Fellow kayakers!
Long story short, I'm looking to buy a new kayak. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm too much of a novice to make an informed decision.
I have neither a car, a drivers license, or a house, so therefore I'm looking at portable kayaks, preferably skin-on-frame since they seem to have better tracking, handles wind better, and are faster.
I'm going to use it for a fairly wide variety of tasks, i.e. multi-day trips, shorter trips after work, solo, with a buddy, in rivers, lakes, and the baltic. So basically doing everything with except tight turns, surf, and other playful stuff. I short, I want to get from point A to point B as quickly and comfortably as possible. I do realize I'm going to have to make some trade-offs, since a comfortable, not too heavy foldable tandem kayak is never going to be as fast as a dedicated hard-shell sea kayak. I've been looking mostly at the following models, although I'll happily receive other recommendations:
Neris smart pro S - The cheapest (but the most wide).
Triton Ladoga 2 - The narrowest (but the most heavy).
Puffin Saranac - The lightest (but the lowest weight allowance).
The best option would be to try out a bunch of different kayaks, but unfortunately foldable skin-on-frame kayaks are few and far between so I would probably have to travel a bit in order to do so, which doesn't really seem feasible.
Dear kayaker, do you have any recommendation for me? Other than width, length, and shape, what other factors should I look for when determining cruising speed?
(sorry for any weird phrasings or grammatical errors, english is not my native language)