Walking through the Native Watercraft booth at Paddlesports Retailer’s 2017 on the water demo, I couldn’t help notice how many innovations the company has brought to kayak fishing. They were one of the first companies to offer bicycle-style pedal system with reverse, a hybrid kayak/canoe for fishing and a frame seat to name a few. When bigger, full-function kayaks hit the water, Native wasn’t afraid to go even bigger.
The big problem with a big boat is moving it to the water. The Titan can be rigged with integrated wheels.
The Native Titan 13.5 is huge. It weighs 150 pounds, measures 13-feet, six-inches long and 41.5-inches wide with an amazing capacity over 500 pounds. The Titan is a lot of boat. But the Propel drive and large rudder make it easy to control all of that real estate.
The on the water demo at PSR gave me the first chance to test out the Titan. Even in the small pond on a short spin, I could tell the boat is easy to move and maneuver. Reverse makes it easy to work the big boat into small places. The pedals pop up easily for shallow water and has plenty of low-end torque for power with enough top end to move quickly with little effort. This is the type of boat you can fish anywhere with confidence.
Native perfected the frame seat for comfort and ergonomics.
The famous Native frame seat makes the boat comfortable, too. It can be adjusted for the perfect pedaling angle and position. A big boat offers plenty of room to pack in features. The Titan has horizontal and vertical rod storage. A huge bow hatch, expansive stern well, deck hatch and generous under seat storage. You can take everything and the kitchen sink.
The Propel drive is a proven power system with reverse and forward. It’s easy to move and remove from the kayak.Â
The boat can even be rigged with two PowerPole Micros and an electric motor. There is more room on the Titan for features than I have room to describe in this review.
It’s one thing to innovate without performance, Native’s Titan shows that a big boat can still handle like a kayak.
