hi all, im new to the site. i have been out of action, kayak wise, for around ten years but would love to get back into it. im looking for a kayak that suits my size, 210lbs/15 stone and im 6ft tall. i will be using it for surfing and river running. has anyone a yak in mind that covers both areas and fits my "huskier" size?

well i did a little research on this site and across the net and the fluid spice (large) seems to be a good choice to cover ocean surfing andriver running. looks like i should fit comfortably into it aswell. i will talk to the local canoe club to see if they can help me out with a trial.

I saw your post last night and was going to suggest the large Spice but thought I'd wait if anyone else replied. Yeah I think that would work pretty well. I have the medium and have been very happy. I wrote a review on the boat here, just note that the photos shown on my site show the old outfitting:
adrian.playak.com/index.php/articles-mai...-spice-medium-review

Any questions, shoot.

yeah i saw your review and based my thoughts on that. i just need to find a second hand one in Ireland now.
this might be a stupid question but i'll fire away anyway. is it possible or even necessary to add fins to a kayak like this to help with surfing in the sea?
i work with sheet alluminium and have a few ideas floating around my head

If you just want to surf down the wave, you shouldn't need them. If you want to do more carving on it, that would probably be the point when you should start looking into fins more.

Fins will only help a boat with a faster hull, ie. a surf or freestyle surf kayak. Only in some specialised aerial tricks will small fins be of any help (that's also debatable) and 99% of paddlers aren't doing those moves anyway. Remember, you will be able to ride waves and have fun spinning around and doing some blunts and what not but you will not have the hull speed for bottom turns and cutbacks. For that you need a more specialised kayak like the Fluid Element (not a true surf kayak and branded as a freestyle surf kayak) or a full on surf kayak like something from Watertech, Mega etc. to be able to really ride a wave. Of course, these boats cannot be used on rivers so unless you are going to buy more than 1 boat, stick with something like the Spice so you can enjoy the rivers too. So to answer your question, don't waste your time with fins on the Spice. That would also smack it's resale value down to the ground in my opinion.

start riding a waveski and you will be hooked greatly have boards for sale greetings

What about a pyranha inazone i know its a bit out of date but there are a load of them bouncing around in ireland . So you should be able to pick one up eaisly enough and for about more 300 euro and get a demo in one too first . I have a friend who is 6 one or two he is pretty light though but he seems to fit pretty well in my one the 230 but it sits a bit low in the water with me in it(but it is good fun on eddie lines as it will squirt fairly eaisly) and i am about 11 stone just for running rivers so maybe if you looked at the 240 or the 242 .They surf ok its just that the stern will end up getting caught because of how low it sits in a back surf and I have run up to grade 3 in mine fairly comfortably . But you said you could talk to the local club so maybe have a look arround at what people are paddling there and most people will have no problem letting you have a go in their boats . So if you can demo as much as possible .

Kevin

try here pretty reagularlly for whats going second hand irishfreestyle.com/forum

and here for the splice www.kayakhut.com/userimages/procart4.htm