Can't wait to get back on the water. This spring (Ontafio) just seems to be dragging on though...

me, my son and my dad on the Buffalo River last summer. It was his first time in his own kayak.

Following up from my earlier query, my Tucktec 2025 Pro folding kayak arrived at the tail end of October, which is just about within the window when I expected it. When placing the pre-order in late July ($273 shipped), they said it would not ship for at least 60 days, so 90-ish days later was indeed correct on their part. The currently listed price (December 2024) appears to be at least $430 after shipping.

It arrived in a single large cardboard carton, easily brought indoors. Inside, I found the bright-yellow kayak already folded up. Opening it out, the various parts were: the kayak itself, the brief instruction manual, the seat, the seat's support struts, the skeg, and the Velcro belt used to hold the kayak in its folded state.

When I say the instruction manual is brief, I mean that it basically said to go to the website and

Hi, I don’t know much when it comes to kayak maintenance, so I don’t know how bad this is, or how urgent its repair is. What sort of repair would this require? Is it something I can do myself? Or should I get a professional to do it.

Thanks

I have no prior kayaking experience except occasionally paddling one while camping with friends on still water. That's fun and all, but I'd like to get out on the water on my own, to some of the nearby lakes near me, maybe once a month during the sunny seasons. None of these would have anything remotely considered as "rapids".

My main consideration is transporting a prospective kayak, as I greatly prefer biking rather than driving a car for distances within an hour of me, which includes two or three suitable bodies of water. While I have the capacity to store a conventional hard-shell kayak at home, I'm exploring a folding kayak, since this could go with me in a car for farther locations, on a bike for nearby waters, and even a bus. I feel the hassle of moving a 12 ft hard-shell kayak would discourage me from ever using it outright.

This specific model won't ship until October, which might be a bit late in the season, but it's on sale for $300 out the door, or $273 because of a 10% e

This was my weekend on the water, Makara to Titahi Bay Sunday, and a Kapiti island circumnavigation Monday.

These are both very tide dependent trips, so required a reasonably early start to catch the tide.

Both were great trips, and we were very lucky with the weather.

Lac Bellevue, réserve faunique de Portneuf.

Balade sur l'eau tôt le matin, seul dans la brume avec les oiseaux. Je ne connais rien de plus paisible.

Saturday, the Rangitikei river.

I forgot to start the recording until we stopped for a break, but this was a great section of the river.

Sunday, the Blue Pools section of the Tongariro

A big step up from what I'm used to paddling, this stretch is at the upper end of grade 2, and I feel I learned a lot paddling it.

Any questions you have, feel free to ask.

This is a trip I did a few months ago now, from Makara to Owhiro Bay on the Wellington coastline. I've only done the trip once before, and the trip is tide dependent and requires meticulous planning, tides can run in excess of five knots along this coastline, so it's important to have them working in your favour. The tidal flow gave us a big push, I'd guess taking at least an hour off the trip.

I've also got a Cook strait crossing one I will dig up.

The topic came up on my last post about winter paddling, so I thought I would share these, some photos from a road trip around the south island of New Zealand. The photos are lake Ruataniwha and lake Tekapo, boat is a Mission Eco Bezhig. The air temp was just above zero, water temp about the same, no wind, and I had the lake to myself both times. Awesome trip.

I recently did a trip to the Cavalli islands, at the far north of New Zealand, staying at Matauri Bay Campsite and doing day trips either from the site, or a short drive away. This is a summary of that trip, the links take you to a short video showing the path we took and a few photos from each trip.

In total, 122.8 km paddled and walked, about 1900KM driven, at 8.2l/100km, a bit over 24 hours on the road spread over two days. The Cavallis are a beautiful place, and I want to come back at a time when we have half a metre or so of swell to get into all the caves and passageways I couldn’t see this time. I did, however, see all the areas I was hoping to see, and overall the trip was great fun, and well worth the travel. Day 1, Rock gardening from Matauri bay west, 17.9 km https://www.relive.cc/view/vrqDpNRpKLq Day 2, Outer Cavalli islands, 28.1 KM https://www.relive.cc/view/v36AGRY9KZv Day 3, Southern Cavalli islands, 22.4km https://www.relive.cc/view/vYvE2nLm5GO Day 4, Pekapeka b

People usually don't like rain, kayakers see it as an opportunity to go down small rivers...

As soon as they can swim reasonably well, children can join a kayak club !