Most realistic feeling erg? KayakFirst or KayakPro?

Hi

Not able to get on the water as often as I would have liked, I am planning on investing in a kayak ergometer with the most realistic water feeling, whatever determines this (Catch, angle of resistance, etc.?)

My shortlist is:

1. KayakFirst - Kayak Ergometer (possibly with the sliding bench).
Good reviews, looks solid and sensible.

2. KayakPro - Xeon
This model is quite new and I have not found any revies on it. How different it is from their (now discontinued) SpeedStroke ergs is therefore hard to judge, but it should be an improvement.

Has anyone tried both the KayakFirst and the KayakPro ergs and landed on a favourite in terms of realism/feel?
If so, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

Thank you and best regards,
Ben

I can't help you with comparison, but have used a couple of ergs at my old club.

None of them felt in any way like paddling on water.

Be careful training with an erg. My experience was that there is no 'softness' to the load and it is easy to strain yourself, particularly shoulders.

30min on an erg was much, much harder than 30min on the water.

Good for strength and endurance training, poor for aerobic training (since it is more difficult to get in the sustained volume).

I've used both an older kayakpro and a KayakFirst. Personally I found the KayakFirst better, the higher pulleys give a much more realistic catch and the sliding seat gives a more 'on water' feel.

Mrcharly is also right about the additional loads placed on your body. For me, the harshness of the catch on the Kayakpro (and the Lawler ergo I had before) placed too much load on my wrists which eventually lead to me selling both machines. The sliding seat on the KayakFirst however cushions the catch, and eliminated the problem for me.

I have a PaddleOne as well as a home made erg, both are pretty similar in how they feel. Never had any issues with soreness or joint pain.
However, I found that erg training doesn't do much for me. Generally as cardio it is fine, but did not result in me being faster on water. Honestly, the best improvement I have had was from weight lifting, mileage and the right boat/paddle, so I stopped with ergs. Also, my concern is that since it may pollute muscle memory since all the water specific elements are not there. Ergs will happily show a speed increase no matter how you pull as long as you pull hard, which is not quite how it works on water.

Having said that, I am primarily a sea kayaker at this point. Only use ski in the warmer season. But while in a sea kayak I do often paddle for speed.

I have a kayakpro speedstroke. The catch does come a bit late on that model because of the low pulley. Both of the models the OP is looking at have a high pulley, and also are more compact than the speedstroke. So they look to be big improvements on what was previously the gold standard.

Regarding the harshness of training on an erg, I suspect some of it has to do with how mind numbingly boring it is. I find I always go harder than I want to and keep increasing the intensity the longer I sit on it. I think subconsciously my brain realizes that pain and endorphins will ease the boredom. But don’t get the wrong impression about my level of dedication. By “longer” I mean about 30 minutes max on the erg. And by “usually” I mean almost never. Sure - every autumn I have the intention of erging all winter and being paddle fit when the ice goes out in the spring. But it never happens because I can cross country ski almost out my front door and that is just so much more fun than erging with the spiders in the basement.

My new Bull model KayakFirst ergo is due to be delivered Friday. When I'm set up I'll let you know how it compares to the previous models and the other ergos I've mentioned.