I will start by saying although I’m not currently in the market for a kayak but hoping to be next season I’m really enjoying reading this portion of the site and have learned a lot about what to look for and the philosophy of “buying once crying once” as the saying goes. With that said the above mentioned company popped up on my computer and it lead me to a you tube video with what I’m assuming is the owner of the company, I’m curious if any of you seasoned kayakers know anything about them and if so what your thoughts and or opinions on them are. 

I have had the kaku wahoo 12.5 for many years. It's a great boat and I like it a lot. which kayak are you looking at? They are a small company, made in the US, and yes if you email or call customer service, you get to talk to one of them. They pioneered the concept of hybrid SUP/Kayaks, so open uncluttered simple decks. The wahoo is designed for open water and it paddles very nicely. Crescent kayaks are similar and I like the look of them too.

 

I think the zulu is still the coolest kayak on the market. I want one; since it would be fun to have a peddle drive. But now they have the guru, which is huge, and that would be really cool with a motor. The seats on the zulu/guru are unique since you can stand on them. But I also really like the idea of having seats on track, so you can adjust the trim of the boat, to push the seat back out of the way to stand in the middle, or have a dog or a kid, or to load up camping gear.

My kid has owned a Voodoo, and now a Zulu with pedals. At $2200 or so with pedals, that's a pretty good buy. Kind of crappy pedal system - the left pedal screw is not reverse threaded so it can fall off, carrying the provided allen wrench for it with you at all times is required and I recommend using blue loctite to help keep it in place. The hulls are solid. Probably the cheapest pedal drive kayak I can honestly recommend, and probably the best customer service in the business. If you post a question in the Facebook group, the owner of the company may answer. Or if you email them, you may get a response from Kevin himself.

 

Neither are fast paddling/pedaling (probably average), but they're decently stable as long as you don't lean - the V shaped hull means if you lean, it goes. Not a problem for an experienced user.

 

I didn't see too much of a difference in stability, but the Voodoo is supposed to be more stable and the Zulu is supposed to handle chop much better, I'd water the latter is probably much more significant than differences in stability.

 

You can sit on the top of the back of the seat to sight fish.

 

I would probably go for a Zulu or maybe Voodoo if you plan to motorize over the Guru unless you have specific need for the extra storage and weight capacity. The Zulu with nothing on it feels much heavier than my Old Town Bigwater with all my stuff on it, maybe largely because of handle placement.

 

If you plan to get pedals, then you'll definitely want the Zulu. The Guru's fin drive has a ton of complaints about the pedals constantly falling into the plastic, and no known solution at this time.

The other thing to note is the Zulu's front hatch (or Guru's front and rear) takes on a lot of water. I left it out in a heavy rain storm and the hull was 80% full of water, no joke. I'd keep a bilge pump in the hull whenever you go out. The Voodoo's hatch didn't leak that bad, but it's also small and you can't get larger items in it.

 

A few accessories that are a must have with these:

 

The Kaku seat bags let you store things on the side of the seat, very useful.

The YakAttack Double Header to hold your paddle off the kayak

https://www.yakattack.us/doubleheader-with-dual-rotogrip-paddle-holders/

 

The 3.75" YakGadget LowPro tray fits under the seat for storage. For a flat kayak, this can keep things like your water bottle from falling in the water. You can get tool storage trays cheaper, but in the long run this is worth it.

 

https://yakgadget.com/collections/storage-accesories/products/lowpro-tray?variant=37346174501021

 

When I tried my kid's Zulu last year, I was probably 335lbs at the time and it stayed above the water line with me and all his gear in it.