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< March April 2002
	Gear
Spin to Win A new round of playboats for 2002 Frederick Reimers

As new playboat designs were molded into plastic this past fall, we eyed them on the Net like the kids in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. When we could stand it no more, we shouted "Playboat review!" and started calling manufacturers. The newfangled designs arrived at our office throughout the fall, encased in bubble wrap, whereupon phones went unanswered while we unwrapped them, sat in them and puttered with outfitting. As soon as we could we took our plunder to the rivers: the Colorado’s Shoshone and Westwater, the Snake and even a few ill-advised trips down Gore Canyon. Two testers even made it as far as the Gauley before we discovered they’d absconded with a few of our craft.

A cartwheel here, blunt there and a few miserable attempts at donkey flips and our impressions slowly began to form. Then we rounded up a few hangers-on and headed to Shoshone for a definitive hull-to-hull review. What boats we didn’t have we borrowed; Pyranha rep Brent Toepper showed up with a slew of prototypes, and Colorado Canoe and Kayak chipped in with a couple of WaveSport Ace’s. With the help of Wildwasser’s removable hip pads, testers leapt in and out of different designs easily. At the takeout, over a bucket of fried chicken, reviewers scribbled down their impressions on the hood of a nearby F-150.

General Warning: the slew of new designs—each manufacturer has up to four in production, often in three different sizes—can be overwhelming. Where to start? First, understand that boats are becoming as specialized as socket wrench sets. Short, stubby designs like the Disco, EZ and G-Force maximize small features and get airborne easily. Drawbacks include poor hull speed and corkish cartwheels. Longer, slicier boats like the Session, Ego and Booster offer better carving and hull speed. It’s difficult to predict which type of boat will perform best in a given feature until you try it out. Second, get the right size boat for your weight as that can make a big difference in performance. Above all, remember: pros can do spectacular things in every one of these designs, so pick your boat and stick with it until you’ve unlocked its—and your own—potential.

Dagger G-Force

Though Dagger led an assault on the market with nine new whitewater designs for 2002, the model we got a hold of was the G-Force—its stubby boat. Starting with the obvious, the G-Force 5.9 (nick named the "Mini-G") is a staggering 5’11". This boat is silly short. And beyond its length…well, you really can’t get beyond its length. It’s surprising this boat even floats. If you’re looking for a low-water playboat, the G-Force opens possibilities on even the most piddling feature and was able to instruct even our oldest school testers in the art of flatwater moves and splatwheels because it’s so easy to throw around. As for river running, in even medium-water you feel like a cork in a flushing toilet. I can’t recommend it for anything over Class III.

Now for the surprises. On big play features, this boat rocks. It’s surprisingly good on wave faces like the Snake’s Big Kahuna, where spinning is absurdly easy. The G-Force’s size and surprising acceleration allow for easy separation with the surface for blunts and other aerial moves. This boat was made for aerial loops. A quick tumbler in a hole and very retentive, the G-Force is so small that, as one tester said, "As long as you can hold your breath, you’ll be fine. Even throwing controlled ends, my head was under water." The other surprise: this boat is comfortable. Testers with size 10.5 feet complained about toe crimping, but otherwise the 5.9 was surprisingly roomy for paddlers up to 5’11". The 6.3 comfortably encases paddlers over 6’2". Dagger’s new outfitting has thigh braces modeled after Perception’s, and with sticker-backed pads supplied, outfitting took ten minutes tops. Available in three sizes, you should find one that will fit. If you’re looking for something longer and slicier, Dagger also has its Id line, which is a tune-up of the Ego models.

Eskimo’s Nano

The first thing you notice about the Nano from Germany's Eskimo is its weight—or lack thereof. Its 31 lbs feel effortless beneath you as you attain waves, paddle up eddies, throw the bow around, and last, but not least, rack it at the end of the day. At the Shoshone run’s All-Day Wave—notorious for its keep-your-trajectory-while-paddling-your-ass-off ferry entrance—the Nano held course easily, with each stroke transferring into much-needed forward momentum.

