Matt Langenfeld wrote:
I'll take a limited shot at this one.

No comment(1).

What are you looking to do on the river? There are 3 kinds of "river"
yaks: whitewater, creekboat, and playboat. As I understand it, ww yaks
have the most volume and aren't meant to sink as deep in the water as
say a creekboat.

That's about 180 off course. Creekboats are designed to have lots of
volume so they don't dive too deep when you fall off a steep drop. Both
playboats and creekers are whitewater kayaks.

But with your size, you may need something with more
volume anyway.

Absolutely.

I've heard Wilderness System Diesel is pretty could for big boys.

You mispelled "Wave Sport." And they don't suggest it for people over 200#.

Hope that provides some info and didn't make your choice harder.

No comment(2).

Barry wrote:

My question: What river kayaks are available for big guys? ...
While I like composite
kayaks, I've been impressed with my old plastic boat and its ability
to withstand the abuse of river kayaking. The Smith river has a lot
of large boulders that I've already encountered "up close and
personal". I can read water pretty well as I fly fish and have had a
drift boat(s) for twenty years.

Your thoughts? Advice?

Barry,

You won't find much info on river kayaking (what do you mean by that,
anyway? Whitewater? If so, you need to say that; rivers can be anything
from 100 cfs to millions of cfs, from totally flat to Whoa!) in
rec.boats.paddle.touring. Try rec.boats.paddle for WW info, or
boatertalk.com.

Also, Wes Boyd's page [http://my.dmci.net/~wesboyd/bigguy.htm] is the
last word on big boys' boats.

--
Steve Cramer
Athens, GA