I take the approach that I am paddling forward 99% of the time that I am sitting in my kayak. I am often on quite long crossings and may not leave the boat for three hous at a stretch. Comfort while paddling is my prime consideration, so my seat and footrests are tweaked and reworked until I am really comfortable with the arrangement, which differs in every boat.

Apart from that, I don't put much consideration into entering and leaving the boat, since I spend very little of my kayaking time doing that.

Modern keyhole cockpits are often around 33 to 36 inches long. 30 inches is considered fairly petite. If you are going 30 inches you have little of the advantage of a long cockpit, and none of the advantages of a smaller one IMO.

Over the years I have settled on an egg shaped cockpit, 24 inches Long by 16 inches wide, with only an inch or inch and a half of the space behind the seat back. This is provided there is a fairly decent difference in front and rear deck heights. If the rear deck is not much lower I may go 26 inches.

i have one cockpit at 19 inches, and I have seen even smaller ones, but 24 seems to be optimum for me.

The reason I like the smaller cockpit is, as I said previously, I want to be comfortable 99% of the time, and that means my knees under the deck, and the deck, which is my work surface while I am at sea, closer to me. Map reading, compass reading, reaching for my dark glasses or a water bottle, stowing my hat under a deck bungie... All these little things become so much easier with a shorter cockpit.

I like my knees under the deck because I don't need to engage thigh braces, which are located at a specific location. The entire under-deck is my thigh brace and this means I can move my feet around freely on my footpad and change leg and knee angles as much as I want.

My spray deck is smaller, tighter, and more waterproof on an egg shaped coaming, rather than a coaming with long sides... Everything is just more compact and utilitarian.

I know that entering bum first and exiting feet first in a shore break is very handy, but how often does one do actually do this?

Roll in assisted rescue, and roll in paddle float rescue are not much more difficult, requiring only that one move a few inche's further down the aft deck before getting the secondd foot in.

Like everything in kayaking, practice improves technique, and entering and exiting benefits from practice just like every other aspect, especially if you don't want to entertain spectators.

Of course, a reliable roll helps, but that is practice too.

I often put complete beginners in my boats, and because they don't know the difference, the size of the cockpits is not even noticed, and they always manage fine.

I also have one boat, I call it my fat sissies boat, which is 30 inches wide and has an enormous cockpit. I give it to people who are really nervous, and to animals who are going to blow me out of the water and who I need to slow down. For the latter, I also have a tiny sea anchor, the size of a large paper coffee cup, which I clip on to the rear toggle loop when they are getting in, so that they don't know it's there. You would be amazed how such a small thing can have such a big effect. I call it the handy-cupper.
My basic message here is, consider what we are doing 99% of the time, and consider optimising for that.

Of course, it has to be said, and this is a heart thing, not a head thing... But everyone likes a tight fit, and smaller cockpits look way more sexy. (Double entendre not intended, please don't ban me from the forum.)

Et