Fluid Nemesis kayak is ugly, nimble
I know nothing about kayaking except what I learned from a made-for-TV movie from the '80s where a guy avoided capture by rolling his kayak under a dragnet. (It seemed much cooler to me at the time than it does now. Also, I think John Denver was in it. So were the Thundercats. The '80s have begin to amalgamate in my gelatinized noggin.)
Here's what I know about kayaks now: There's a company called Fluid that makes a kayak called the Nemesis. From what I can tell from this video, it makes all sorts of twists and whorls possible. It also makes its pilot look like they're riding in the bill of a giant duck. The Nemesis sells for around two grand.
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Anonymous on Fluid Nemesis kayak is ugly, n...
"Shorter boats are the style of choice BECAUSE they spin easily. They might not ..."
w000t on Fluid Nemesis kayak is ugly, n...
"Basically, the flat bottom and short length is what makes spins possible. Conver..."
twofedoras on Fluid Nemesis kayak is ugly, n...
"This style of Kayaking has been around for about 10 years with the development o..."
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twofedoras
#1 – 9:21 AM February 16, 2009
This style of Kayaking has been around for about 10 years with the development of "squirt boats" which is what this is. They are used for Freestyle, Rodeo Kayaking, or playboating. Someone more into kayaking probably knows the difference, but the all look awesomely the same to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboating
w000t
#2 – 12:52 PM February 16, 2009
Basically, the flat bottom and short length is what makes spins possible. Conversely, these little play boats are slower and harder to control (they tend to want to spin rather than go in a straight line like a boat with a deeper keel).
All of that is why I still don't understand why that was the boat style of choice for the jet-propelled kayak featured on Top Gear (if you just want to see the kayak in question, it's shown within 15 sec of the vid).
Anonymous Anonymous
#3 – 8:59 AM February 17, 2009
Shorter boats are the style of choice BECAUSE they spin easily. They might not stay straight on their own, but if they get off-angle, they are very easy to correct. Also, although they are indeed slow on flatwater, when surfing a wave, the short hull and hard rocker break cause them to plane out very easily, which makes them spin better and bounce, for a whole new type of trick. Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTuy3qSXGkM&eurl=http://rfkayakers.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embedded for some wave surfing.