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Easy and Effective upgrades for Hobie Kayaks

I’ve had my Hobie Revolution for about 3 months now. I love it, but felt that I needed to upgrade a few things for maximum performance. I’ve added a few pictures for reference.

• Turbo Fins – The first thing I did was replace the stock fins for the new Turbo Fins. The turbos are longer, stiffer and more responsive than the stock fins. Now I can get up to full speed in no time and maintain that speed with less output. $79.95

• Sailing Rudder – Hobie makes a rudder for the Adventure Island that is bigger and deeper than the stock rudder. The sailing rudder is insanely responsive. It works great a full speed and also while drifting, I found that I can adjust the angle of my drift significantly by slightly moving my rudder. $22.95

• Hardware – Hobie designed a unique interchangeable hardware system on their kayaks. Each padeye, cleat and bungee end can be replaced with each other. I removed some the padeyes and cleats from my tank well and replace them with bungees and hooks to hold my bait tank. $3.50 per piece

• Pedal – The pedal on the Mirage Drive system likes to hang upside down and away from the user. To fix this, I removed the foot strap and attached a 1.5 oz egg sinker to the bottom of the back of the pedal using Marine Goop. Now it sit perfectly positioned for me to place my feet down and go. $1

• Fish Finder – I wanted to keep both of my rails free to mount rod holders so I decided to mount my Fish Finder into the sail mast receptacle in the front. I used ½ PVC tubing to hold my finder in place. Then I added a piece of bungee to secure it the kayak. I tuck my tranducer and power cables underneath the front hatch. Inside the hatch, I have a waterproof box that houses my battery. I’ve added Velcro to the bottom of the box and my kayak to hold it in place. $200