Kid Tips

I thought I would start a thread for kid tips on the Hobie Islands. I have had a TI for a few years now and my perspective is kids in the 3-10 yr age frame. Please post any insights/comments

I have personally found that at least one of these 4 things needs to be happening for the kids to be engaged,

- You have to be going somewhere. A beach, a park, a journey to somewhere they can run around and play.
- Catching fish fairly consistently.
- Doing something more than just riding along. Steering, messing with the sail, riding out on the bow or almas with their feet in the water.
- Spotting wildlife that's actually there - Dolphins, Alligators, Birds, etc

I have also found the below to be the case for us,

- If it's cold it's probably not worth going out. There little bodies get colder faster and they can get miserable quick.
- I thought they would love tramps. Mine actually favor Hakas.
- A castnet and bucket is awesome. Having their own pet fish on board can entertain them for hours.
- A sense that there is some degree of danger involved. That this isn't a tour boat experience. Keeps them on their feet!

This is what I've discovered so far. Of course all of their personalities are different. There may be some kids that just want to hang out with Dad and are fine cruising around all day, others are only happy if they have a screen in front of them. But the above seems to work well with about 90% of the little rascals

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"Not everyone who wanders is lost." - Tolkien

That's great info. We've only been out once with our new TI with our 2, 9, and 12 year old. I noticed that the tramps work well for my 2 and 9 year olds but not so well for my 12 (she's already 5' 2" and about 110 lbs.). So, I may have to look at making some hakas. The 2 year old was very comfortable on board (that's both good and bad) and she would not sit still, much to the dismay of her mother.
You are right about the cold. What was comfortable for me was definitely not for the kids.
As I take the kids out more and the weather warms up I can report back more on what works for us.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas

Just had my three nephews (two early teens, third is three) on my TI last weekend. My first time with passengers.

I couldn't carry everyone at once (also their mom & dad and my parents were there) so we beached fairly often to change out riders. That definitely made it nicer for everyone (most of them anyway, I'd rather sail off to the far end of the lake! ) since they got to have some fun but not get bored.

I found tramps AND hakas to be an excellent combo. Most of the time people sat on the hakas to stay dryer but the tramps underneath meant they could move around or stand easily - especially the 3 yr old. I didn't originally build my hakas with this in mind but am glad they work together.

I couldn't really focus them on the danger aspect, we just didn't have any wind - maybe 4-5 MPH. Boredom and fatigue from pedaling was more of a concern! One nephew in particular was disappointed, he wanted to head for the island 4 miles across the lake as badly as I did.

RandomJoe, I saw the pics you posted of that outing. I'm quite impressed with your hakas. Any chance we could get some detailed construction details on the haka forum? You accomplished exactly what I'm trying to do.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas

Sure, I'll put something together this evening.

I have a 1 and 3 year old and while I grew up sailing hobies and sunfish I didn't want to get back into sailing till they were a little older so we went with the PA (we'll first tried the outfitter didn't work so well). What I have found to work well is give my oldest a rod with a weight on the end and she just casts and casts.



Then we got the bright idea to give her a real rod and hook with a nightcrawler thinking she would just leave it sit in the water patiently... nope still loves to cast lucky the PA 17 is a lot bigger and the vantage seats catch hooks well!

Other insight for smaller kids
- They love to pull the drive and play with the water
- They hate life vest, I don't care and they will get used to them
- Drive leashes work well on the back of a life vest (makes it easier to pull them back on the yak)
- Must have shade if you are going out for more than a little bit.
- They will tire out quickly, plan for that if you want to stay on the water longer mine normally nap
- Hobie yaks tow other yaks well

I love the weight on the rod and casting idea. I also have a daughter named Olivia and she loves to cast. I'm going to try that.

When I first got the TI I thought shade was going to be a big deal. But so far I've found as long as theres wind its tolerable mid summer even for them. I just make sure they stay hydrated and jump in and swim every 30 mins to 1hr on a hot day.

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"Not everyone who wanders is lost." - Tolkien

Ya most of my lakes are no swim so they just kick around and shade is a must.

You can swim at Manawa. I'm not sure you would want to though.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas

Yeah we normally frequent Walnut creek and Wherspan good fishing and never crowded.

Don't forget snacks, lots of snacks.
My daughter, now 8, loves going fishing with me in the AI, but man she's always nibbling on something.