Ocean bound in the Coosa FD

When I heard that JK media house was coming down to Florida for a couple of days to try out the new Jackson Kayak CoosaFD I jumped at the chance to join up and see how the FD faired in the ocean environment.
When my local fishing partner, Ben Guise and I meet up with Jameson Redding the night before there was definitely some excitement at camp that evening. Between rigging for offshore species and getting the new rides ready for our morning we didn’t get much sleep.
The following morning we were early to rise and get to the beach, just as the sky was starting to show the slightest sign of daylight. It was a beautiful summer morning in Pensacola Beach, Florida. Temperatures were already in the eighties and the low pressure off shore had the surf pushing in around two to three foot. That had me a little nervous about the launch and return to the beach. I launch in fairly decent size waves all the time out of my Jackson Kayak Kraken13. I’ve got my Technics down for my paddle craft for surf launches but having to deal with pedals while dealing with the surf was something I have watched a lot of other pedal kayak anglers have some epic fails in the breakers. Everything from lost pedals in big surf, to trying to pull up the pedals before the shore in small surf conditions.
Trying to make sure I didn’t loose anything on the CoosaFD or my own gear, I was trying to get as much information from Jameson as I could on how to launch without any issues. His answer was awesome. Jameson—(Get in the kayak, flip the lever down to deploy the flex drive and start pedaling). Me— (How about when I come back in?). Jameson ( Keep pedaling until you stop on the beach). That sounded way to easy to be true so I was ready to get worked by the surf. With everything tied down and my adrenaline flowing we hit the water. The entry to the kayak and getting the flex drive deployed was a quick one step process that had me moving with a quickness between the set waves. As I made it passed the last breakers, I already knew that I was going to want one of these kayaks for my guiding business and my offshore play.
The ride is plenty stable and quick for offshore applications. In two to three foot waves I was having no problems. Rigging up bait was easy to get done while keeping my course and during some of the battles we had over the week, I didn’t see any of us have any issues with stability.
During the week adventure we were able to link into some monster tarpon, king fish and some decent red snapper. The surf luckily died down after the first day but to be honest I was glad it was big the first day. It gave me the conference in the FD to feel comfortable pedaling miles out into the ocean. I’ve been waiting for this kayak since before I even knew Jackson Kayak was making a pedal drive. When I book up for a week of charters it’s been a dream for me to have a way to give the old paddling arms a break from time to time. I’m stoked to see Jackson Kayak give the pedal drive kayak anglers a new twist that seems to simplify the overall process.
The CoosaFD has taken the launch process for offshore pedal anglers to an another level of ease. It really was as easy as it was explained to me. GET IN A START PEDALING!