Painting my kayak, I used Interlux Brightside the first time around. This was after a short affair with the WR-LPU from System Three (I bought a small amount, and it was too difficult to do a good job with on my test panels in the warm weather here). Brightside is a good paint, but not what I wanted. My eyes are sensitive, and it's simply too shiny a finish. Plus, I don't care much for the colors now (I opted for using a LEGO-themed paint job). They are too plastic-looking, and are not quite true to the actual LEGO colors (which are also plastic-looking, but much bolder). I didn't really know what I wanted when I purchased it.

I guess what I'm saying is that I want a more traditional-looking finish. So, I began to look at using Kirby paints a couple of months ago.

The colors of the Kirby paints look much nicer to me. I'm told that it's easy to touch up. I've seen one local boat with a few areas painted with Kirby's. The owner told me that Kirby's is definitely pretty soft, but I don't care that much anymore, so long as it is easy to touch up. Plus, Kirby's just feels great against the skin (I can't say the same for Brightside).

I don't think that there's a paint out there that I could reasonably expect to hold up to the abuse it would get on my kayak, atleast not a paint I'd want to use. Almost every time I take the boat out, I have to return to either a concrete boat ramp or a mildly steep shoreline covered in large cobbles and small boulders.

The Brightside paint already looks like it has been through hell. So, I'm planning on a much simpler paint job this time around. I'll paint the deck one color, the hull another, and then put a stripe near the sheerline between the colors, or right below where they meet.

I'm looking at probably using the semi-gloss from Kirby. If anyone here can think of a reason not to use Kirby's on my kayak, please tell me before I decide on ordering from them. That it's soft doesn't really matter to me, as long as it's easy to touch up.

If I do paint my kayak with it, I'll be posting a review of my experiences to this forum. There's not much here on Kirby's paints. If I can finally get a digital camera, I'll put up some pictures of the end result.

I sent them an email asking for a color card earlier this week. If I like what I see (especially with their pinks), I'll be ordering the paint within the next month.

-David