: I see a lot of black kayaks and wonder the logic.

Simply people just think it's a beautiful color. Which, you have to admit, it is. It's very simple and elegant. It does have consequences.

The color choice comes up early in the design stage. I warn my customers about the heat consequences (cockpit temperature, HDT, oil canning, etc). One point often overlooked is most epoxy for wet-layup has a heat deflection temperature of around 120 F (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_deflection_temperature). Epoxy will START to deform at those temps. It won't fail, but it may suffer permanent deformation. For oil canning, or differential external and internal pressures is a seal container (ie a hold), a simple solution to drill a 1/16" hole through the bulkhead. The hole allows air to pass but water cannot due to surface tension.

I've built four black kayaks (three BP's and one CT-18) and all have gone to customers who live north of New Jersey. They've generally been play boats for rough water and for rolling practice. To stay cool they often just do a quick roll.