Review Detail

We are a Santa Cruz dealer in Thousand Oaks, California, www.santacruzkayaks.com supplied us with a demo model to use, we have paddled it in the saltwater, which it performed flawlessly, especially in the surf, but we had the opportunity to take it to some remote bodies of water in Independence, which is just south of Bishop.
These lakes and slews are a largemouth bass haven and are thick with reeds and trees. Limited launch areas and some very tight spaces proved to be no problem for the Raptors 13 foot length, where some may opt for a shorter sit inside kayak, we chose the Raptor, mainly for the ability to stand and sight fish these tight areas.
We were pleasantly surprised of how we were able to turn this boat on a dime when necessary to navigate the reeds and trees. When the wind picked up as it does on occasion, there was no trouble keeping the kayak where we wanted it, the Raptor paddled easily in 10 to 15 mph winds, where the smaller boats had trouble.
The unique hull design of this boat is very stealthy when you need a quiet presence in very quiet surroundings, stable enough to stand and cast, yet extremely fast when you want to get to another area quickly, and if you are lucky and have the wind at your back it "hauls the mail".
Steering the boat is effortless which allows the paddler to focus on the paddling instead of constantly compensating for drift, another advantage is with two opposite strokes this boat will do a 180 degree turn, very impressive.
We give it a five star rating.