As I mentioned before, I am new to the kayak fishing and am having so much fun. It has opened up a whole new fishery to me that I have ignored in the past because I spent so much time going off shore to the wrecks. I have been using a friends kayak, but it wasn’t ideal because of my size. I am 6’6" 280 lbs.
I found a kayak that I can actually stand in and sight cast. Some of you may not like the looks or style, but I can fit and stand. I have tried some of the other kayak mentioned for standing, not a chance for me. I bought it used here on Hilton Head from a charter service (Triple Threat) that still has a few more for sale if anyone is interested. Complete package: Kayak, paddle, seat, trolling motor, battery, 2 rod holders for $500. It is made by kiwi kayaks.
I have limited experience in different kayaks, so I don’t have much to compare to. Up until now I was using a friends kayak which is a wilderness system pamlico. I would say the pamlico paddles a little better, but the difference seams very minimal to me.
Sorry, not sure what it is made of.
The web site says nothing about manufacturing process… most likely a roto molded plastic like the rest of 'em… Still not a lot of good pix but I’d like to see it and check it out…
Dang Russ you sound liek you designed a yak or two yourself we need to fish Bro… Dump that midget you hangout with so we can go rip some lips HAHAHAHAHA
Get it right Nikon, they were sealskins strethed over whale bones! learned it from Nanook of the North! lol:)
But hey, he fits in the front hatch and pops out to net fish, works for beer!
Aggggghhhhhh Too Busy, not lime green!!! My Mom and I fought for weeks over introducing that color, I hated it at first! But as allways, what Mama wants, Mama gets!
What model was it? Either Tim or I carved it out. We used to do it the old fashioned way, big block of foam, disc sander, electric chain saw, hot wires and such, then glass it, test it, then make another one 9% bigger to allow for shrinkage, then make patterns off it, then cast mold in pieces, then weld together, mount in steel frame, polish, anneal in oven for 6 hours at 800 deg. then start producing yaks from it.
Russ B. www.joinrfa.org
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
That’s old school, but the easiest way in the early days to get complex shapes too dificult to work in wood.
Long before turning loose a CMC machine with a ball end mill on a foam block
First generation scupper pro, one of the early years for lime geen. Just looked at an old pic… it was a Tim design
Sorry for the thread jack Freedom 55. Bunch of yak geeks on here
Yeah, we definitly did it old school for a while, but then went with ‘manufactured molds’ of our designs sometimes too at about 5 times the tooling cost and usually we liked our molds better, more control of what all goes into it in house, same with our machines, we built every one of them using our molding crews in the off season to keep them on staff year round, we usually sold a few machines off then every year, Kiwi Kayaks bought a few, a few are in Europe.
We played around with a CNC machine that Boeing had for a bit, actually made a few mini yak models with it, those things are pricey!
Those original scupper pros were pretty sweet, even better when we made the new one with a optional scuba tank well in the back instead of a hatch, was a offshoot of the first OK yak, the Scupper (our cats name too, lol!)
Perception, ooops, Watermark, oops, Confluence has a state of the art R&D, CNC facilty up in Pickens(if it hasn’t been moved) that me and another fellow got all set up, has a 14ft CNC table, enclosed clean room spray booths, EPA approved exhaust system for glassing, air conditioned shop, offices. We spent millions upon millions getting it all set up.
I’m babbling now, lol.
Russ B. www.joinrfa.org
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
The r&d shop was set up a few miles away from the main molding facility on Kayaker Way/powdersville rd. Easley was a bit to um, ‘easley’ for living for me, I lived up in Berea area. Quite the facility there on Powdersville rd well, from the outside at least! They had a lot of underutilized space there 12 years ago or so, mostly boat storage, you could go back in the rows of yaks and find ones that were molded 4 years prior and had not been assembled, thousands of sq’ ft of ones 3 yeard old, talk about a accountants nightmare!
Russ B. www.joinrfa.org
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
I toured the facility about 10 years ago and kept talking about how much excess inventory, excess capacity, and underutilized space there was at the plant. They had a warehouse stacked full and still had molding lines going full tilt boogie.
Got a call the next day asking if I was inteersted in becoming the lean systems / continuous improvement manager. Job would have been great, pay scale wan’t on par.
Still one of the cooler manufacturing facilites that I’ve visited.
Heck, I was over on the other side of the complex back by the pond doing Mainstream stuff 10 years ago, Am sure was prolly there when you visited! You tour it with Bill or after it sold?
Russ B. www.joinrfa.org
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
all that excess stock and they can’t donate some to HOW… sad… They could write it off at retail price and our guys would have kayaks to fish out of… I guess if we had lobbyists they would help us…
Toured with Bill
Toured again after it sold… not much difference for a while
Wish I’d known you a long time ago Russ… we could’ve had a whole $%##@e load of fun
Ouch - get the knife outta my back.
Ken the old stock eventually went into a plastic grinder for recycling. One thing Sue changed right off the bat was elimination of excess inventory. It comes off the books every year now and is disposed of one way or another. They had a yard sale about 2 weeks ago… I should have gone and LOADED UP the trailer. One of the broken hatch boats is for sale on craigslist now.
wanna know the worst part… I’m on Pro Staff and I know less about company operations now than I did 10 years ago just being an Easley resident.
Ahh, ok, Bill M. and I go way way back. That really sucks about the grinding of excess inventor. When we had OK we every year donated about 200 boats to various orgs, big one we used to give a lot of boats to was the Armed Forces Recreation Dept. (besides the 25 solid black ones we made for the seals teams, doh!) They were allways extremly appreciative and extended tours of local bases to our company employees. Got to go crawl around in a nuclear sub at Bangor base in Hood Canal one time, that was pretty cool. The Boy Scouts and park dept’s allways got some free boats every year as well as a few local underprivledged youth orginizations.
With the capacity that Confluence has now with the new machinery at the Perception facility and also the facility up in MN. they should not have to build up that much inventory any more, at least like Perception used to.
Russ B. www.joinrfa.org
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
Too Busy , I live in Easley . I picked up a 12.5 foot sit on top for $325 , included an anchor and seat . They had some deals for sure ! Last year I got a Pungo 120 for $250 . Now if this shoulder would heal so I could go ! Would you say having 8 kayaks is to many ?
we need to fish Bro… Dump that midget you hangout with so we can go rip some lips 
