Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Surly Horns

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Featured Replies

So I took most of last summer off, but I want to get out on the river again this year.

Anyone planning a surly kayak day on a local river?

14 hours ago, NoRagrets said:

I just bought a kayak. Hope I don't die.

no ragrets

what kind did you buy?  i have a tarpon 140.  it's too long imo, for a river run, but perfect for the coast.  

19 minutes ago, thrillhammer said:

what kind did you buy?  i have a tarpon 140.  it's too long imo, for a river run, but perfect for the coast.  

I regularly took my 15 footer (Viking reload) out on the rivers.  Just need to be able to control it properly and read the trouble spots in advance. Only turtled 3 times and one of them was to not kill my dog.

Iv been looking around craigslist like a poor for my first yak. This one catches my eye as being a pretty good deal. He said the paddle included is a bending branches too. 

 

https://austin.craigslist.org/spo/d/kayak-wilderness-systems/6563271721.html

 

edited to add that I’d mostly do lakes and maybe some rivers and would love to sail with the surly flotilla and be able to keep up. being able to fish in the yak would be important too 

Edited by deft

Ended up picking up a pelican cheapie at dicks. We’ll see if I end up using it before I go all in on a big boi kayak. 

thats a great deal on the tarpon.  12' should be perfect.  there are many times i wish mine was 12 instead of 14.

1 hour ago, thrillhammer said:

 there are many times i wish mine was 12 instead of 14.

I know the feeling man.

On 4/26/2018 at 9:01 AM, thrillhammer said:

what kind did you buy?  i have a tarpon 140.  it's too long imo, for a river run, but perfect for the coast.  

Cheap pelican 12ft from Costco. It did great down the SA river. Did not enjoy having to Beach it to rescue the kid when his kayak got stuck in the chutes 3 times.

I bought a used Perception Sport 10' Pescador off craigslist several years ago.  It's basically a clone of the Wilderness Systems Tarpon, but with a few less features(you can add them if you want).  It runs a lot cheaper($549) than the Tarpon $749.  I had to do a little bit of plastic welding on it where the ropes she was using to transport it cut a hole in the bow, but I got it, a paddle, and vest for $300.  I've rented several types of kayaks to do river trips with mild rapids and the Pescador/Tarpon has been my favorite.

Floating this Saturday with a group in San Marcos. Testing out a new boat that I may purchase for river trips, and keep my current 14 footer as a lake boat.

So I may just be asking for biased answers posting in this thread but what are people’s thoughts on kayaks vs canoes. 

I may be interested in one and I keep going back and forth on which style

mainly it’s because I want something I can paddle around and fish from. But I also want to be able to have a second Fisher with me on occasion.

kayaks seem more maneuverable but a canoe I could paddle around both my kids with the older one up front with a paddle and the little one in the middle. Or two adults fishing from one canoe

i know there are two person kayaks too but they seem less common and harder to find

so am I crazy for leaning canoe? Or are kayaks truly superior? 

 

Canoes are great haulers, until they tip over. We have a few in our group that roll with canoes, but never solo, and when they flip, it’s a bigger deal than when a kayak flips. The modern kayak is much more stable.

 

there are quite a few kayaks that can configure as both tandem and single. My first boat was a Malibu 2 XL, and I loved that boat, still regret selling it. It could do what you want as well until the little one gets older.

Pics from our trip this weekend...

b43660bfb0d99ffb127cd05873010a58.jpg

fc0021840124ad29ca1c9343bff2acfd.jpg

Proof that I have a shithead...

7dd83a0c640efdaa587196b4a4f8ae0c.jpg

Kayaks navigate tight turns much easier than canoes do.  I'm a pretty experience canoer, but have dumped plenty when with inexperienced people, or during some higher water situations.  If a kayak gets thrown into a log, it's much more likely to just bounce off it.  I've never tipped my kayak.

Also, when you tip your canoe, you're probably going to lose some beer, and that sucks.

I like both, but lean kayak when water is too high or too low.

Kayak n00b here.  I've been wanting to get one for a while, but don't know too much about it. Use case would be casual paddling around local rivers,  lake travis/austin/town, or even barton creek. 

I would have my dog with me most of the time, and he'd need to be able to get in and out.  He's a 75lb GSD.

Of course I would also need a little room on board for a couple beers.

I was thinking a sit on top 10 or 12 footer.  Advice?  

How about transporting the thing?  I drive a truck, so throwing it in the bed would work, but of course it would hang out the back quite a bit.  What do you guys do for transporting in a truck?

Sit on top for the dog, but you're not going to have enough room for it with a one seater. Tandem would also be more stable for a big dog to be moving around in.

I have a 10ft that I just strap to the inside hooks of my truck bed and let it hang over the open tailgate a little. F150 with 6.5 ft bed

My new poor person yak is a 10 footer and I doubt you’re gonna find anything less than a 12 (based on my research) that’ll handle your weight plus a cooler and horse/dog.

On 5/7/2018 at 7:29 PM, Hawndoh said:

So I may just be asking for biased answers posting in this thread but what are people’s thoughts on kayaks vs canoes. 

