Too wide not good Posted by: RiverMystic on Feb-13-13 12:17 PM (EST)
I teach paddling camps for kids in the summer. The problem with the wide recreational kayaks that the park provides me is that they are just too wide for children. Overprotective parents like to put their kids in wide boats, this killing a lot of the fun of paddling. A lot of the narrower boats are no longer available (market catering to overprotective parents). You really want a scaled down kayak - shorter and narrower, not just a shorter boat that is the same width as the adult version. In the camp I put a square flotation device under shorter children so they don't have to put their arms high in the air to clear the kayak.