You decided to take up a new hobby and you have it narrowed down to either kayaking or paddle boarding. There both good hobbies. Both get you outside and both get you out on the water as well as a good workout. It’s going to be a hard decision to make.
I went through a similar debate when I was trying to decide which one to buy myself. So I put together a list of some key features I would want out of either of them.
Here’s the list of key features I made when I was looking. You can go over it and see which ones are something your concerned about and what my thought’s are. So I can help you pick what one is going to best suit your lifestyle.
Side by Side Comparison
| Kayaking | Key Features | Paddle Boards |
|---|---|---|
| Great | Stability | Fair |
| Good | On board storage | Bad |
| Great | Year round use | Fair |
| Great | Long distance | Fair |
| Good | Fitness | Great |
| Good | Speed | Good |
| Great | Comfort | Great |
| Good | Fishing | Good |
| Fair | Transporting | Great |
| Fair | Storing | Great |
| Fair | Getting On/In | Good |
| Bad | Mobility | Great |
In-depth Look at the Features
Now that you’ve seen my list of key features lets dig into each of them just a bit. This way you can better understand what I was thinking of when I made it a key feature, and why I gave it the rating I did. This way you can see if that feature is something that your going to need to worry about or not.
Stability
So when i say stability I’m thinking about how easy it’s going to be to flip over in the water. In a kayak it’s not that easy to flip over. Yes it can happen and it does happen. But you either have to be in really rough water or really leaning to one side.
There’s even a way to flip a kayak right side up while your still in the seat. this way you never have to leave the boat. That means you don’t have to try to get back in while it’s floating in open water.
A paddle board on the other hand is all about being balanced on the board. Paddle boards have a higher center of gravity then kayaks do. This is do to you being on top of the board where in a kayak your inside the boat so the center of gravity is lower.
Paddle boards aren’t that easy to flip over but you can and probably will fall off of them. So that’s why I gave kayaks a higher rating then paddle boards
On Board Storage
As far as being able to keep your belongings or other gear with you kayaks have a clear advantage. You can buy kayaks that come with storage compartments built into them.
Now you’ll have to look for a kayak that has storage compartments and then see if there dry storage or wet storage. But either way it is a option you can get.
Paddle boards how ever don’t come with this as a option at least non that I’ve ever seen. You can buy a dry bag to keep your belongings in and put any extra gear on the board with you. But there’s nothing to keep it from falling off if you tip to far or flip over.
Year round use
So yes you can use both kayaks and paddle boards year round. But kayaks offer you more protection from the elements. On a paddle board your either standing or sitting on the board. But either way your in the wind. Yes you can wear a dry suit but your still going to get cold after awhile.
With a kayak most of your body is inside the kayak and there for out of the wind or rain. Add the dry suit back in and you still might get cold but it’s going to take a lot longer for it to happen. Sins most of your body is hidden away your not going to lose body heat as fast.
So to me kayaks are the clear winner for year around use. But depending on where you live you may feel differently.
Long Distance
You can take both kayaks and paddle boards on long distance trips if you want to. But sins your standing on a paddle board your more prone to fatigue or cramping. Now you can move a round to help prevent cramping when going long distance.
But there’s not much you can do about being out in the open. If it’s not to hot or to cold then you should be fine. But if the weather turns unexpectedly there’s not a whole lot you can do about it.
In a kayak your sitting all the time and like we talked about earlier most of your body is in the cockpit. So you’re protected from the sun or unexpected rain if the weather turns fast. That’s why i gave kayaks a higher rating even though both can go the distance.
Fitness
This was a hard one for me both paddle boards and kayaks are great for fitness. Both will give you a good upper body workout. But paddle boarding is a hole body workout where kayaking is really only a upper body workout.
Sins your in a seated position while kayaking your lower body never gets used. So yes kayaking is a more fun option then going to a gym but it’s no where near as good as the workout you’ll get from paddle boarding.
Speed
When it comes to speed kayaks have a few advantages over paddle boards. The low center of gravity and narrow hull of kayaks help them cut through water in a way that paddle boards just cant. There double sided paddle lets you paddle much faster as well.
