While we grind through video work over the next couple weeks, I’m sharing some of my favorite skin on frame images:
Something that happens to me with some frequency is that I’ll spend a long time working on a design and then when I’m finally finished I look at it and realize that it shouldn’t be a skin on frame kayak.
This was the case with this multi-sport kayak I designed as a saner alternative to the surf skis that are really out of place in a triathlon. By pulling the length down by 3 feet you can substantially reduce drag and increase handling and ergonomics while still having plenty of top end to avoid plowing your bow wave. The net effect would be faster race times and less accidental capsizes.
Honestly something like this would be better for 90% of people who purchase a surf ski, but unfortunately such decisions are often driven by fashion, rather than function.
There are flat water racing kayaks that match this description but they don’t have the superior chop punching abilities that a ski does, so the idea here was ski-shaped 18 ft closed deck kayak. It was a good concept and paddled nicely (this being a relative term because generally racing kayaks paddle like crap) but when I was done I just looked at it and realized that this is a boat that really needs to be built in carbon fiber to push the wetted surface even further down and be able to integrate the ergonomics and the accessories much more cleanly. When I reach this point I typically move on to something else because I’m not interested in making skin on frame kayaks for their own sake, there has to be a reason a particular design works better in skin rather than some other medium.
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This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
