Picked up my Slayer Propel 10 today

[J.A. Veil]

Today I visited the Native Watercraft factory in Fletcher, NC (near Asheville) and had a thorough tour of the plant with their Slayer Propel product manager. I will be preparing a more detailed description of the manufacturing process in the next week or so that may be of interest to all of us owning polypropylene kayaks.

I left the factory and headed north on the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway. As dusk approached, I pulled off and found a motel in tiny Pineola, NC. Tomorrow I have over 450 miles of driving ahead of me. Hopefully I will have some time on Friday to assemble the Propel unit and take the new boat out for a test ride.

Here are photos of the Native guys loading my kayak into my minivan. At only 10 ft long, the entire kayak fits inside the van.

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[Bulldog]

You are having too much fun! The new boat is neat that it fits inside the van, the stern looks a bit square, wonder how it does in a following sea? Enjoy!.....Jack

[Cowpokey]

I like the color choice.

[J.A. Veil]

I like the color choice.

Native calls that color "Lizard Lick", which is a town in central NC. During my tour today, I got to watch how they add the pigmented plastic powder to the molds to make the variegated patterns like mine -- pretty cool.

[Cowpokey]

Would have been cool if you could have watched them mold yours. I suppose that's time prohibitive though, since they still have to trim them add all the hardware after they cool.

[Pc4sun]

I thought you already had a 10 foot slayer.

[J.A. Veil]

I thought you already had a 10 foot slayer.

I have had a Slayer Propel 13 for nearly a year -- the 10s are just now coming available. Mine was ready 3 weeks ago, but I did not have time to get it until this week.

[Skidsteer]

At only 10 ft long, the entire kayak fits inside the van.

I like that it is very portable. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how it performs compared to the 13 ft version.

Congrats on the new boat ...

[Mark]

Congratulations on the newest addition to your fleet.

I can't wait to see it wet.

[Salty Dog]

Congrats on your new addition. This may be a loaded open ended question, but what does one do with a FLEET of Kayaks???!!!

[J.A. Veil]

Congrats on your new addition. This may be a loaded open ended question, but what does one do with a FLEET of Kayaks???!!!

It is somewhat like having a single fishing rod that you use for all applications vs. having a bunch of rods that are optimized for different uses. I fish several times a week from my kayaks and like having flexibility. It is unlikely I will keep all four kayaks in the long term, but will take some time before deciding which one(s) I decide to sell. The new Slayer Propel 10 offers light weight plus pedal drive -- it may make one of the other kayaks obsolete for my purposes.

[Salty Dog]

Thanks John, I know someday in the future, I will be creating a fleet as well, since I am already looking at other makes and models.

[Wavy Davy]

John,

Did you pick that color to match your eyes?

[whenican]

You can address him as Captain John from now on.

[Snakehead Hunter]

You can address him as Captain John from now on.

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