I just recently bought my first GPS - a Magellan Meridian (yellow). The main influencing factor for me was the price - Fry's Electronics had them for $99. Other plusses were the fact that it's waterproof, it floats, the memory can be expanded, and maps can be downloaded to it. I bought a 128 Mb memory card for it and the "Mapsend Topo" software (another $99).

So far I've been very happy with it. Since it's my first I can't compare it with anything else, and I haven't used it for kayaking yet since my boat is in two pieces in the garage, but I have no complaints.