow drafting.

Cons:
Hard to turn. Not the best kayak for a novice in class 2+ water. Not the fastest kayak on the water. Tends to slap and punch through waves rather than ride over top. Seat bottom could use a little more padding. No scupper holes near the seat. Water will collect there.

I agree about the footpegs; they didn’t work great at the demo. I am considering reinforcing them in the center. My calves also rest directly on the plastic, which hurts after a few hours. The boat is wide so you will need a longer paddle. It is also very heavy. Limitations aside, I bought this because I can move all around it, which is impossible in a sit-inside. You can swing your legs off the side to reach items behind you, you can slip into the water to cool off and easily reenter the boat. I can even turn myself around and lay down on my back in the footwell, if I need to try and catch some rays.

Less well designed, however are the cheap footpegs. The tracks for the pegs are only screwed in at the ends, causing the middle to bow out and twist over time. The seat is bothering the both of us, as well. The hinge where the back meets the seatpad at the boat sticks out, denting my butt after about a half hour's ride.

It's a wide boat; which can be good and bad. It holds a lot of stuff, but it's darn heavy - 65lbs. It takes the both of us to get each boat onto the truck. The width also makes it harder to paddle; my girlfriend keeps banging her hands against the side handles. We had to purchase longer paddles than we'd originally thought - 240cm's for the two of us.

Those nitpicks aside, however, it's a great boat; a pleasure to paddle. Its stability makes it easy to get back in after jumping out for a dip in the middle of a lake in the summer. It tracks well. The spacious tankwell fits a cooler easily. The seat's up a bit high, even for a SOT, and I like that, as my arms are long - and my butt stays pretty dry, considering.

The Heritage Redfish is a very good yak, but I preferred the 135. I did not try the Heritage 14 because I didn't like the front hatch on it. I have stood and fished from my 135 and have pulled over some flooded marshes and have thrown a cast net while standing also.

The maneuverability of the Ride 135 is good. I tried it out the first time in fresh water creek here in eastern NC. One of my concerns was that I needed my kayak to be maneuverable because of the tight situations you can get into in some of our creeks. To look at the bottom of the hull, you wouldn't think the maneuverability would be good, but it will surprise you.

The Ride is very stable, has tons of space for storage. My husband loved this kayak, while I was not crazy about it. He is 6'3 and I am 5'5, and the Ride was very comfortable for him, but felt clumsy for me. It is extremely stable and rode the rapids very well; he didn't have any trouble navigating around the rocks but I did. Sitting on top and letting your legs hang on the side was absolutely stable. Our boys took it for fishing and said it was great. Plenty of room for a small cooler in the roomy front storage area. Lots of neat features and places to store stuff. We didn't take in any water at all in this kayak, which is the primary reason for the SOT decision. Very sturdy and well built kayak.