fitness paddling: exercise, train, race by kayak & canoe

Dave Bartell: I did a 5 miler in my new SEDA Glider. Seems like it comes out a bit slower than the Extreme but is pretty efficient for a 48 lb sea kayak. My Glider is a new Kevlar version but the weight never comes out as advertised. The rudder kit on these sea kayaks is always pretty heavy and they never include that in the boat specs.

Eric Nyre: The flatwater performance of the Epic 18 is much better than the Glider, about 0.5mph on the top end. In rough water the Glider is more comfortable, and it's better under load. Smaller paddlers fit the Epic better, I had to cut the thighbraces out of mine for my legs to have pumping room. The Glider has better legroom, but being fishform hits a wall much faster. I haven't paddled a glass Glider, the only difference should be weight. There have been several modifications to the boat over the years, the current specs are 20 and 5/8", not the 22" or 21.5" listed on various sites. The older Gliders were real dogs, I had one of the 22" versions and while very comfortable in rough water (ran class III in it) it was very slow compared to the new one. As for the Glider, I covered 20+ miles on Yellowstone Lake in 4.5 hours in wind and rough chop. I spent an hour of that trip at 6.3 mph with several days worth of gear (before the wind hit). But when you want to go over 7 mph, she complains. The wall is in that high 6 range.

Peter Sedivec paddling Glider in Baja