I own the elinchrom triggers and lights and have used them with many pentax cameras.
no p-ttl, and I always set the shutter speeds to the next slower shutter than the camera's normal synch speed with no issues.
at the regular synch speed you might occasionally see a dark band at the edge of the frame from the shutter...
this is of course not really an issue in most studio set ups...
I'm not sure if it's the triggers though, as I often use them with old vivitar flashes and other pentax units in manual mode too and it seems to be some flash units respond faster to the triggers than others...
for example my really old elincrhom flashes and the vivtars do it, the new pentax flashes do not.

I've seen electric trolling motors attached to kayaks like that.
I use a small inflatable boat with a modified solid wood floor and electric motor .
I am however saving up for a larger zihune crane2 gimbal with monopod to scrap the tripod altogether, the idea being to mount the gimbal to the mono pod and mount the mono pod directly to the boat... this way I switch from stills to video and back and even if the waves are a lil choppy I can still shoot.

this is where a few diffewrent strength CTO gels for the flash come in handy.

you might want to try keeping up with current trends... some mirrorless and now even some camcorders are able to focus faster than Pentax flagship cameras, and some of these mirrorless are cameras perfectly capable of matching d-slr's for image quality....

to keep thinking otherwise is DELUSION.

Store clerk in winnipeg canada that sold me my k3 mentioned the store dropped pentax becuase pentax customers were complaining pentax was "forcing" them to switch brands.

The irony of course is...
I was there looking at a sony mirrorless as a potential replacement for my k-3 becuase Pentax has nothing that can switch hit between stills and 4k video that I can buy for my business needs...

I too feel like I am being forced to switch.
I can honestly attest that the AF on my sony hxr nx80 camcorder is as fast as the af on my d-slr, if not faster... and it DEFINITELY tracks moving subjects better... so if that af system says anyhting about the hybrid af in the mirrorless cameras.. then Pentax better be worried...

ah, the Pentax *ist-doomed camera model....
been hearing about this one for decades.
sad but true the brand is languishing behind the competition in some areas, but is still putting out formidable cameras, that are great value for stills photographers.

I can't say one way or the other what the future holds for the iconic name, but I suspect they'll continue to lose people over things like AF speed, video features and lens selections... also third party support for things like wireless ttl camera strobes....

or they'll adapt and save the brand....
the one thing is certain in my mind, having started the transition to sony only for my future is this...
they can't as a business survive for ever if they're only trading on the NAME. other iconic brands have tried and failed using that business model in the past.

switched? not exactly... running one system for video and one for stills, had no choice...
I simply stopped buying anything Pentax while putting resources instead into Sony Video products, and now that the k3 is at the end of it's lifecycle, I'll not be buying anything pentax to replace or upgrade my stills camera equipment, I'll be buying sony mirrorless so I can at least keep using my old glass while I start over with the mirrorless system.
which is an expensive pain in the arse for me, considering all it would have taken to sell me the k1 and keep my business was to match Nikon or canon's video specs.... even a 4k, raw video out via hdmi to an external video monitor and recorder solution would have worked...
the company made it very clear that I'm not their customer, so I have to move along . that's all.

breaks my heart but switching to sony has become a business necessity for me.
The ol' k3 is the last new pentax body I will ever buy.
I need to switch hit between video and stills and a Sony Mirrorless body with an ultra wide lens and a PK adapter for the rest of my pentax lenses makes more sense than the k1 mkII for me, since I have to cut video footage with my sony pro video camcorders for most jobs.
since the sony does stills very well, once I buy the Sony mirrorless body, it'll be sony lenses from then on also.

nice shot, nice cause, as an Aspie myself I like to see people raising awareness!

so everything x2 (for backup) for each system... so lenses x2 batteries x2 different systems etc.. I look at it this way...

sometimes it's easier to flip the switch from stills to video and vice versa on the camera you have set up for the shot then to be fumbling around with multiple systems. easier to have ALL your gear from one system.
For example, I will often have a camcorder running for a long take at an event and then grab whatever other cameras I have a long for b-roll, cutaways and stills. kinda sucks to have to buy two 16-50 f2.8 zooms for two different systems when you decide you need a video clip and a still of the same scene for post editing.

if pentax were smart they'd make a 645 mirrorless with 4k raw video out that crops the sensor with kmount adaptors for guys that need both stills and video and be done with it, if for no other reason then to keep the brand interesting to budding film makers, videographers looking for that 70 mm film look and to compete with Nikon in the video markets. then you could run a 645 for video alonside a k1 and never have to choose between buying a k1 or a camcorder like I just did... and Pentax lost that coin toss simply becuase of video specs... as you said for some shots you can't beat the tool designed for the job but video capable d-slrs are like swiss army knives, they're versatile enough to be worth owning... my camcorder has a built in zoom, can't swap it out for a wider shot, and the lens converters cost as much as another camera, so if I want ultrawide shots I'll need a video capable mirrorless or d-slr for that shot. and that's where my descision to drop pentax comes in. a sony mirrorless witht he same 1 inch sensor and interchangable lens makes more sense. that means pentax loses the next camera purchase as well and this last one...