I've been researching various canoes on this forum and others. I'd like to buy my new wife an OC-1 for her birthday next month and for training (she's on the Beach Boys OC-6team). I would also like to give this sport a try as well. I keep hearing all about the newer Fuzes, the older Hurricanes and Vantages, Pahoas and Pegsuses so my purchase will probably be along these lines.
The problem is with choosing one.
I've been trying to find a list of the canoes and their respective rankings in the Molokai Hoe race, but all I can find are names of paddlers and their times. Anybody know how I can find out which OC1s are placing consistently?
Also everybody keeps telling me to "try them out first" to see which ones fit/work the best. It's driving me nuts and is starting to annoy me since we can't just go out and rent a few to try out like we can with kayaks, surfboards or SUPs. Unless somebody knows of a rental place that I haven't heard of.
"Join a club" is the next typical response. She's already in one and all she gets to do is train and race in the OC-6. She did get to try out an OC-1 once but it was a unbranded beater fiberglass canoe. I have the impression that just by signing up with a club, I won't all of the sudden be able to try out a bunch of different nice boats that I'm thinking about buying. I'm also deaf so socializing in such a club wouldn't be something that would happen. I think it would just be a drain on a public teacher's salary.
Does anybody have any advice, suggestions or thoughts? Best thing I can think of is to find a consistent finisher in the races (not sponsored if possible) and go with that brand/type as a first boat and take things from there.
Lastly, I'm not sure who would use it more, her or I so an OC-1 that covers a broad weight range would be outstanding - is that even possible? She's 125 and I'm 165 pounds.
Thanks,
Paul