Designed by company head Jan Kellner and Team Eskimo Europe, the Nano was made to be looser and faster than the Zwo, not difficult given a year or two’s worth of innovation over its now-archaic predecessor. As in its creek boats, Eskimo has also introduced new adjustable outfitting for the Nano, which lets thighs and feet adhere to the hull like a ranger adheres to regulations. Performance-wise, it slices well when initiating the bow, stern squirts with ease, and on the right wave, flat spins faster than a nano-second, which might be the origin of its name. The Colorado foray was my second time in the boat; earlier in the year I paddled it three days straight on the town run at Durango’s Animas River Days. For hole riding, I thrashed myself in Santa Rita. The nose would rise when I needed to blast across the froth to a more hack-friendly spot, and it sliced as soon as I decided I was up for a series of swaps followed by a chundering. The only drawbacks: my skirt came un-done once at the brink of the hole, forcing me to frantically re-fasten it before getting swallowed; and it comes only in one size, making it tight for bigger paddlers. Other testers’ comments: "Light as my checkbook;" "Majorly throw-downable;" "Roomy for a play machine."

—edb

Bliss-Stick Flip-Stick

Kiwi manufacturer Bliss-Stick hopes to make a big splash with their new playboat, the Flip-Stick. Envisioned as a bigger guy’s (6’5") short playboat, this kayak combines many of the best design features from other companies. Due to raised ends, there is substantial rocker, meaning tips don’t catch on spins or pearl on front surfs on steep waves. Endcuts allow for better speed on an edge while maintaining a shorter length for loops and play on small features. The ends are plenty slicey for cartwheeling in holes and on green water, and despite its stubby nature, the bow and sterns are well balanced for swapping. "Once you get this baby wheeling it doesn’t want to stop," said one tester. Our bigger testers gave this design the thumbs up, including for comfort, and smaller paddlers found it surprisingly easy to throw around. Our boat was a prototype, so the outfitting system was a bit rudimentary, but rumor has it the production models will be as tricked out as any other brand.

Necky Witch

If wave surfing’s your thing, Necky’s your company. The Witch, like its name, is a chopped-down version of last year’s Switch. Due to its smaller size, it doesn’t surf as well as its predecessor, but it was still, among this year’s crop, the surfing master. Necky has a knack for getting their hull just right—a great balance of rocker, width and length that makes surface moves a breeze. It’s fast enough to get speed for massive blunts and donkey flips (if any of us could have landed one), wide enough to be incredibly loose for absurd grinding, and has enough rocker to hop free of the water and spin unimpeded. "It makes any wave fun," raved one tester.

Because of its surfing slant, the Witch gives up something in the hole and is more difficult to cartwheel than many of the new designs. Seemingly developed for such massive Canadian features as Skookumchuck and the Slave River, the Witch doesn’t excel as well on small features, but you can’t have it all. As for running rapids, the Witch is great, depending on paddler weight. Lighter testers made it through Gore rapid unscathed, but if you’re bigger, stick with a Switch. The boat is long enough and has soft enough edges that it paddles fairly predictably for a playboat. Necky isn’t charting any new territory with outfitting—it’s still the classic do-it-yourself foam-job with an adjustable backband--but at least you know it won’t break. One 6’3" tester usurped the Witch for a few weeks and crammed himself into it daily, and though he had to move the seat back and he mashed the padding to paper—to the chagrin of subsequent testers—the boat held up fine. In our tests the Witch had no rival in surfing and is, rarely enough these days, an actual candidate for a single playboat boat.

WaveSport Ace

The Ace is nothing radical, which is why it will be popular. The Ace, which comes in 47 and 51 gallons, fills the niche between WaveSport’s long slicey boat, the Forplay, and their short, stubby EZ. Our testers found the Ace to be a "good all-around playboat," and "stable and easy to move around the river." Because of its versatility, the Ace is a good choice for those who only want one playboat.

Like many new designs, the Ace has considerable rocker, allowing for hassle-free wave moves. It is also as easy as any to throw down and stall. The Ace has fairly forgiving edges, which makes it a good playboat for novices to grow into and makes it a tolerable river runner for up to Class IV. Unlike the EZ, however, which makes a surprisingly good river runner, the Ace tended to sub out in big drops, making the run down Gore more interesting than we wanted.

