Has anyone bought or dealt with KI kayaks? He has a PDL kayak for under $1K. Seems interesting. Just don't know much about him.

https://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/boa/d/rowlett-new-ki-pedal-fish-wrangler-12/6856906558.html

I have not, but it looks interesting. It looks like they have a couple "private label" yaks. For $1,000, its worth a test drive.

It does not appear that Lightning has gotten very far off the ground, but I've been watching them for a while and they seem to be on to something. If they get off the ground, they could make an impact...

https://lightningkayaks.com/password

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-2018-lightning-kayaks-strike-foot-powered-fun#/

Looks like the cows are out of the coral.
Seems like there are more upstart companies trying to get into the pedal kayak craze and producing kayaks in the sub to $1000 dollar range.
Good example is Hobie producing a $1200 mirage drive kayak to get back to dominating the market.
This is good news for consumers and hopefully there will be more companies getting into the game, and might be an end to the overpriced pedal drive kayaks.

Similar thing happened with the lawn chair type high low seat that only came on the higher end kayaks. Now even the lower end kayaks have the seat as standard equipment.

KI stands for Kayak Instruction which is a company that offers kayak classes in Rowlett Texas. This is in some way an affiliate of Jackson Kayak. If you go to their website they do have kayaks listed for sale. On this page there are a number of references to Jackson Kayaks.

website

Not saying the KI kayaks are made by Jackson. In fact the pedal drive looks similar to the one in a Brooklyn kayak seen in the link below.

Brooklyn Kayak pedal drive

Not sure who actually manufactures the KI kayak.

So after doing some digging KI kayaks are imported similar to another Vibe. They are not affiliated with Jackson or Brooklyn Kayaks. The dealer in Rowlett (Dave) to my knowledge is the only KI Kayak dealer around. Dave has had these kayaks in their rental fleet for 5 years and they have held up well.

I'm not sure on the pedal drive but the kayak looks well built.

I have not purchase the KI brand but did buy a Jackson kayak from Dave. Good guy and seems fair on price. Nice part dealing with Dave he has most the models he sells where you can rent them and give them a good couple of hours test drive.

He now has the KI 10 ft pedal drive for $799.00. So so tempted. Finding out how addictive this sport is.

Lol I know! We now have 3 yaks (for just 2 of us) and I still catch myself looking.