Head to Head River
The Pyranha I:3 and the Perception Blaze are the most focused river runners of our freeboats. Check out these boats if you are paddling rivers with must-make moves or if you spend more time working eddies than sticking your bow into shallow pourovers. They have less-pronounced plan- ing hulls offering smoother edge-to-edge control, greater acceleration and more forward speed. They excel at holding a line and punching holes. Going into its third season, the Wave Sport EZ series gets the smiling nod for jack of all trades, an all-round tester favourite. For more hull speed, more carving, but less rocker, jump into a Booster. More river than play? A larger-size Booster will keep your ends and edges above the surface while ferrying and crossing currents. The G-Ride’s tiny hull is super manoeu- vrable and needs to be pushed around the river, ideal for non-technical big-water rivers and low-volume runs.
Play
The EZ is plugged by Wave Sport as a river runner first, playboat sec- ond, although it’s tough to say where it shines best. It’s a playboat still very capable of winning freestyle competitions, especially at the local level. It’s a great boat for learning to throw flatwater moves like cartwheels and stalls. The G-Ride is the shortest river playboat, bordering on freestyle bounce boat. It’s ideal for shallow pourovers. On a big bouncy wave expect a wild ride with more room for error than last year’s G-Force. The Riot Booster has great hull speed, is super loose and the most fun on big, smooth waves. At over seven feet with slicey ends and no cockpit bubble of volume the Booster is smooth and vertically stable in a hole. The I:3 and Blaze can play and are excellent surfing boats but slower to spin and less likely to go vertical without good initiation—good for river running paddlers learning to play.
Outfitting Wave Sport’s and Riot’s adjustable bulkhead outfitting is hard to beat.
Once you’re spoiled by the convenience and comfort it’s tough to go back. The G-Ride and Blaze sport an adjustable rail bulkhead providing a rea- sonably quick out-of-boat adjustment with what was top-shelf outfitting a few years ago. Pyranha has made leaps and bounds for 2003 with its new supportive and adjustable freestyle and freeride seats and a beefed-up backband and thighbrace ratchet assembly to improve durability. Pyranha’s peel-and-stick foam hip pads and bulkhead pads are simple, but nothing new. Wave Sport’s FAT 2.0 zip-and-stuff hip pads and movable thighbraces work well. Dagger and Perception have gone the next step incorporating AirCore on-the-fly pump-up hip pads. Sticking out of their quick sliding seats is a blood pressure cuff bulb that inflates and releases air from the chambers in the neoprene-covered hip pads. If these can withstand daily use, the AirCores are a perfect system. The G-Ride’s backband is attached to cam locks in the thighbraces while the Blaze’s were upgraded to ratch- ets mounted next to their patented Thigh Master braces. There is no boat more clickety-click adjustable than the Booster, offer- ing the quickest custom fit on the market. Riot’s elastomer outfitting or snowboard binding thigh straps can be cranked down tightly and are still very easy to exit. Paddlers still wanting a rigid feel can brace their knees against the inside of the cockpit as usual.
The ideal outfitting system is no doubt a combination of all of the above. But for now, any little tweaking you have to do is many rivers further ahead of where we were only five years ago with contact cement in our hair.
Booster by Riot Kayaks Company line: Easy to edge, yet stable; easy to carve, yet unbelievably forgiving.
Riot has a reputation for doing things a lit-
tle differently and the Booster is no excep- tion. While other river running playboats are more rounded with huge rocker and softer chines, Riot bucked the trend that they start- ed with the Disco and went slicey. On the river the Booster holds a line and has good hull speed for getting around and carving eddy turns. Choosing a larger size keeps the bow on the surface during ferries and small drops, and keeps the stern free from boils. Cruising across eddy lines, the Booster planes into a slightly nose-up posi- tion, riding over seams and deflection waves. The bow and stern are shallow and slicey and ease of initiation again depends on your weight and the size of the boat. Climb into a 50 and the Booster has no trouble building from greasy flatspins to smooth and con- trolled vertical cartwheels. Its length provides vertical stability and slows down the rotation, helping beginners who are learning to link
ends. Marketed as a river/playboat the Booster also happens to be Riot’s best hole boat. Will the Booster bounce? Absolutely. Big- wave play is a Riot specialty. There is not another seven-foot-plus boat that can touch it. To see what we mean and to be truly humbled
check out Corran Addison’s new DVD, End Game. Bottom Line: Runs and plays. Choose your own adventure by choosing your Booster size. Pro: Fast and loose on big green waves. Con: Low bow volume means little foot room in 50 and 55.
2003 Early Summer 31
Paddler Carly McDonald. Photo Rapid Stock Images.
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