WaveSport continues to blaze trails in the outfitting scene. They have graduated to the FAT 2.0 system, which improves on the user-friendly FAT 1.0 system. This year pads can also be slipped under the seat-cover to raise the thighs or the overall seat height—a great move. Another innovation has drawn mixed reviews, however. Like Riot, WaveSport created a bulkhead system that can be moved forward and back while sitting in the boat. Some of our testers didn’t like the shape of the molded foot cups, which put pressure on the arch of the foot instead of the ball. There have also been reports of the failure of the cam strap system. WaveSport also introduced the Siren, the first playboat designed specifically for women. The Siren is by and large a 41-gallon Ace, though concessions like a narrower width and shorter inseam length have been added to better-fit women.

Riot Booster

With Riot’s rad surf boat, the Techno, in production Limbo this past fall, we could only get our hands its river running playboat, the Booster. Though Corran Addison designed this boat to be a launch pad for beginners into freestyle moves, don’t be fooled—this boat can rip with the best of them. In many ways, the Booster outperforms Riot’s 2001 playboat, the Dominatrix.

The real story, though, is Riot’s new Elastomer outfitting. As usual, Addison’s group is pioneering something different. Instead of firm thighbraces, Riot’s new outfitting—standard in all models for 2002—employs stretchy Elastomer straps that ratchet across the thighs and move independently of the cockpit rim. The backband is Elastomer, too, so everything flexes. Riot’s idea is that the outfitting should move along with your body, creating a more fluid relationship. In addition, the footbraces can be ratcheted towards you, allowing resting paddlers to take some of the pressure off their feet. In all it seems like a good idea, and worked well for our testers. The obvious question is durability, and so far we haven’t heard anything about the outfitting’s lack thereof.

As for the hull, the Booster, which comes in four sizes, is an interesting experiment that seems to have worked. It was designed to be forgiving for beginners yet advanced enough to hang with the rodeo radsters. Features that help beginners are the pronounced rocker, which makes surfing more forgiving, and a raised carving edge along the sides, which prevents inadvertently catching the downstream edge. Going one step beyond, the boat’s sidewalls actually seem to push you back up if you catch an upstream edge carving. We had to try it to believe it. Yet, the Booster is no mere rookie craft; it surfs, blunts and cartwheels as well as the Dominatrix and is as loose as an Arkansas River raft guide. It’s not as slicey as some new designs, and is too long for loops and other short boat stuff, but for that there’s the Disco. And what the boat gives up in length and sliceyness, it gains in being a very good downriver boat. This is the only boat of the bunch we tested that has any business in Class V. Even Gore Rapid went smoothly.

Liquidlogic Session and Session+

The inaugural playboat for industry newcomer Liquidlogic was an unmitigated sensation. Though its ultra slicey ends and prodigious rocker are logical extensions of current boat design, this boat’s appearance is still shocking. With its wing-like ends and glossy finish the boat seems like it should be flying through the air rather than the water, which is, in fact, exactly what it does. The Session gets airborne with the best of them. Though it’s over seven feet in length, the Session’s radical rocker lets you bounce the boat free of the water with astonishing ease. That rocker also makes a very forgiving boat for spinning.

That the boat is—according to one reviewer, "a freewheelers dream"—is no surprise considering the tiny ends. The Session is extremely well balanced on end and slices through water like a knife in the hand of Lorena Bobitt. Where this boat is a surprise is on edge. Because the rocker holds so much of the hull out of the water, it is slow going forward, but tip it on edge and you feel blessed acceleration. On its square siderails, the Session effectively has a seven-foot-long planing hull (as opposed to the four-foot-long disk on the bottom.) Carving this boat back and forth to get speed for a blunt you feel like Evel Knievel punching the gas as he hits the ramp.

The "Stiffy Hull System" is innovative in that it allows for a rigid hull without adding extra weight. Molded wall channels hold the seat and bow walls in place, eliminating the need for screw holes and adding rigidity while the seat’s flush fitting to the hull prevents oil canning. For such a light boat, the Session and Session+ hold their form remarkably well. Helmets off to designer Shane Benedict.

