Re: roof racks

You don't need a special roof rack for a surf ski. The traditional flat topped roof racks work fine with the ski fastened deck down.

If you have some cash to burn then get the Thule racks with the Hydroglide mounts, they hold the ski straight and apparently they help you to slide the ski onto the roof from the back of the car. Mounting the ski hull down has the advantage of minimising salty water dripping onto your car.

In SA the Holdfast range of racks are cheaper than the Thule and have worked fine for me for two years.

on my accord, I can only get the bars about 3 ft apart; that is a lot of boat sticking out on either end. how far apart are your bars and do you need to tie the ends down?

I disagree with Alain! It depends on your car - my VW golf also only allows the racks to be just over a metre apart and my Holdfast racks came off when I was driving with a ski into a southeaster. Fortunately I'd just turned off into my destination and the rear rack held so that the ski stayed on the roof of the car.

After that I bought Thule racks and haven't had a problem since. I also bought Thule kayak cradles which are kinder to the ski than tying in on the car upside down.

When driving long distance I also tie the ski down nose and tail. If the ski slews sideways the wind can exert a massive force and twist it right off the car, racks and all. I know of at least two people who have lost their skis on highways in this way, one of them causing serious damage to another vehicle.

I have a Ford Escape 2003. Using the factory racks, I set it up with Yakima's Mako Saddle and roller. I've driven to around 110 kph with no problem however there was some scuffing on the boat from the saddle. Im planning to get saddle pads for the scuff and ties for the bow and stern to prevent my ski from launching like a rocket in the highway! Question is, where do I attach the ties to the ski? My ski is a Burton Ultimate Wedge. Is there a surf ski cover that I can attach the ties too instead of directly to ski?

By the way, I just registered. Im from the Philippines. Currently, I think Im the only one who is using a surf ski here. My background in paddling is from ICF k1 Kayak. Hope to participate actively here in the forum pretty soon.

I have a carbon Huki that I carried on my yakima round bars a few times and found that when I strapped the boat down, the pressures caused the bars to make a soft spot on the foam core of the boat. I now only carry my ski on the yakima kayak cradles and have no problems. It also makes the boat much more stable and less likely to move around.

Even if you couldn't find the kayak cradles, something could be made out of mini-cell foam that would work the same way.

Especially if you have a car where the bars will be close together, the saddles will keep the boat stable on the car.

If you're ski is the racing type (like most nowadays), check out the yakima saddle adaptor by Huki. It makes the yakima and your surf ski fit like a glove. Im getting one once I upgrade from my burton ultimate wedge.

The new yakima saddles need some foam like what Huki sells, bit if you can find the old TLC Saddles that Yakima used to make (on ebay or something) they don't need any modification to fit a racing ski perfectly.

can anyone recommend a car roof rack that would adequately carry a surf ski?

tinyurl.com/6275l7

... and the price is probably right...

Are the discontinued Yakima TLC saddles compatible with the wide JetStream crossbars?

For what it's worth, my dealer told me that Think Evo requires min 7 feet spacing which is unrealistic on majority of vehicles, so I went with GoodBoy V bar. As far as pricing goes it was not that bad for a specialized carrier.

The best surfski racks that I have found is llamaracks.com. 

Looks very similar to GoodBoy. Funny that they have V7s on their pictures. V7 doesn't need a V bar, you can treat it like a sea kayak. I have been carrying mine on J cradles.

Funny how some things change; some don't.

The Thule cradles don't seem to have changed, but my opinion of them has...

I don't use them anymore with my Fenn Swordfish S - because I noticed that they were actually causing damage to the boat.  When the wind is blowing strongly, you obviously have to crank the straps down hard and the cradles were causing dents in the bottom of the hull.

So now I carry the boat strapped down upside-down on the crossbars.  If there's any wind, I put a T-bar on the car, which mounts on the tow bar.  The T-bar being so far from the front roof rack cross-bar, the whole situation is radically more stable and you don't have to crank down so hard on the straps either.

Not sure what a t-bar is. Can you provide a photo or link to one?

gcziko wrote: Not sure what a t-bar is. Can you provide a photo or link to one?

That's cool Rob. Here in the States I've never seen a shorty rack for a sedan. That's really nice for regular cars.  Who makes that?

I see the tall version semi commonly on pickups with long loads

This is a nice setup Rob. However I have to ask. Considering the cost of the pads and the extender, would it not be easier to use a V rack. Something like a GoodBoy is simple, sturdy and can be made in various lengths. I just got mine, it was not that expensive.

I refuse to put a rack on a rack, so I just got the KayakPro EZ-Vee, which extends out and cradles the ski nicely.   I do use two U-brackets to clamp it to the factory cross bars, flat bars taped in place on the EZ-Vee with hockey tape, with Thule style plastic tri-star wing nuts to hold it down without any issue.  It adds about 5 mins with loading and unloading to install it (my garage doors don't open big enough for me to keep it on my 4Runner all the time). 

Considering the cost of the pads and the extender, would it not be easier to use a V rack.

Probably - but we don't get them here in South Africa (as far as I know)!

The nice thing about the T-bar is that it literally takes a moment to install.  It lives next to the car in the carport and I lift it onto the bracket and tighten two fasteners and that's it.

Different solutions in different countries!

Hmm, I would think SA should have more surfski stuff available than the north american east coast (PA and Ontario of all places )