[Blaze]

Welcome to the world of kayaking Oopster! Glad you enjoyed it, and yes, kayaking actually helps you to use every muscle in your body. It's a wonderful exercise and can tone you up quickly. Just be aware of your limits and your surroundings! I can't stress this enough, Mother Nature has no favorites and you don't want to become a statistic. Be aware, be careful and use as many safety precautions as possible.

Originally Posted by The Oopster

so i survived my first time out!

I loved it! Although I think I'm going to be really sore ... I didn't realize how much it would get your leg muscles also, even though that part of my body is pretty strong! I was out for somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half I think.

I'm really really happy with it though. I really have been trying to find something to strengthen my upper body that I enjoy and I think this will do the trick!

I was surprised at how easy it was! I don't know if this is due to my canoe experience or what. But I felt it was so much easier to maneuver then a canoe.

Definitely need to stock up on Dramamine if I'm going to be on any lakes with motor boats or waverunners on them.

The insulation seems to work really well on my rack. I do recommend putting it on before putting the boat on top though. Whoops! Then I just used tie down straps that I looped through the drainage holes wrapped around the cross bars then fed through the interior of my car! Cost for insulation was about $11 and cost for tie downs around $5. Now I just have to get my carrier built so i can take it to a few of the more remote coves I like!

I'm not as strong as I'd like to be but still can manage to get it up on my car. Luckily it's a newer crv. So not as high as some suv's plus the back is sort of round and I was able to use the curvature to help me ease it up there.

I do want to see if they have some type of cover for it though. I'd like to keep it up on top of my car a lot but would like to protect it from the sun and bird poop!