: IF YOUR KAYAK NEEDS A SKEG OR RUDDER, THE KAYAK WAS NOT WELL DESIGNED

I take exception to this statement. There are plenty of well designed boats that incorportate rudders or skegs. Doubles and triples pretty much require rudders.

A well designed single with a skeg can be trimmed to handle many wind/wave conditions by varying the depth of the skeg. It can still track well and be responsive to leaned turns and corrective strokes. Such a boat is a very intelligent design, in my opinion. I think of a skeg as a "trim tab" and use it as such.

: (or possibly the paddler just needs to be a bit less lazy).

Therein lies the problem. Most of the people I see paddling rudder equipped boats have the rudders down all the time. Rather than using the rudder for course corrections only under difficult conditions (as they are intended to be used), they use them for steering. They are substituting the rudder for learning proper paddle strokes and leaning/edging techniques. This is bad, as it puts the paddler in the situation of being dependent on the rudder. If it fails under difficult conditions, they're screwed. This is probably why people who consider themselves "serious" paddlers often eschew rudders.

On the other hand, there are a lot of people who just want to get into a boat and paddle for a while. They don't care about learning advanced strokes and don't paddle in difficult conditions, they just want to have fun and get a bit of exercise. I see it as similar to the debate over manual vs. automatic cameras. I prefer a manual camera, as I like the control it gives me. It also forced me to learn to understand lighting and exposure. However, most people simply want to take pictures and really don't care how the camera works or why. Perhaps their results are not as good, but they're good enough to meet their expectations, which is really the bottom line. On the other hand, a skilled photographer can produce stunning images with either type of camera. The same is true of paddlers and kayaks.

My camera does have a built in meter and the lenses have automatic diaphrams. These are conveniences that don't take anything away from the creative process. I view a skeg in much the same terms. It's a convenience under certain conditions, but it doesn't prevent me from learning advanced paddle strokes, leans and other boat control techniques, or make them unnecessary. There is no significant downside to a skeg, as the boat handles fine with it up or down. People speculate about jams, but has anyone ever actually experienced one?

I don't see any need for the added complexity of a rudder on a single kayak since a skeg is sufficient, so I don't use them and won't buy a boat that has one. Perhaps some people have a real need for a rudder. If so, that doesn't automatically mean that their boat is poorly designed or that they're lazy; it just means that their needs are different than mine.