future paddler here!

Hello everyone,

   My name is william and I am new to the kayak scene. I have been scuba diving and fishing my entire life and a am looking to take it all to the next level. I am currently in the market for virtually all of my gear. Only thing I have is my fishing gear and scuba gear. I'm hoping to have everything by this year's ORC and participate. Any and all suggestions/help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! And happy fishing!

Welcome!

Your wetsuit will work instead of a dry suit if your comfortable in it.

I'm thinking I will use my wetsuit the first couple times so I don't have to spend more on immersion gear. I dive the oregon coast in a 4/5mm wetsuit in the winter, so you could say I've gotten used to it.

Welcome to the club.

I started out using a wetsuit myself. I highly recommend a good paddle jacket or other form of wind breaker to wear over it.  It really helps with evaporative cooling issues caused by even slight breezes.

Welcome! I'm between salem and eugene a lot. SHould be getting my revo 13 here pretty soon. Once you get your stuff hit me up! Ill go out with you.

Jason

I will be ordering Mt yak tomorrow! It should be delivered around the same time I get back from my cruise over spring break. Does anyone have any suggestions for a fishfinder/chartplotter. I've never really used one before, and I'm looking to stay under 300, cheaper if possible.
thanks guys!!

I just got my Elite 4 hdi for 180 a few weeks back. When I was doing my research it seems like the elite 4 and elite 5 were the more popular ones.

I can't find the elite 4 hdi for that price any more, but I can find the elite 4 gold for 229. Msbe I just need to wait a bit. Shipping doesn't take 3 to 5 weeks on that so I can have a bit more time on the fish finder.

Thanks for the help!

Thats a good price for the elite 4 gold.  Thats usually around $300.  It comes with thw Navionics card.  Thats a $100 by its self.

What is the real difference? I know the gold gives you better maps for the charter plotter, but it lacks the HDI. How much of a difference would that make?

I just bought the elite 4 HDI but I haven't had the chance to try it on the water yet so I can't honestly answer that but in the simulation it looks pretty good (But I'd take that with a grain of salt).

With the Elite 4 you only get traditional sonar imaging. The HDI model gives you the traditional sonar imaging along with down scan imaging. Here's a link that give a basic breakdown on the differences:http://doctorsonar.com/blogs/educational-articles/12383369-downscan-vs-2d-sonar

What kayak are you ordering?

I'm ordering the malibu pro 2 tandem kayak(fish and dive version) I think it will be able to cover all of my general needs.

malibu makes an awesome fishing yak, nice choice