eh, they are over most people's ability to stay upright. Many have been humbled

I can paddle an Epic 18x or Rapier 18 straight for awhile, god help me if I had to keep turning in textured water.

Wait til you paddle a surfski (Fenn, Mako, Epic etc.)!
Make it a day you wanna get wet and stay wet. I paddled a Futura 18 footer in carbon w. an 18" beam. The foot braces were frozen and way too long for me to brace against and I couldn't, naturally, work the rudder.(the owner was 6'3") so I had to rely on pure balance. Managed to stay upright but it took a lot of focus and the water was dead calm.

There are also some stunning performance SOTs made in Australia, New Zealand etc. Too bad that Current Designs discontinued the Zone. It was the nearest thing to a performance SOT made in North America.