Minh,
I'll just answer your questions here, as others may be interested. I've seen similar questions on other sites. Everyone suggests renting kayaks, but you'll probably not find a place that will rent a Mirage.
I wouldn't trade my Hobie Mirage Tandem for anything, except maybe 2 Mirage Revolutions. I may have to do this soon, as my son seems to be gaining weight fast (dam McDonalds!
).
My Mirage has been out 117 times, and I have never been disappointed. It is extremely manueverable and fast (with pedals.) I can sail it and troll while propelling myself around jettys and stones. It is extremely stable and sturdy. Here's the pluses and minuses:
Advantages:
1. Fast, because of the extremely efficient pedal system. No eddies created (like with paddles), pedal in the water 100% of the time, power stroke in both directions. You use your legs, which are about 2x as strong as your arms.
2. Dry. You don't get wet from paddle splashing. The yak sits way above the water. I can wear my pants and tennis shoes if we dock launch, no problem.
3. Sail. If you are into sailing, this is for you. The pedals act as a keel and allows you to reach and tack.
4. Stable and manueverable. It handles well in the waves and wind. The rudder allows you to turn on a dime.
Disadvantages:
1. Slow, if you are using the oars only. This yak is not sleek. Without the pedals, and rudder, it has a mind of it's own. It'll go where it wants to go. This makes it really tough to beach land sometimes. I always land with the pedals stowed. You only have a 5 - 7 second window sometimes to get in between waves. With this yak, you've gotta time it just right, or sploosh!
2. Not much room. The pedals take the space where you'd normally stow your catch, bait tank, rods or fish finder. I've never known anything else, so I work around it OK.
3. Weight. This sucker weighs around 100 lbs with everything on it. I noticed that my pedals are aluminum, whereas the new ones are plastic. They took a few pounds off in the new design. Don't expect to get up the stairs at Deer Creek or Leo with this yak. Also, the stock wheels are poor for a heavy beast like this- you will need wider ones if you plan to beach launch.
4. Reliability. Although mine hasn't failed yet, there's a lot of parts to break. See the pics below to get an idea of the sprockets, cables, levers, bearings and chains involved. There's a lot of machining that went into this yak. Even the oar joints are machined.
5. Cost. All the items in #4 above means $$$.
6. The pedals do get caught in the kelp occasionally, but they're easy to lift out. Sometimes I just slog through it, and the leave a chewed up path behind me. At times, it's OK because I can just use the pedals to anchor in the kelp.
Pedals:
Mechanism up close:
Rudder:
Lever supports:
Cables:
Even with the disadvantages, I'd still stick with the Mirage, but that's just me. My guess is that the majority of people would not go with the pedal system. Hope this helps.
...JK! 
Linear Mode
