The first season kayak kit

What this kit is for

You have bought a used kayak. It floats, it is sound, and you have nothing else. This is the list that gets you through a full season without either overspending or discovering a gap on the water.

It is the legal minimum plus five things that decide whether you are still going out in September rather than in April only.

The reasoning behind each line

The vest, not just any vest. The legal requirement is satisfied by the cheapest approved jacket on the market. The reason this kit specifies a paddle-specific one with a mesh back panel is that a general boating vest fights a kayak seat, and a vest you take off after an hour is not doing its job. This is the line where spending slightly more is clearly correct.

The paddle, in the right length. Bending Branches publishes 37 ounces and an 89-square-inch asymmetrical dihedral blade for the Whisper, in four lengths from 210 to 240 cm. The blade shape is what stops a cheap paddle fluttering in your hands, and the length options are what let you buy the right one. Check yours against the sizing table before ordering.

Both halves of transport. These are two separate problems and this kit prices both, because solving only one leaves you stuck. The foam block kit gets the boat onto a car with nothing on the roof; the cart gets it from the car park to the water.

Dry storage. The phone matters more than the spare layer. Waterproof it and keep it on your body — a dry bag clipped to the deck is for the layer and lunch.

The cushion, not a seat. Deliberate. The common first complaint on a used boat is numbness, which is a pressure problem a 13-ounce gel pad fixes cheaply. Lower back ache is a different complaint needing a different, dearer product, and most people do not have it. Diagnose before upgrading — seat upgrades explains which is which.

The pump, conditionally. Essential in a sit-in kayak, where a cockpit has no drainage at all. Optional on a sit-on-top with working scuppers. It is on the kit because most people buying a first used boat cannot tell which situation they are in, and because Attwood publishes up to 8 gallons a minute against roughly one for the small kayak-specific pumps.

The leash, conditionally. Cheap, and it removes a genuinely bad scenario on open water: a paddle blowing downwind that you have no way to chase. Take it off in surf and current, where a line tethering you to a floating object is an entanglement risk.

What this kit deliberately leaves out, and why

• Cold-water clothing. The most important omission on this page, and it is deliberate: what you need depends entirely on your water temperature and season, and the range runs from a neoprene top to a full drysuit. Pricing one option would be misleading. If you paddle in spring or fall, this is the line that should get your money before anything below the PFD.
• A seat with a back panel. Several times the price of the cushion and it fixes a different complaint. Buy it in year two, if your back rather than your backside is the problem.
• Crossbars and a proper rack. The foam block kit genuinely works. Bars are the upgrade for when you are driving an hour each way most weekends and are tired of stopping to re-check.
• A spare paddle. Worth having on long trips and not a first-season purchase — unless your boat came with a package paddle, in which case you already have one. Keep it.
• Fishing gear. Entirely separate. That list is on the fishing checklist.

If you have to stage it

Almost nobody buys eight things at once. In order of what stops you going out:

1. PFD and paddle. Non-negotiable pair.
2. The foam block kit. Without it the boat does not leave your garden.
3. Dry bag. Cheap, and it is what makes the phone useful in an emergency.
4. Cart. The biggest single improvement to a paddling day for the money.
5. Cushion, pump, leash. In whatever order your first few trips suggest.

What it says about buying used

Work through this list and you will notice something: the outfitting is a substantial fraction of what a cheap second-hand boat costs.

That is not an argument against buying used — a used hull plus separately chosen gear beats a new package deal with a bad paddle almost every time. It is an argument for negotiating with the whole number in mind, which is the subject of what a used kayak is worth.