Hobie  Quest 12.5 Sit-On-Top Kayak

So far so good!

Was looking for a good beginner friendly sit on top kayak, and had originally picked this one out because I loved the color. However, the more time I spend in it on the water, the more I love it for other reasons besides just the awesome color! I’ve kayaked a bit growing up, but consider myself a novice. This is the first kayak that I’ve owned and although there are a few things about it I wish I would have considered beforehand, overall I have been thrilled with the Hobie Quest 12.5. Pros: Love the look and all the features/storage. Lots of places to bungee stuff in the front and back, cup holder fits my 32oz water bottles, able to fit snacks, emergency first aid supplies, and other miscellaneous stuff in the hatch storage and my hobie scupper cart on the back while paddling. I love the little pockets and the paddle bungee spot as well! The seat also has a storage pocket and clip on the back that fits my small dry bag and clips on to it so it doesn’t fall out. In the water it seems to move well, though I don’t have much experience for comparison. But it feels very stable and am able to paddle up river (against the current that is flowing about 1-2mph) at a speed around 2-3mph comfortably in this. For the most part it tracks relatively straight, but had to work on my paddling techniques a bit to help this. I mostly paddle in calm rivers and springs, but have gone through a couple little class 1 spots in it while my 5yr old sat in the back section of it and was also towing my kiddos kayak behind me too and had no problem. Cons: Something I hadn’t considered before buying was the weight and size of this thing - it is HUGE! I ended up getting a Thule hullavator and the Hobie scupper cart and these two things have allowed me to be able to load and launch solo. However, I have read about issues with the scupper carts doing damage to the scupper holes over time - I do not know if this will be a problem for this kayak or not but I am using the scupper cart from Hobie so hopefully will be fine. The other issue was when registering it Hobie doesn’t have an option to chose this model for the warranty, not sure if it just hasn’t been updated yet or not but need to follow up with them to make sure it is registered for that under the correct model. The last issue I had was when I got it home I noticed there were some scratches and scuffs on the bottom. I had ordered it from the website and picked it up as soon as it arrived - the team had been awesome with helping to carry it out and set it in my Thule cradles so I hadn’t noticed or seen the bottom of it until getting it home. I am not sure whether these scratches and scuffs may impacts the performance or integrity of it or not - but had been disappointed to find those once I got it home. All in all though, I am very pleased with my new Hobie and looking forward to spending lots of time in it out on the water! As long as you are able to manage the size/weight of it, I would definitely say it is worth the investment!