Keeping Dry in Your W Fishing Kayak in Big Surf

You’re planning to take your W kayak on a fishing or paddling trip in the ocean, and you may be asking yourself what’s going to happen if you have to launch it in big surf, and in such case how to protect yourself and your fishing tackle from getting wet.

Indeed, if you’re launching in big surf some spray might get the inside of your W fishing kayak wet, and even splash you. This is why all 2008 W Kayak models come outfitted with a preparation for a cockpit cover:
You can use any waterproof fabric or plastic sheet to cover the front part of your W fishing kayak cockpit and thus prevent spray from getting in. Once you’re past the breakers you can easily remove the cover, fold or roll it, and store it in the cockpit or on top of the hulls

The picture below shows the cover protecting almost the entire cockpit, leaving some place for you to sit in the back, which is where you want to be when you're launching in big surf:

The picture below shows the cockpit cover protecting just the front part of the cockpit. This is a preferable when you’re positioned in the middle of the cockpit:

Normally, even without a cockpit cover spray shouldn’t be a problem at all since if some spray gets in the water will be drained from the saddle to the bottom of the hulls, and you won’t have to sit on a wet surface.

If you’ve had some bad encounters with big breakers while not using a cockpit cover and there’s too much water in the bottom of your W fishing kayak hulls for you to feel comfortable with, you can easily drain it using a small bucket or a kayak bilge pump. Then you can dry the hulls completely with a sponge.

Unlike SOT kayaks, the structure of the W fishing kayak enables you to clearly see the bottom of the hulls, and therefore water can’t be there without you perceiving it.

Similarly, when you’re going paddling in fast streams and you want to keep dry you may find the cockpit cover to be useful, without it getting you entrapped in your kayak like a traditional kayak spray skirt might.

The W kayak cockpit cover is also useful in case the weather changes suddenly and you get caught in heavy rain, and it offers protection against cold wind.