I saw pics of folks swimming alongside sit-on-tops (SOT) while snorkeling too. If I lived in SoCal or Hawaii, I'd definitely own SOT.

If your doing it correctly your actually ON the water and NOT IN the water. I'venever heard of a shark attacking a kayak. But there is the video of the whale breeching and landing on the kayaker although the validity of that video is not confirmed.

Sharks galore up here in NorCal. Here are a couple of old articles:

http://www.bask.org/frame.html

Go to the "Articles" section

I heard a windsurfer disappeared while surfing to the islands (which one I don't know). They found his board with a big ass bite out of it. Be careful out there guys...

Ocean kayaking is great...but you may want to try surf kayaking in a white water boat, when you get the time.
:)
The designs for each specialty vary dramatically...an ocean or touring kayak has as much in common with a white water kayak as a Hummer does with your track car.

An ocean boat is designed to be stable and track well in open water. River boats are designed to be quick and require more attention.

There are also "tweener" designs that sorta do both well, both open and closed shell.

I grew up kayaking (my first boat was a Phoenix Slipper...fiber glass FGS!) and later worked as a rafting guide on many rivers in the west. Advances in kayak designs have been amazing. I currently own an old Perception XT that I still paddle on East Coast rivers and an open shell boat for the Potomac.

I am trying to justify an investment in one of the new boats...

You are wise, Obecon:)

After paddling an open double with the much-less-experienced wife while on Maui a couple of years ago I'd say this bit of info is spot on.

Ever notice how the person in the back seat isn't paddeling quite as hard as the front?

Re: Picked up a fun new hobby - kayaking!
 

SShhhh please. It's one of the few things one can still do to get away from a whole bunch of people.

Hey John, check this out!

http://www.hobiecat.com/kayaking/miragedrive.html

Looks cool, I remember hearing about these a few years ago but didn't know they'd gotten into production.

Wish was available in a closed kayak, all the Hobies are sit-ons. I heard at one time they were going to offer a retrofit kit.

One issue would be durability, both of the mechanism and also if they cause a closed hull to leak. Another would be the ability to draw the fins up to the hull for beaching, and how well they'd hold up. Finally, these seem to eliminate the foot-operated rudder pedals and instead use a hand rudder. Not sure how you operate such a rudder when paddling.

You know, it would be interesting to take a fairly wide-hulled closed-top sea kayak, and install a MirageDrive unit.

Modify the existing rudder pedals to sit wider, i.e. outboard of the MirageDrive. Would need to raise the kayak deck to clear knees and feet, I guess some fiberglassing could do that. Add some Kevlar to make you happy (shark protection). That could be a great boat.