I have the fancy Hobie one with the foot pedals. 13' and it's insanely good. Super stable and really fast. So easy to cover serious distance. Hands free is the best thing ever. Super sturdy design and all the extra parts feel really durable.
However, heavy as hell at more than 70lbs and I can barely load it myself on my vehicle because it's so awkward of shape. It's almost too heavy for my SUV roof, which I think is actually rated to hold less weight. Would be easier for me to load if I had a stupidly overpriced $75,000 Ford F150 Limited. If you are older, with back problems, you might even have trouble loading the thing onto a trailer. It's that heavy. Even dragging it up the sand is a bitch.
Bought used off craiglist for about 30% off sticker price. Those CL guys will not budge on price. Your best bet to get lucky with a wife selling her ex's or something and maybe she doesn't know what it's worth.
Also, last year the patent design ran out on the foot pedal design for Hobie. So now all the other kayak manufacturers can copy it. But Hobie rolled out a new upgraded foot pedal design which works even better, and of course the new one is patented.
So be sure to look at other manufacturers now as they are sure to have foot pedal versions as well. Before, it used to be mostly a Hobie thing. But imho, they are too overpriced now and the competition offers just as good kayaks for half the price.
Also, you will never go as much as you want. Sometimes you just don't feel like loading it all up and going to the beach or lake. It's a lot of work. Then hosing it all down when you get home to keep it nice. Takes up a lot of room in the garage or like me where I store in the side of house in the shade. Seen many on CL over the years, after a few years ownership, and used less than 10x. Owner always says same thing. We just don't use it as much as we thought we would. It's the same with jet skis and snowmobiles.
I want to get his new Hobie design but there is no way in hell i'm spending $5k on a kayak. I don't go enough to justify the cost.