I find that my coaming lips take a lot of abuse. Many times if not all, I bridge my paddle across the coaming lip getting in and out. Just to get out of a kayak, you usually press against it to leverage yourself up. A tight neo spray skirt also wears away on the lip edge and soft woods are not as resistant to damage as hard woods even with coatings of epoxy. I am actually surprised that a few responded to using cedar. I can certainly be wrong but I just always use hard wood for coaming lips. Its a pretty thin area that often gets a lot of weight and often abrasion in my opinion.