This paddler is getting ready to launch at an ex-mining lake in Perak with his brown-camo “hi-tech” kayak, which moves by being pedalled with legs and costs about RM5,000.
Pay heed to the law of diminishing returns when buying or equipping yourself with outdoor gear.
At some point, spending more on gear will only marginally increase your efficiency or enjoyment while outdoors.
At the other end of the spectrum, refusing to be properly equipped will lead you to be sub-optimal to the point of putting yourself at risk while outdoors.
This applies to whatever your cup of tea is: kayaking, fishing, cycling, rock climbing, cave-exploring, camping, or any kind of outdoor adventure.
Understanding the law of diminishing returns helps to keep you away from the two extremes, which are, firstly, that equipping yourself with more or better gear will, after a certain level, stop helping you achieve more and, secondly, that being a scrooge will lead to misery.
Those who excel at production returns can chart graphs to empirically determine the point at which a certain input into the production process will stop giving optimal results.
This group is getting ready to set off on a kayak camping trip on a river in Pahang using the basic two-seater kayaks that cost about RM1,500 each.For a simple example, if a bakery has two ovens and one baker, hiring another baker will double the production speed, but hiring a third baker will not triple it, while hiring a fourth will improve results only a little more since there are still only two ovens.
For the sake of outdoor adventures, purely for anecdotal purposes, let’s look at sit-on-top kayaks.
You can get such a kayak for RM900 to RM20,000. For RM900, it is usually a 2.7m-long affair.
Here is the thing about small kayaks: when you paddle on one side of the kayak, the bow (front) immediately turns to the other side.
So, the kayak does not like to stay on track; it moves in a somewhat sharp zig-zag path, which is infernally exhausting if you intend to travel some distance.
Such small rides are great for exploring narrow waterways where manoeuvrability is highly desirable. But out at sea or on large lakes, they are difficult to use.
Add another metre to the length, and your experience greatly improves, but prepare to pay nearly twice as much.
It not only travels straighter with every stroke of the paddle, but you will also go faster, have more space on board to stash things, and even use it to carry enough gear for kayak camping.
Now for the RM20,000 kayak.
Sitting on one feels like getting into a luxury car. The seat is a low chair that is super comfortable, ergonomic and adjustable. Some of those seats can even swivel 360 degrees, so you won’t have to only face forward all the time.
You most likely will not be paddling and will instead be pedalling it with your feet (to move fins below the hull), leaving your hands free to do your fishing or video filming while moving.
The technology behind this locomotion is so advanced that you will be faster than almost any kayak paddled by hand while being able to move in a straight line.
They are so well made, with a plastic body wrapped around a carbon fibre skeleton and aluminium reinforcements at the hull and deck. (That RM900 kayak will not have these.)
The question is: will you need all that technology, advanced materials, and bells and whistles? Where are you going, for which you need to surround yourself with all that?
And this is before considering the fact that the RM20,000 thing weighs 40 to 50kg, while the RM900 thing weighs 20kg. Try loading and unloading a kayak on the roof rack of a pickup truck and see what a massive difference the weight makes.
I have met people who I mark as bean counters, who fret over every ringgit spent on their new pursuit and who opt for cheaper knock-offs every chance they get.
I have also met too many people who are newly enamoured with a certain outdoor activity and then become obsessed with the accoutrements. They become “gearheads”, people who are engrossed in the technical details of the gadgets and tools they employ.
Some outdoors folk are in the collectors’ category, just like people who love fancy watches or limited-edition handbags. This is a different matter altogether.
But as you enter any form of outdoor activity and seek the gear most effective for your intended purpose, look for mentors, strive to be accepted into the fold of experienced players, learn from them, and be extra careful of what you read on the Internet. You will find the most bang for your buck.
