Mako 12

The riot kayaks are well made. Unfortunately you can only get replacement part from the manufacturer. They are based in Canada and the replacement parts are extremely expensive with a base shipping cost to the USA of $30.00 even for the smallest of parts. If money is not an issue I highly recommend their products.

It's a nice kayak. I Ordered two of these and comparing it to my 12ft Perception, the hull seems a little thinner. The impulse drive works smoothly, and the seat is comfortable. I did have a problem with the rudder on one of them. On the maiden voyage I noticed the boat would barley turn to the right, only a degree or two, but could turn on a dime to the left. I figured it was just a minor adjustment at the rudder. Unfortunately, it turns out that the steering cable was not cut evenly and not leaving me enough cable to adjust and preventing the boat from being able to turn right. I contacted the seller, Kayak Distribution, and they offered me a new cable kit but it's going cost me $30 shipping.You would think that if you spent $2500 dollars for two kayaks, that were 3 days old with a defective steering cable you would just send out the part."UPDATE" Seller did send new rudder cable at no charge.

I bought this expecting a nice budget pedal kayak that I could use for bass fishing, what I got instead was a mess of a boat. I should have skipped on this when I saw the damage on it at the boat show, but they were offering a killer deal and I pulled the trigger. The first time I took it out, one of the pedal cranks fell off the drive and I was almost stranded on the water since I did not have a paddle on hand (it does not come with one). Alarmingly, the drive also started to show signs of separation at the seams. You can definitely tell that this was made overseas by workers who could care less. I would not trust this thing out on the water at all.After some back and forth with the seller, I decided to return the kayak.

For the price this kayak is the best way to go. It arrived damaged but Amazon took care of me and all is good. Will be testing it out tomorrow on cold water. I’m excited for the experience.

Upon inspection, I noticed that the cranks and pedals did not ship with my kayak. I got squared away by amazon and was able to buy regular bike square hole cranks and pedals that fit perfectly on the impulse drive.

Changing my review a bit. This kayak (orange/yellow) does not have the features that the other Mako 12 kayaks have, but costs the same amount of money. No adjustable foot rests, no anchor clete, etc. Had I noticed that I would not have ordered it. I am sending it back. Still, the Kayak paddles well, peddles well. Fast and stable. Seat is comfortable and fairly high, but only adjusts forward and back. I am 6'1" and had to have the seat all the way back to peddle comfortably. Standing is easy but casting and fishing while standing for me will take place only in calm, shallow water. The rudder, rudder control and Impulse drive all work great. Excellent speed and tracking. I tried several kayaks out at a local demo before my purchase and the Mako 12 compares favorably to the more expensive models available there. I couldn't afford them so I took a chance on the Mako and am (was) glad I did.Negatives are that all dry hatches are virtually impossible to access on the water. Kayak ships in giant plastic bag which was shredded when it got to me. The driver said it was like that when he received it. Arrived with one broken accessory track and one screw end of the paddle holder bungee broken off. Both were on the left side of the kayak. The body of the kayak was somehow undamaged which I appreciate as some other reviewers have not been so lucky. The manufacturer appears to be based in Canada and so far I have had no success reaching them. I am really only interested in replacing the broken gear track, which seems to be an odd size and is not available from the normal kayak accessory vendors. Amazon, when notified, was quick to offer to replace the entire kayak or have me send it back and give me a refund. Seemed like overkill to me, but I did take them up on a courtesy refund of $150. I was happy with the kayak, despite the damage, but did not get what I thought I was getting because I failed to notice the differences in the description. I assumed since the price was the same, the kayaks were the same, other than color. I am going to send it back after all.

Best kayak for the money fast and very light

Great