Looking at a fully rigged Chubracabra you can see on if the great things about this kayak, room! The cockpit has 9 square feet of floor space. This large open deck allows me to stand up and turn around to get rods or gear out of my crate. It also performed extremely well while fly fishing. I didn’t have issues with my fly line fouling on the kayak; now in the trees, that’s another story.
The 37” beam of this kayak makes it extremely stable; I only fell off the Chubracabra once after 6 months of use, and the fall was because I tried to go through some whitewater on the Elkhorn while standing. The Diablo Paddlesports Chubracabra is light; at only 56lbs I’m easily to carry it over my head and walk it down to the water. This lightness hasn’t affected the boats ruggedness. It’s survived a few drops including one off the roof of my explorer.
Just like any kayak there were some issues. But it’s not every day you can address your issues of a product directly to one of the owners of the company. That’s what I did; I email Thomas Flemons prior to this review to give him a chance to respond to some of my issues with the Chubracabra.
Issue: SUP paddling isn't the best, while really digging in with the paddle you find yourself zig zagging along. I'm not sure what the technique is called but I've noticed that when standing and paddling I can keep my paddle on the right side and after each stroke drag it a little like a rudder. This allows me to only have to paddle on one site. This does not work if I have to paddle hard or up current.
The installation of Larry chairs has been giving a lot of people troubles. I am going to make a YouTube video that will show installation of our chairs and be available on our website. We’ll also start including and instruction pamphlet with the chair reminding users that it should be used with a regular kayak seat, not as a replacement for one. If the wind gets, rough rapids, or overhanging trees, you’ll want the option to take it off, fold it up and throw it in the front dry storage and go back lower with a regular kayak seat.
I haven't had any issue with the supper holes not draining well, my only issue is their diameter. If I have kayaks on my trailer, all my other SOT's accommodate cable to lock them up... The Chupacabra's is too small.
Our scuppers are a little smaller than the average kayaks, they are only 1”. We only cut them at 1” so there is more structure to the scupper. I started using the Master lock Pythons, they are cables without loops on the end that can be threaded through small holes and then locked back into a housing on the other end.
