Peter’s Paddling Blog

Last week I picked up my spanking new red Qaanaaq SS in Sweden at Orust Kajak – same place as the annual Stocken Symposium is held. The shop is located some hour drive north of Gothenburg way out in the country in the west swedish archipilago.

I had brought my bivy sack and ultra light weight gear for some days in the area but dropped the idea as soon as I took the SS for a test ride. My 84kg is really pushing the limit of the kayak to the point I have to be super careful getting out of the kayak as to not flood the cockpit sitting on the back deck.
My length at 1.94m however is no problem as long as I don’t wear boots. I’m resting my feet on the front bulkhead as the kayak was intended for. In other words – there are no foot pegs in the SS. Paddlers with shorter legs will have to use some of the accompanying foam plates to shorten the distance to the bulkhead.

In the end I spend the day paddling and rolling my way around the many small islands. It wasn’t exactly painless as the narrow seat was killing my hips. This idea of hanging the seat from the cockpit rim is surely one of the stupidest ideas sea kayak builders ever had. My Supersonic is more narrow than the SS but is still more spacious. Effectively one is losing 5cm width in each side of the cockpit because of this arrangement.

When I got the kayak home I quickly removed these ‘wings’ of the seat and attached(glued) the seat to the bottom of the kayak.

The operation wasn’t quite as risky as it may sound. I had already been test sitting Freya’s SS and knew I fitted alright. I’m not sure I’ll keep the seat installed though as the added height makes some rolls harder.

Now as for stability I figure many sea kayakers will find the SS unstable to the point where they wont be comfortable in waves. Not that capsizing should be an issue if you paddle this kayak.

On my way home from Sweden I stopped by Kullaberg for a nice Arild/Mölle trip. Swinging around Skälderviken seems to be all the rage in that part of the country( tjenar Erik ).

Last a shot of the SS next to my Inuk and a junior K1. The SS at 4.80m is really dwarfed by the 5.50m Battleship-Inuk.