Honey, let’s go paddling. . . .
Published November 16, 2007 | 
Alright kids, I’ve been browsing my C&K buyers guide again. . .
Look at the picture at the top of the post. Would you purchase this boat for the love of your life? Would you recommend it to a student? Well the obvious issue with the LL Bean Calypso in this advert is the lack of front deck lines. Could you imagine being in the water and at the front of this boat? A little bit of waves, nothing to grab. . . . Kayaks without proper deck lines are just plain dangerous. Now the interesting thing about the Calypso is that other than print ads, I can’t find a picture of it WITHOUT some deck bungees. They are not the best, but they’re there. Maybe this green one was a prototype, but either way when I see this ad I take one look at the picture and vote it right out. I wanted to rename it “Ladykiller”. I could easily imagine a place like LL Bean missing the significants of this little detail, however the kayak is made by Perception and they should know better. No experienced paddler in the world is going to recommend a boat with no front deck lines. If you’ve added them, then update your ad.
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7 Responses to Honey, let’s go paddling. . . .
The LLbean Calypso is an OLD perception rec boat design….look back towards the early carolina 12′s and you will see a match to it….not certain if it used to have deck lines or not…but hey you can find lots of baots with out them……..
If you could get these in Oz my wife would replace her Australis Gecko with one. She really needs a multi-role boat and her incredible fear of Australian coastal eating machines keeps her out of the ocean. Calling all Oz distributors…
oh, so you’re saying you’d put your wife in a kayak without deck lines and send her out with the sharks??? LOL!!! If anything happens to that lady they’ll be using my blog as evidence!!
Seriously though, i do think they have deck lines on them now. However I’ve been reading that they have a tracking issue, but I’ve never paddled on myself.
OOOOH, that’s a blow below the belt!! The truth is sharks are more scared of my wife. Seriously, I didn’t notice the lack of decklines. Of course, in the event of a crisis I could deploy my tow line but it would depend a lot on her attitude. Just jokes, but you wouldn’t take the Calypso out into any rough water would you?
It’s likely that the creative director in charge of the add had the front decklines photo shoped out to make the boat look longer and sexier. sort of misrepresents the product but it’s done all the time.
RK
Don’t you think it would be fun to see how it surfed??
Love it. Brush out the safety features to keep it looking “sexy”. I bet you’re right though. Can’t say the bungies they do have would be all that helpful anyway. Chances are most people who would buy a kayak from LL Bean would never see the lack of deck lines as a problem. Oh well. Different Strokes. . . they’ll need different strokes to swim into shore when they can’t grab hold of their boat!
There is a kayak in the picture ?