2026 Product of the Year: SEA KAYAKING
Brand: VALLEY SEA KAYAKS | Product: Genesis 14.10
The Genesis is the shortest sea kayak in the range (14’10” / 452 cm and 15’1” / 459 cm), but its compact size is its greatest strength. Light, responsive, and easy to handle, it is designed for rock-hopping, surfing, and playful days on the water, while still offering enough efficiency and storage for a couple of nights away. Despite its length, its hull design delivers speed comparable to some 16-foot models.
Building on the success of the Gemini series, the Genesis extends this proven design to a wider range of paddlers by offering two composite sizes. Where many once had to size up into longer boats to find the right fit and volume, the Genesis now makes a shorter, more playful option accessible to almost everyone.
Valley Sea Kayaks
The year is 1959 and Ken Taylor was in Greenland to study it’s people and in particular the kayak hunting that was then, still part of their traditional way of life. Whilst there, he drew and studied many of their traditional hunting kayaks, as a kayaker himself, he always intended returning home with one of these and it was Emmanuele who produced that kayak. If Ken had based himself in a different part of Greenland and used a different kayak builder, the style of the sea kayaks we paddle today might well have been subtly different. This, because different areas and different hunting requirements, resulted in different ‘local’ styles of kayak. However he was based in Igdlorssuit and Ken’s kayak, made to the local design by Emmanuele Korneliusen, eventually went on to shape a company that wasn’t yet formed, Valley, not only that but also the design of the sea kayaks, many of us use recreationally today.
For more info, visit: Valley Sea Kayaks
