To answer a few questions, I paddled it with lake grass coming up from the
bottom and didn't have a problem when the blades hit the grass. I'm not
sure what would happen with weeds or sea weed though. I could see something
like that possibly getting tangled in the blades. As for wind, we didn't
have any the day I paddled it. It seemed like the boat would be fairly
comparable though to other sit on tops that I have paddled around which is
quite alot of them. I wouldn't want to paddle this boat in cold weather
though mainly because it is a sit on top. I reserve those primarily for
warm weather. As for being able to pull the pedals up, yes that part was
easy but you reminded me that once they were up it wasn't easy to store them
on the boat because they are big and bulky and there's not much room for
them. Also I wouldn't want to take multi day trips with this boat. It's
mainly a go out on the water for the day and have some fun kind of boat or
one that would give you a good work out with if you wanted. As for using
the paddle alone, the boat paddled just fine and was also comparable to
other sit on tops in that boats range.

Courtney

"!Jones" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 17:11:01 -0800, in rec.boats.paddle "Courtney"
wrote:

I am a whitewater kayaker and canoer and paddle sea kayaks on the side.
However, I did get the chance to try out the Hobie with the pedals but it
was several years back at Outdoor Retailer when they first came out.
Personally I really liked it. It was a fun boat since there were two
different ways of making it move in the water. It appeared to me that it
was a boat meant for fla****er or very low class I / II. I paddled it
solo
and felt I got a great work out. Then I took it out with the rep tandem
and
was amazed at how fast we had that thing going while we both of us
paddled
and peddled together. It was a stable boat and very entertaining. I
really
don't remember having anything negative to say about it except that you
had
to remember not to get into to shallow of water because of the pedals
hanging down.

Courtney

Thanks.

Where I live (Corpus Christi, TX) is bay country with lots of
brackish, protected inlets. It's tarpon & bonefish country. What we
lack in white water, we compensate in wind.

Did you find that it paddled well? I mean, without the pedals. Was
it as effective as any other similar boat?

Jones