The only drawbacks: footroom, and the fact that the Session is a little tricky to paddle at first. Our group was split on how bad the foot pain was, though for the ends to be so slicey, something has to give—it might as well be your feet. Rumor has it that the Session’s three colors—red, blue and yellow—harbor different amounts of footroom due to how the colors cool and shrink in the mold. One 6’3" reviewer could fit in the yellow model, but not the blue or red. As for river running, for some reason I decided to take the Session down Gore and was nearly decapitated while rolling four times in Gore Rapid. I cannot recommend this boat for Class V. Short boat aficionados should give Liquidlogic’s new Skip and Pop a tumble.

Pyranha S7 and S6

Despite the shakeup at Pyranha’s U.S. operations this past year, the company is working double-time to bring two new designs across the ocean for the spring runoff: the S6 and S8. We were only able to paddle the S6 prototype and, since we’ve never reviewed the S7 (referred to as the Sub 7 last year), we paddled that, too.

As for the S7, our reviewers felt the name was right on track, "I had one heckuva’ ball in the Sub 7 one-ball," said one. Said another: "Coming from time spent in the ProZone 230, I noticed similar sliceyness; only the Sub 7 was even more so, making up for 38-year-old ineptness." We found both sizes of the S7 to be extremely loose; though because of reduced rocker in the one-ball, it has a tendency to pearl if you’re not on top of it. But it spins like Brent Toepper’s turntable, and it’s easy to pull the S7’s trigger for blunts. Both sizes are quite slicey, but they weren’t the easiest to stall or squirt.

With the S6, Pyranha has gone even smaller. This is one funky-looking kayak. With its swallow-tail ends, the testers nicknamed the craft the "Batmobile," and both the 190 and 200 were in high demand. Out team enjoyed the slicey ends and surprising hull speed, especially on edge where the swallowtail helped acceleration by providing a longer planing surface. Since we paddled the prototypes, Pyranha has added more rocker to prevent pearling and help with hopping the boat for aerials. In addition they’ve developed "Power Pockets" on the deck, which apparently help push your boat into the air while performing a loop. Most surprising with the S6 was the relative comfort for such a short and slicey craft. The outfitting, as in all Pyranha playboats, comes with a solid backband system and easy-to-fit foam hip pads. Pyranha also introduces the S8 for 2002, filling the longer and slicier niche for glassy waves and deep holes.

Perception Spin, Full-Tilt, Lucid

In addition to creating the best-named models of this year’s playboats, Perception has laundered its reputation after the pain stain of the Shock and Amp. Perception loyalists used to wrenching themselves into those boats will be relieved to note that the Spin and Full-Tilt are quite comfortable. The Spin and bigger Full-Tilt give Perception short, poppy playboats to unlock the potential of small features and moves like loops and space Godzilla’s on steep waves-holes. That said, they perform better in holes than many of the other short-stubbies because of their slicey ends, which leads to smoother cartwheeling. Until we got used to its hull, the Full-Tilt felt spastic on big, steep waves. Eventually our test team got used to making the boat hop free of the water for ollies and big blunts on the Snake’s Big Kahuna. As with all small playboats, take them downriver at your own risk.

The Lucid, designed as a big person’s playboat, defies pigeon holing. It’s a strange looking boat—very bulbous around the middle with razor-sharp ends, like fins on a volleyball. The intention is obvious—maximum buoyancy in a hole with slicey ends for vertical control, which is exactly what we found. It also employs a new look with molded-in grabloops on the bow and stern. We couldn’t tell what these holes did performance-wise, but they’re a little too small to work as a beverage coozie at camp.

What surprised us was that even our smallest testers (150 lbs.) could throw it around with ease. Also surprising is its versatility. Due to its relatively slight rocker the Lucid is lightning fast on a wave and gets vertical very quickly. It’s hard to figure out what this boat is best at, but we concluded that the Lucid fits the "slicey boat for a big guy niche." Try before you buy, though, as comfort for bigger guys (i.e. feet) might be a drawback. The Lucid’s river-running ability, like most slicey playboats, depends upon paddler weight—the heavier the paddler, the iffier the downriver performance.