I finally broke down and bought a kayak. I know the guys on the Hobie Pro Staff and they have been trying to get me into a kayak for a couple of years now. Their persistance finally paid off Saturday.
After seeing the pedal-drive in the Hobie kayaks three years ago, and lusting after them ever since, I finally got one over the weekend–a Hobie Outback Mirage. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to pick it up right then or have to wait, but I was pleasantly surprised to take the exact model and color home with me. I bought the kayak from Dana Point Jet Ski. Tim Boyer, the owner, took care of me and also allowed me to take a test paddle out a couple of weeks prior to buying it. Fortunately, his dealership is located right on the water in Dana Point Harbor, so trying out each model was simply asking to try each one.

Since I got there so late in the day, I wasn’t able to get the boat wet, but I did drive down to the baby beach at the other end of the marina to check out the parking and launching area. I plan to go out next Saturday for my maiden voyage.

The only difficulty I ran into was trying to load the kayak onto a Thule Hull-A-Port carrier that I had purchased from REI using my dividend and 20% off coupon earlier in the day. Getting the kayak up on the CR-V and into the holders wasn’t a problem, it was trying to get it leaned over against the back of the J-brackets. For a normal passenger vehicle, this shouldn’t be a problem because the overall vehicle height is lower, but for a SUV, I couldn’t hold it kayak in-place AND push it over onto the carrier. It was promptly returned and I got straps and pads and layed the kayak over upsidedown onto the bars. It works perfectly! I’m going to be interested to see how this affects my mileage on a long drive like up to Crowley Lake.
The other thing that I ended up getting was the outrigger for the Thule rack. Basically, it’s a bar that extends out from the bar so that you only have to lift half of the kayak into the rack at one time. The big mistake I made was to install the bar on the front bar. This manages to scrape up your brand new rudder mechanism as you lift the front of the kayak into the bar. Bottom line, install the outrigger on the REAR bar!

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