Earlier this year Sam and I were in a bad accident on the freeway where someone hit my trailer.  The wreck blew off one of the tires, bent the tongue, and trashed one of Ocean Kayak Prowler 13 kayaks.

When the trailer flew up into the air it landed in the lane next to us and bent the tongue at a 90 degree angle.  The bow of kayak slipped under the tongue and the trailer landed on top of the kayak.  We were doing 70 mph at the time and the bow of the kayak was ground into the pavement.

I knew that the kayak could be patched, however the wear was right at the most critical part of the bow curve.  Fixing the kayak and having the kayak ever track straight were two different things.  My kayak sat in my garage for the next 8 months, and I started using some of my older kayaks as a replacement during tournaments.

The damage was extensive as you can image, I really never thought I would get the kayak repaired and thought if I welded the kayak myself that I would just end up selling the kayak.  Then one day I was having a conversation with Jerron and Andrew from Austin Canoe and Kayak at the Houston Fishing Show and showed them pictures of my wreck and they told me they could repair my kayak.  Jerron told me about a plastic shaping tool that they had that could repair the bow and recreate the curvature needed to keep the kayak tracking straight.  I finally got around to taking them up on their offer to repair the kayak and dropped it off at their Houston shop.  I was absolutely amazed at the work they did on this kayak.  The patch was perfect and the shape as good as the original bow shape.

From flat and worn all the way through the bow, to repaired and shaped perfectly.  I have patched many kayaks in my time using either a heat gun or a torch.  We call it the booger method, heat up a blob of plastic, heat up the kayak, apply the blob, cool the blob and hope for the best.  Most of these patch jobs last 6-8 months, or a year if your lucky.  The downfall is that it is very hard to get the plastic patch and the kayak to mesh together without a seam.  Drag that kayak and catch that seam, and the patch starts to leak.  Apply too much heat and the damage you cause is worse than the original damage, or the patch becomes brittle and begins to crack or chip.

You really can't even see where the patch was applied unless you look closely.  The only draw back is that when I got home with the kayak my wife looked at me with a dirty look and asked me, "I thought you were getting rid of that kayak".  I told her, :"Are you kidding dear, look at it, it's almost brand new".  So much for the additional room in the garage dear, now this kayak is a keeper.  Thank Andrew and Jerron for the awesome work.  When I dropped off this kayak I also dropped off a sky blue Prowler that had a bad patch job I did myself, they removed that bad patch and repaired the keel on this kayak perfectly as well.  I took both kayaks for a spin and couldn't be happier. 

I had enough faith in their ability that when I came by to pick up these two Prowlers I also dropped off my pride and joy, the "Money Boat", my wheat Prowler 13.  This kayak was had over $15,000.00 won from it in tournament winnings between team mate Clint Barghi and myself and is considered the luckiest kayak in our fleet.  I have no doubt that the guys at Austin Canoe and Kayak will take good care of it and repair it properly, or I would have never left it with them.

Thanks again Austin Canoe and Kayak, you may not have a fan in my wife, she was hoping someday I would wear out some of these kayaks, now I know that will never happen.

Vincent Rinando - Team Ocean Kayak