13" "Ocean Kayak" Prowler.
In my life I've pulled three people out of the water. I took lifesaving at the YMCA because a hot girl I knew was in the class , never worked as a lifeguard, never hooked up with her, but it did do me some good. During Hurricane Bob, people were down the beach surfing, and someone got cramped up and was hanging on to a mooring buoy 100 yards out. I heard "help" and thought I was dreaming until I saw the buoy had a head. None of the surfers wanted to go out, they were all tired, so I got my life jacket out of the truck (I get invited fishing and no one ever has jackets when I show up) and swam out and threw it in the guys face. Nervous drowning people often try to grab onto rescuers and drown them and he was a big sucker. Throwing them something that floats immediately calms them down. I got him to put an arm in it, I grabbed the other arm hole and towed the big dude in. He was cut from his crotch to his neck trying to hold on to the barnacle covered buoy.
A kid fell through the ice at a skating pond, and I walked out to get him, got close and fell in too. I threw him up on the ice and busted ice trying to haul myself out too. I'd get my elbows up, it'd break and back in I'd go. A few minutes of this and I could stand on the bottom and jump up on. Stupid thing to do though. A kid fell through trying to rescue his dog, then his Dad fell through trying to get him. The Dad died, just two towns over.
Here's the good one, the life lesson. I was fishing on a bridge over a river and the current was running. Two people in ocean kayaks were going under the bridge. Both of them went sideways and splash. One guy was out and swimming. The other was in his kayak sideways slapping the water with his paddle looking much like he was about to drown. People drown in that stretch of river every year, the currents bad. I ran down the shore, waded out and grabbed him and towed him in. Neither knew how to roll a kayak.
I always wanted one, but that episode convinced me they (traditional kayaks with spray skirts ) were a good way to drown. A few years ago, sit on top kayaks started appearing as sit down surfboards down the shore, and I thought that might be a possibility. Then I saw these big ocean models and thought they'd actually stay a float with me on them.
I put this one in the water, got in and in five seconds of paddling, water was slapping me in the twins. There are like a dozen drain holes in this thing (self bailing) and apparently when you approach the weight limit water comes up, through, and in. Being $15 a pair, they get another C - note out of you plugging the holes. I'll tell you one thing, as well, the things are not as stable as people say. A chop or a boat wake will roll you side to side and if you can't get a paddle in the water to brace yourself, dump you. There's definitely more to stability than a low center of gravity. You've got to consider the beam and the shape of the bottom.
