Review of the Tiderace Xceed kayak

Location: England
Paddler: Male, 6ft, experienced
Date: May 2024
Model: Tiderace Xceed

Finish and cockpit comfort

The first thing that is noticeable is the fantastic finish of the perfect seamless hull.  Even the keel strip which I opted for is flawlessly finished.  It is a thing of beauty.  I’ve owned Tiderace kayaks before and have always felt very comfortable with the size and shape of the cockpit and with the fittings, in particular the plastic backrest which provides plenty of support.  I’ve only had to adjust the foot pegs on this boat and that’s it, no additional padding required or movement of the backrest, etc.  

Dimensions and fit for feet

On paper the cockpit dimensions are a little smaller than previous Tiderace kayaks I’ve owned, but that isn’t noticeable at all and at 6 foot I’ve no issues sliding in and out for both launching and landing with the kayak afloat.  It’s a comfortable boat for all day paddling with plenty of room for my size 10 boots to move around.  The only other kayak I’ve paddled with that much room for my feet is the Aries 155.  Due to the design of the Xceed deck it looks very sleek and it appears that there isn’t a lot of room in the cockpit for feet, but there is.

Feel, stability and manoeuvrability

The overall stability feels somewhere between the Xplore and the Xcape and more akin to the Pace Action, all of which I’ve owned.  The secondary stability is very good and in terms of forwards paddling performance it seems similar to the Xplore but faster than the Xcape and Pace Action.  What is really noticeable is how manoeuvrable it is for a longer kayak.  Edging feels stable and almost effortless and more akin to the Pace Action which is a much shorter boat with more rocker (rudder up obviously).  However, it does need to be remembered that the speed comes at a cost which is the small loss of stability. 

Handling in wind, tide and lumpy seas

I found that in a bouncy tide-race on Anglesey where I did need to concentrate and to relax as the unladen kayak was quite lively.  That said, I would usually paddle my Romany Surf  if we were playing in a tide-race, so it’s a good test of the Xceed.  It felt the same in windy and very lumpy conditions unladen on Harris, you just need to relax and trust in the secondary stability as the kayak is capable, its more about the paddlers ability.  

Expedition-proof

As a fully laden boat on multiple days out I found the Xceed to be fast and very easy to paddle with no loss of manoeuvrability and capable of eating up all my kit with room to spare.  The increase in weight definitely improves stability, and that’s what you would expect.  In short, it works well as a day boat but really comes into its own carrying kit on expedition.  Whilst on Harris I swapped boats for a while and paddled a fully laden Cetus HV.  The pal I swapped with stated that the Xceed was less stable than his Cetus but with excellent secondary stability and a really comfortable cockpit, particularly the backrest.  Whilst the Cetus is a good boat, compared to the Xceed its a bit of a tub.  Absolutely it has more stability, but I was getting pretty tired paddling it and couldn’t wait to return to my Xceed.  With no disrespect to the Cetus, which is a great boat with a proven pedigree, getting back in my Xceed felt like swapping a cart horse for a racehorse.  

Skeg up or down? 

As you would expect, the Xceed needs the skeg to be deployed as the wind strength increases but not excessively so as I found when I paddled the Cetus HV when the skeg was never up.  In a Fore 5 gusting Force 6 unladen the Xceed needs all of the skeg deployed with the wind beam on, which is to be expected, and it never proved to be a handful.  I had no issues at all with rolling the kayak.

In summary, I’m very happy with my Xceed and will be keeping it as my day paddling and expeditioning boat.

For further information please visit Tiderace Sea Kayaks.