I have had my Raptor SOT for several months now. I also have a Native Marvel and a Wilderness Tarpon. I doubt I'll ever use the Marvel or Tarpon again. I'm 69 years young and I have never turtled a yak but it would be near impossible to turn this Raptor over. It moves fast, turns well, for its 13' length, and I can move around anywhere on it easily. It's not affected by wind. Because of the pontoon design, it is easy for me to handle using the two rear handles and seems to weigh much less than my other yaks, even my husband's Ultimate Tegris. He loads it up and it's too heavy for me. It does everything the owner of the company says.

I hate to see a yak rated with the lowest marks by someone who has never tried one.

Every now and then, a product comes on the market that challenges the conventional wisdom about what's “cool” and what's usable. The Santa Cruz “Raptor” is such a product. At first glance, it looks like the child of a Dutch shoe and a toboggan. Those of us who use SOT kayaks probably wouldn't even give it a second glance. Jim Martin, the owner of Santa Cruz kayaks and creator of the Raptor recently sent one of his kayaks to me to demo, and after looking it over like it was a space alien, I did demo it. It was awesome!

After talking to Jim, you can tell that the Raptor is his baby. He is very passionate about the design and challenged me to compare it to any SOT kayak out there. As much as I admired his passion, I simply could not believe the Raptor was THAT great. I picked up the kayak, unwrapped it from its shipping plastic and looked it over. It has an almost flat, concave bottom, a sloping front end that comes to a point, and flares out to a pontoon of catamaran style configuration at the back. The side walls steeply slope up to the cockpit opening which is large. There is a generous tankwell for strapping in tackleboxes or crates just behind the cockpit. Other amenities include an integrated seat, two flush mounted rod holders, and integrated straps for the tankwell.

On the day I tested it, I placed it in the back of my truck as an afterthought. I had my other kayaks on top and was going fishing. I brought a friend along that had never been in a kayak. He came along to do some filming and take pictures of any fish we caught. After the fishing, I placed the Raptor in the water and asked my buddy to get in and paddle it around. He paddled out, stood right up, and started shaking the kayak in an attempt to turn it over. This was the first time he had been in any kayak, and he could not flip the boat! He stepped into the back tankwell, and paddled it back to shore. I was amazed at the incredible stability of the Raptor. It was my turn. I stepped onto the pontoon in the back and pushed the Raptor into the water. I was able to then step into the cockpit as if it was a boat. The Raptor is easily the most stable kayak I have ever seen! While in a seated position, it is impossible to flip it. While in a standing position, it’s difficult to flip it. Because of the stability, you can even step into from a dock. This is truly a well thought out design.

As we all know, nothing is perfect and there are some flaws with the Raptor. The integrated seating seems to rely on the user to push themselves back into the seat by keeping pressure on the foot rests. This is a little uncomfortable. This can be remedied by configuring toe seat to stay in position by adding an extra strap. There is ample room for storage both inside and out, but there is little room for working a measuring board during a tournament. The user would have to exit the kayak to measure and photo a fish of any decent size. The flush mounted rod holders could use a change out as well. I prefer Scotty style mounts and I think that would be a good upgrade on the Raptor. Most of these issues are easily user correctable.

From the standpoint of stability, the Raptor is unrivaled. There is no kayak on the market today that matches its stability. There is ample room both inside and outside to carry all of your gear, even for an overnight trip. It’s very light and can be easily manipulated on and off land. Its high sides make it unlikely it can be swamped by waves or wakes. It is not ready out of the box and need some adjustments to be comfortable as far as the seating goes and should be user configured for fishing. Other than that, the Santa Cruz Raptor seems like a great choice for beginners and veterans alike.