What is kayaking? That’s a very good question. The answer is simple.  According to a poll conducted on middle-aged management consultants found hanging out in the local mall by the staff at DOA, kayaking is the act of sitting in a cramped, uncomfortable, tippy, unstable watercraft while trying unsuccessfully to use an unwieldy double ended paddle to move it forwards instead of in circles.  What do middle-aged management consultants know about kayaking anyway? They couldn’t be further from the truth. In order to educate them, we offered these middle-aged management consultants the opportunity to spend a few hours in a kayak.  They informed us they had no desire to spend several hours terrified they were going to roll over and drown and then told us to get bent.

     The word “Kayak” usually conjures an image of a small craft you sit inside and occasionally on purpose or accident do an eskimo roll. The kayaks used by DOA are open-cockpit kayaks manufacutred by Cobra Kayaks.  They are extremely stable.  I’ve piled over 150 lbs of scuba gear in my Fish-N-Dive and kayaked with no problems at all.  In fact, I can stand up in the center of my kayak without turning it over.  The open-cockpit kayaks are made of molded plastic with a depression in the top you sit in.  You sit on top of the kayak, not inside the kayak. The kayak itself is virtually unsinkable.  In an open-cockpit kayak, there is no such thing as an eskimo roll. Should you somehow manage to turn your kayak over, there’s nothing holding you in.  You fall off, swim back to the kayak, and climb back in. If no one saw you fall out, it never happened. There is still the issue of that unwieldy double ended paddle.  Unless you’re a middle-aged management counsultant who spends his time hanging out in the mall, you shouldn’t have a problem mastering it.  If you’re interested in purchasing a Cobra Kayak, visit the DOA Store.

e-mail DOA: dave@doalasvegas.com