To maximize your paddling experience, you'll need to choose the best kayak for your needs. Many people find this intimidating. First you must decide what "best" means, and then find a kayak that delivers it. This is a very personal decision. Said simply, the ideal kayak for you is the one that performs well in the way(s) you need most. A good kayak can have many virtues, or performance aspects, but not all in high measure. You often must sacrifice some virtues in order to gain others. The main aspects of performance are efficiency, tracking, maneuvering, capacity, and stability. To decide which kayak is best for you, you must rank the importance of the performance aspects before you begin to look at different models.We group our kayaks by style, manufacture and price.

Our main styles are:

Day Touring

Day Touring kayaks are perfect for slow rivers and large lakes where handling, speed and load carrying capacity and tracking are all equally important. These boats should be able to handle slow moving water and at the same time be bale to go in a straight line when confronted with some wind. The Outside World offers day touring kayaks from Current Designs, Old Town, Wilderness Systems, Ocean Kayak and others.

Canoe 

Canoes are very often considered family friendly. Most of them have much higher capacity than kayaks and could fit potentially more people. Make sure to get a canoe that you can handle both in and out of the water. In the water a canoe with little rocker will go straight and a lot of rocker will turn. Out of the water handling will depend on the overall weight of the boat. The Outside World offers canoes from Old Town, Wenonah and Mad River.   There are also specialty canoes like whitewater-oriented canoes (Prospector by Wenonah, Outrage by Mad River) and racing canoes (racing line by Wenonah).

Fishing

This category consists of both sit-inside recreational boats and sit-on-top style boats. There are two main concerns here.  The first is stability and the second is outfitability. Make sure to get a boat that is stable enough for your style of fishing. This may mean that it needs to be stable enough for standing up or long enough to get you where you want to fish. For outfitting a kayak needs area for rod holder, GPS, fish finders and other accessories. Some may be more important to you than others. We carry fishing kayaks from Hobie, Native, Old Town, Wilderness Systems and Ocean Kayak.

Pedaling Kayaks

These are a unique type of sit-on-top made by Hobie. They are all stable and are great for fishing. The Mirage Drive enables you to not only paddle the boat but also pedal. In addition any of the pedal boats can be sailed if you add the sail kit.               

Sit on Top

Almost any style of boat can be a sit-on-top. We carry models designed for whitewater, fishing, recreational and day touring. The only difference from a traditional kayak is you sit on top of the boat instead of inside. Manufacturers include Hobie, Perception, Ocean Kayak and Native.

Recreational

Recreational kayaks are perfect for small lakes and slow rivers where nimble handling wins over speed and load carrying capacity. The Outside World offers recreational kayak from Dagger, Ocean kayak, Old Town, Hobie, Native Watercraft, Wilderness systems, Current Designs, Perception and other

Touring

This is a large category, and the majority of paddlers will be well served by a design that falls within it. These kayaks are designed to handle the wide variety of conditions in open water. They are longer and narrower than recreational boats which enables them to track in very straight lines. Most models include a skeg or rudder for tracking and hatches to store gear for long or overnight trips. Manufacturers include Current Designs, P&H, Wilderness Systems and others.

Whitewater

These are the boats that made kayaking famous. If you want to go off of waterfalls of just paddle down your local rapid these are the boats designed to do it. They are typically short and have a flat bottom that enables them to turn very quickly. Models with a lot of volume are made for big water and models with low volume are made for tricks. We carry models from Dagger, Wavesport, Pyranha and Liquid Logic.