Paddle boards having a longer flat bottom makes them drag in the water. That makes them much slower then kayaks. There are some paddle boards that are made just for racing and are designed to cut through the water. Most of them are going to be much slower then a kayak.
Comfort
This was another hard one for me. Most people would say that kayaks are more comfortable because your sitting on a cushion seat. But even though all kayaks have seats not all of them are that comfortable to sit on.
Furthermore if you’ve ever taken a kayak on a long trip then I’m sure that you’ve experienced lower back pain. In fact if you’ve ever sat in a cheap folding chair for a long period of time then you know what I’m talking about.
Now you can modify the seat and back rest to make it more comfortable. So there are options to make it better for sitting in.
On a paddle board your standing most of the time, but you can move if you need to. If your legs start to get tired then you can sit or kneel on the board for a bit and keep on paddling. If you want to take a break you can lay down. So to me its a toss up for which one is more comfortable to use.
Fishing
I’m going to be honest here i haven’t tried fishing off a paddle board yet. But i have fished from a kayak plenty of times and it’s not bad. It’s a little different because your sitting in the kayak. That made casting a little hard for me.
But just thinking of fishing off a paddle board, it might be a little more awkward to paddle with all your fishing gear on the board. Once you get to a good spot then it should be the same as fishing from a larger boat or off the shore.
Even though i haven’t given it a try yet it make sens to me that fishing from a paddle board would be easier then from a kayak. It would seam that a lot of people agree because it’s fast becoming a trend.
Transporting
This is an easy one paddle boards are much easier to transport. There lighter so it’s not a pain in the ass to put it on top of your car or SUV by yourself. If you buy a inflatable one then it will fit in your trunk no problem and then you wont need to tie it down.
Kayaks can be a pain to transport if you have to put them on top of a car or SUV it’s best to have two people. One person can do it but its not that easy and if you have bad luck, like me, then you’ll drop it and rip the side view mirror off your car.
So if you don’t want any extra headaches then I would go with a paddle board. Especially if you have a SUV and plan on loading it by yourself most of the time.
Storing
So much like transporting when it comes to storing either a kayak or a paddle board then a paddle board is easier to store. Once again it comes down to the size and the weight of each of them. Kayaks are bigger and heavier then paddle boards so your going to need more space to keep them.
If you want to hang them on a wall to keep them out of the way then it’s best to have two people for putting them up and taking them down. One person can do it don’t get me wrong but it can be a fight if it’s a longer kayak.
Paddle boards on the other hand are much lighter and thinner so they take up less space and it’s not a problem for one person to hang them up or take them down.
If you go with a inflatable one then it takes up all most no space at all. You can even just leave it in the trunk of your car and save yourself the time of having to load them up when you want to go boarding.
Getting On/In
Both kayaks and paddle boards take some practice to get in or on when your launching from shore. But getting back in or on if you fall or flip is a hole other story. Getting on in a kayak in open water can be vary hard to do and yes there’s a technique to flip the boat back over with out leaving the boat.
But that doesn’t help if your in a kayak that has a wide opening and just fall out when it flips. In that case your going to need to get back in and your going to learn that it’s not that easy to do with out flipping the boat back over.
A paddle board can give you some problems getting back on but no where near as bad as a kayak. Sins paddle boards don’t normally capsize you won’t need to flip it back over. There shape gives you a much easier plat form to pull yourself up and on as well.
Mobility
When I say mobility I’m talking about your ability to move around when your out on the water. So as you can imagine in a kayak there’s not a hole lot you can do to move around. The most you can really do is change the angle your sitting at but that’s about it.
Now on a paddle board your free to do what ever you want. You can sit, stand, or lay down. Really as long as you don’t throw off your center of gravity to the point that you fall off you can do just about anything.
Conclusion
So after all that I ended up going with a kayak over a paddle board. But I did so mainly because of were i live. I’m in a Northern state and we don’t get a lot of worm weather. So I plan on using it on colder days and getting caught in the rain once in a while when I’m out.
Now if I lived in a southern state and summer lasted longer then I would have gone with a paddle board. It really is a hard decision to make both can be a lot of fun to use as well as give you a good workout.