I may be interested in one and I keep going back and forth on which style

mainly it’s because I want something I can paddle around and fish from. But I also want to be able to have a second Fisher with me on occasion.

kayaks seem more maneuverable but a canoe I could paddle around both my kids with the older one up front with a paddle and the little one in the middle. Or two adults fishing from one canoe

i know there are two person kayaks too but they seem less common and harder to find

so am I crazy for leaning canoe? Or are kayaks truly superior? 

 

Get both.  Pretty soon the oldest kid will be big enough to maneuver the kayak by himself/herself.  On our float trips I take a canoe for coolers, tired kids, etc, and everyone else takes a kayak.  

^^^^^

the answer is always more boats. Matter of fact, I’m picking up a new boat tomorrow for a guy down on the coast. Going to be my dedicated river boat.

Picked up a Lure 11.5 today. Going for a rudder install tomorrow. Thinking about a float Sunday.

Installed the rudder yesterday, so had to test it out after work.

a5aa766bdaf679385a916ab037113457.jpg

4aa8de79c1cce475105336d41a25c7b8.jpg

82b8e891f2b3f3fa6aa1d81b23e86ac5.jpg

Meeting at Spencers at 10 tomorrow if anyone is interested. Small group right now, but all are welcome. Shoot me a PM if you want to join

Well, that was an interesting float. Rained on twice, the second time we had to dodge some lightning. River was surprisingly packed.

c5f40aa16fd2a90b17fe108f49586991.jpg

af61936b4279f30ed3a6120fcf74eef3.jpg

88712ba35bf1325226937e17f1f44855.jpg

173b695e6df9248f88925458dea30498.jpg

f66ab4b640a91a58267ab622ec14362c.jpg

Sunday I am doing the En Fuego cook off or whatever it is where all the top chefs in Austin are cooking over open fires.

How long do you guys stay out?

20 minutes ago, deft said:

How long do you guys stay out?

Its a 5 mile trip. We stop at several swimming holes. So usually 3-4 hours I'd guess. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. You can always run ahead if you need to leave earlier.

Thanks for the invite, but I'm working 70+ hour weeks these days. The only water I'm seeing is the water I'm drowning in.

Are you the reason from the old board?

13 minutes ago, PatrickMcHorn said:

Thanks for the invite, but I'm working 70+ hour weeks these days. The only water I'm seeing is the water I'm drowning in.

Are you the reason from the old board?

Thats me.

7 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

I'm on call for work. Total bullshit.

giphy.gif

  • Author

I'll be at a kids swim meet Sunday.

Y'all have fun and thanks for the tag.

 

 

No worries, we seem to have a much better momentum this year, so this won’t be the last.

Finally got the long-delayed first kayak run of the year in on Saturday.  It was a short trip, as rain was expected in the early afternoon and it was a little chilly (mid 60's) compared to the previous weekend (mid 90's).  Water was good, and my wife got to try her new kayak out, which did well.  About 5 miles on the Upper Iowa River between Kendallville and Bluffton, IA.

unnamed_5.jpg

 

unnamed_7.jpg

unnamed_8.jpg

unnamed_9.jpg

unnamed_10.jpg

unnamed_11.jpg

16 minutes ago, PatrickMcHorn said:

Looks nice man. I can't fathom wearing a hoodie right now. Does not compute.
 

It ended up nice later in the day.  Iowa weather is weird.  In late April we had a foot of snow.  In late May it was 98 degrees.  First Saturday of June, it was 65 (that wasn't the high for the day, but that's where it was when we went out).  It's not uncommon to see 30 degree swings in a couple of hours, let alone over a couple of days.  I can't tell you how many times I've started the day in a hoodie, and switched to shorts and a t-shirt by noon or run the heat and the AC in a car in the same day.

At least it looks like things are normalizing in the 10 day forecast (highs in the mid to low 80's).

 

Edited by Al_4_ISU

Hmmm, it would seem the flotilla needs to make a trip north, as that looks awesome.

The Upper Iowa is a bit of a hidden gem.  It was in consideration for being a National Wild & Scenic River in the 80's, but I think in the end the local land owners fought it off.  I posted a lot of pics of our kayak excursions over the years in the old Outdoor Photo Thread on the Shag.

Northeast Iowa (along with Southeast Minnesota, Western Wisconsin, and a tiny bit of NW Illinois) is part of the Driftless Area.  Basically, the glaciers that steam rolled most of the northern plains missed this area, which is split by the Mississippi, and left a landscape of rugged, forested hills and valleys that drain towards the Mississippi.  It has the appearance of a poor man's Ozarks, I guess.  I live right on the edge of this, and there's a pretty dramatic and obvious difference as you drive off the plains and into the valleys/hill country.

If the floatilla ever comes north, I'll host you fuckers and get you on the best stretches of river.  Beer and brats will flow in abundance.

Edited by Al_4_ISU

  • 2 weeks later...

So somewhat related to the thread, but I saw the potential rain forecast from this possible storm next week, and it looks like a bomb may be dropping upriver on the Guad. I ran over to the USGS waterdata site to check the flow on the upper Guad, and its at 7. 7cfs. Holy shit, we need some rain. I think we ran it year before last and it was 400, and it was a fucking blast, huge standing waves, and I've run it under 200 before, and we were walking a bit, but 7. Damn. Might as well not be a river.

 

Probably not a good idea this weekend due to forecast, but may be looking at a float weekend after next.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.