The deck curve aft of the cockpit is tricky (or very tricky if you go for the low mold profile, suiting greenland paddles!). My way to handle this is to cut the strips over the cockpit (my initial attempt to use full-length strips resulted in ungainly bumps forward and aft of the cockpit), and to use a cockpit dummy to align the strips around the cockpit perimeter – the dummy being a cockpit-shaped piece of plywood or particle board attached correctly (position, height and angle) on the molds. This provides a visual clue how to handle the inidividual strips along the tricky area.

The purpose of the very low aft deck is to provide a flat area where the paddle can be held when entering/exiting the ocean size cockpit. When building a large cockpit there is no need for the paddle support area and you can let the strips follow a less dramatic curve (eyeballing the curve – or build up mold 8 slightly).

The decision on cockpit size has very little to do with body dimensions (provided the cockpit dimensions are adjusted if needed). Ocean or large is about different attitudes to usage. My preference for ocean style comes from focussing on comfort and control during the long hours of paddling rather than a few seconds of more convenience entering and exiting the kayak. Objections to ocean size is often that it is harder to enter (which it is, but after some time it is as effortless and safe as with large holes), that you might get stuck (which you don’t – water and mild panic are formidable lubricants). The good things are that it is easier to find a comfortable position and change it (no thigh braces and rim in the way), the kayak control is improved (you can find support for the knees anywhere under the fore deck, not only where you have positioned the thigh braces), that it is easier to keep dry (a small roundish rim creates better pressure on the spraydeck or tuiliq hem than the long large-radiussed sides of a large cockpit) and that you get the chart and compass closer to you (I can still read at least the larger fonts on the charts without glassesor lenses).

The low seat you mentiones is a function of the low deck line. You can have a good sesating position with the low deck and a loe seat – or a higher deck with a higher seat. My preference for the low combo is that straighter legs give a larger area in contact with the seat and therefore less risk of pressure on nerves and blood vessels. The alternative with a higher deck/seat necessitates a higher fore edge of the seat to create comfort and with that the seating position is more restricted.

But those things are of course a matter of taste – in some cases aquired taste ;-) – and my recommendations are just related to my limited experience.