Don't go shorter than 10 feet. I have a future beach voyager 10.4 and i really like it. I have been in one of the aruba and I felt like I was sitting too deep. I have been in a couple of the pelican 10 footers, both sit in and sit on and they were ok. If you go sit in, look for one that has a large cockpit opening. I used a rental a couple summers ago and not being able to move my legs around sucked. With the future beach, the footpegs are easily adjustable and the cockpit is big so i can move around every so often. I paid less than $200 at dunhams for it. I use a pelican angler kayak paddle and I like it. Sometimes I wish it had some padding.