....and man, they hit a homerun with that yak. Well, that may be an understatement actually. I had high expectations for this kayak when I first saw the pictures and read about the modifications to the hull and deck, and it exceeded all of them.

With the unique hull design stability is what you expect it to be, though probably not as good as the 2011 Ride 135 because of the hard chines, but I'm splitting hairs.

The sliding seat worked great. I set the seat where I thought it would perform well, but I was getting a gurgling noise from the front scuppers. So I slid the seat forward a little to trim it out which solved the problem; nice feature. This was also my first time to sit in the Phase3 seat and found it very comfortable and supportive. Sitting side saddle was no problem as well.

With the full length keel the kayak tracked very well whether it was into the wind or at a diagonal. I was able to turn it within it's length using two sweeping strokes. The boat handles/tracks very well, so a rudder isn't necessary in my opinion. Also, the yak glides very well when you quit paddling.

After the initial paddle I broke out my GPS. Using my normal cadence (no clue what the strokes per minute is) and got 4 mph going into a 10-15 mph wind. I was shocked as I was expecting 3.5 mph tops. It was on a small body of water so it was just a chop. For grins I maxed her out at 5.8 mph going perpendicular to the wind. For what it's worth, I used my Accent Diamond He Edge paddle for the testing.

The two negatives I saw are the weight (75lbs w/o seat) and freeboard. The weight isn't a big deal to me since I'm used to my 70lbs Search 15. The yak is pretty tall and will catch some wind and cause you to drift quicker. Again you can nullify that with a drift sock. The first pic below will show you how much freeboard there is.

I can honestly say that this kayak is the most versatile kayak I have ever paddled. It'll handle open waters like lakes and bays, but is agile enough for the rivers. This will be my next yak. Does anyone want to buy a Search 15? LOL

I took the seat out, grabbed a SUP paddle and gave it a shot that way. It did alright treating as a SUP, I'm not used to SUP paddle technique. Hopefully Mike from Mariner Sails will post pics of me paddling it normally. Sean grabbed a couple of my using it as a SUP.

Nice review. WS makes nice yaks

You weigh 150 lbs soaking wet with cinder blocks in your pocket, of course it will ride high with the weight capacity it has. Did anybody with some meat on their bones give it a try?

Otherwise good write up, once I try the seat and see if it all works for me I will probably get mine in Mango.

I'm around 190 actually.

Nice review Josh.

I was almost as anxious as Josh was to give the new Ride 135 a try and I can only echo his positive impression of its performance and stability. I also paddled it from both sitting and standing positions and is also exceeded my expectations. I think that we are going to have an ongoing problem keeping Rides in our Mariner inventory.

I'm having "technical difficulties" but have posted another photo of Josh on our Mariner Sails Facebook site.

I put the Search up for sale, so you know what that means.

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=171604

Josh, I will do my best to stash that Mango 135 as long as possible. In the meantime you ought to come by for a visitation. She is a beauty!