Marsh Jones wrote in
:

novice wrote:
I'll doublecheck availability of rentals in my area but I was thinking
of buying a small kayak under $500 and use it to build up my paddling
muscles. maybe 9 ft long and 3ft wide. i need to store it in apartment
and carry on small sports car. Is this dumb?

You money would be better spent trying to find something longer and narrower
on the used market.

Unfortunately, what you'll wind up building up is lots of bad habits and
the wrong muscles.

Not necessarily. Other than the width affecting the paddle angle I don't
don't see how paddling a recreational class kayak would *force* someone to
develop bad habits.

If you want a play boat/poke boat for drifting
around the edges and maybe chasing a fish, a poke boat is OK. But it is
not going to help you train for racing. You'd be better off joining a
club and saving your money for a used Looksha II or Epic 18.

For me, the nearest kayak club (which is not focused on racing by any
stretch of the imagination) is about 60 miles from where I live. Given the
price of gas these days, joining a club might not be cost effective.

Just a few concerns:
Balance is totally different - in a poke boat, you can get away with
slop -slouching, leaning against the backrest, letting your head bob
side to side.

A recreational kayak doesn't inherently produce those bad habits, it just
more forgiving of bad habits. Anyone can paddle a 9' long, 3' wide kayak
with exactly the same posture as they would when paddling a 20' long, 20"
wide kayak.

Stroke - it is absolutely impossible to get a good racing stroke when
you can't get closer than 45 degrees to vertical. Plus your paddle
length is going to be 15-20cm too long, the stroke will start too far
back, end too far back, etc, etc

If anything, with a good high angle stroke, a wider boat would require more
torso rotation but could just as easily be paddled with a 210cm paddle as a
20" wide boat. I haven't seen a kayak yet that limits how far once can
reach forward it initiate a stroke.

Steering - those boats don't steer - so all your energy is going to go
into keeping the boat straight instead of learning to paddle and go fast.

I disagree. Those boats steer very well. The bow may move from side to
side more than a stiff tracking boat, but they're much more responsive to a
little sweep than an 18-20' long boat. From what I have seen, beginners
have more trouble keeping a long, stiff tracking boat going straight
(because once they start going off course they're harder to get back on
course) than a more manoeverable boat.