RIVERSIGNALS RE: “HELL OR HIGH WATER III”
“LET’S SHOW THE WORLD THAT THIS RIVER IS WORTH MORE THAN 5 MW OF ELECTRICITY”
From a comment posted on
Rapidmag.com by PHILIP KOMPASS Lovin’ Our New Look
DIGITHE DIVIDE
TAL Design Principles
WHITEWATER KAYAK DESIGN HAS EVOLVED FROM THE DAYS OF PENCIL SKETCHES, SURFORMS AND GARAGE WORKSHOPS INTO A WORLD OF DIGITAL DRAWINGS, PARAMETRIC DESIGN ENVIRONMENTS AND INTERCONNECTED MANUFACTURING INTERFACES. MOST OF TODAY’S FABRICATORS USE COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (CAD) TOOLS IN CONCEIVING THE BOATS YOU FIND ON THE FREESTYLE COMPETITION CIRCUIT. RAPID SAT DOWN WITH TWO OF TODAY’S TOP BOAT DESIGNERS TO FIND OUT WHAT COMPUTERIZATION MEANS FOR YOUR RIDE. BY MICHAEL MECHAN
Mark “Snowy” Robertson is Dagger’s lead designer. After developing his skills crafting boats by hand, he trained in CAD to enhance those skills. Snowy shares his insight into Dagger’s philosophy on CAD technique.
RAPID: CAD seems to have significantly accelerated the production timeline, meaning new boats get to the market quicker.
SNOWY: As a designer and paddler I battle that—getting a boat out there and paddling it can’t be replicated. It would be nice to say that the process takes as long as is needed but at some point, there needs to be an end product.
It’s not the exclusive be all and end all, but CAD has become one of the fundamentals of what we do. It’s a very important tool for us to integrate with outside resources and connect our manufacturing chains. We do work with launch dates and production timeframes in mind and CAD allows us to deliver a better product at a better price.
RAPID: In the design and concept phase, time on the water is being replaced by screen time. How has this change affected the boats available today?
SNOWY: One thing CAD allows us to do is share screens with our pros in the pre-prototype stages for feedback. Throughout the process we keep coming back to the key attributes outlined in our product briefs. This ensures we’re always working toward our original goals, which come from the voice of the customer.
You can still evolve a freestyle boat by hand but things like getting symmetry right and components to fit properly are simplified using this process. Advances in software also allow me and the engineers I work alongside to input parameters to test safety considerations—like, say, if a boat will crumple in a certain manner—so we don’t have to find out the hard way.
We can also carry data from existing designs forward to build on information and design new boats based on proven concepts.
RAPID: It’s romantic to think of designers and builders working away in a shop with hand tools, going through countless prototypes, months of on-the-water testing and coming up with the perfect boat. Does CAD represent a decline in the artisan nature of boat design and building?
SNOWY: It’s fairly easy to create a block shape using a computer, but some of the design detail behind the style and many of the finer features, like the rails, comes from work done by hand. If I don’t like the look of something when it comes off the [computer numerical control] machine (the automated device that cuts a life-sized version of the boat, usually out of foam), I’ll go in and make changes by hand.
I started out 10 years ago using hand shaping and then moved into CAD. It’s being able to understand why you’re working with the shapes you started with that’s most important.
www.rapidmag.com 39
After 12 years of Rapid, the last five with a familiar—some of us innovative, perfectionist types might say worn—look, we decided it was time for a facelift. Rapid celebrates lucky 13 with bigger photos, bold colors, a playful dis- play font and loads of digital extras. Readers praised the new look’s aesthetics—“Beautiful magazine,” wrote Tom from Cali and Ryan added, “Layouts are looking strong.” We also received props for originality—“Thanks for finding innovative ways to produce relevant content,” wrote Aleks—and Jeff lauded the mag’s “confidence and character.” Rapid’s early years may be dated, but that
ON THE iPAD AND DIGITAL EDITIONS THIS ISSUE
Check out the iTunes store or www.
rapidmag.com/0010 and catch this bonus content:
» Rapid Media TV coverage of the 2011 Whitewater Grand Prix (page 20).
» Video from our testing of the new Wave Sport Project X (Boat Insider, page 27).
» Video reviews from the freestyle toys we tested in Gear Bag (page 29).
» Video from freestyle pro Ben Marr on his toughest trick (“Freestyle’s Toughest Moves,” page 30).
» Digital design gallery from Wave Sport Kayaks (“Digital Divide,” page 39).
Watch for this icon to see additional content, found in the premium web and app editions of Rapid.
doesn’t stop some of you from enjoying a blast from the past. “I’m looking over some old mags, including the first issue from ‘99,” wrote Paul Walsh, disclosing, perhaps tellingly, in the same sentence that he was bed-bound with the flu.
Off the Tongue, Out of Touch? publisher
In his last editorial (Off the Tongue, Spring 2011,
www.rapidmag.com/0011),
Scott
MacGregor borrowed a page from The Book of Awesome and created his own list of awesome things about paddling rivers. No. 14 was: Free- baggin’ in a pair of Carhartts. Kyle Smith took issue not with the sentiment, but with Mac- Gregor’s vernacular. “‘Freebagging’ as defined by the Urban Dictionary is eating something directly out of its packaging—e.g. Are you mak- ing a sandwich with that ham or are you free- baggin’ it? I believe the term you were looking for is ‘freeballing.’ I surveyed seven co-workers and the vote was unanimous—you freebag your Oreos, you freeball in your Carhartts.” Less discriminating but equally heartfelt was
Brian Johnston’s comment, “I have one word for Off the Tongue—Awesome!” Add your own awesome things to the list at www.rapidmag. com/0012.
Need vs. Want
It seems Rapid readers don’t need much con- vincing when it comes to getting the latest and greatest boats. Convincing their spouses can be a different story. On Facebook, Todd Crago
FIND US:
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www.facebook.com/rapidmagazine,
www.twitter.com/rapidmag,
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posted, “My wife said the next boat I buy I have to sleep in.” Paul Michaels’ wife’s strategy is to “gain or lose weight—‘Honey I look downright fat in my Diesel 75!’” Perhaps Heather Piche’s hubby is onto something. “When I ask my hus- band how many boats he needs,” she posted, “he replies, ‘just one more.’ Infallible logic.” Nearly everyone agreed with Maurice Poulin who wrote, “Too many boats—not possible.”
Pack Up and Head Out
Spring rains are swelling rivers and paddlers everywhere are loading up shuttles and hit- ting the road. On the weekend of May 20–22, pull into Palmer Rapids, ON, for Palmer River Fest (
www.paddlerco-op.com). Road trip to the outdoor Mecca of Vail, CO; home of the Teva Mountain Games, June 2–5 (www.tevamoun-
taingames.com). Watch the nation’s best push rubber at the Canadian Rafting Champion- ships June 5–7 in Jonqière, QC (
www.cham-
pionnatcanadienrafting2011.com). Across the Atlantic in Plattling, Germany, the ICF is host- ing the 2011 Freestyle World Champion- ships June 20–26 (
www.icf-freestyle.de). Wrap up your journey back in Colorado at the ACA Open Canoe Slalom Nationals and North American Championships in Golden, July 6–8 (
www.americancanoe.org). To mark your road map with a complete listing of this summer’s whitewater events, visit
www.rapidmag.com.
SNAPSHOT
Gabriel Côté-Valiquette shows that at the Seven Chutes de St.-Anne, Quebec, the challenges start well before the river.
PHOTO: VIRGINIA MARSHALL
IMAGES COURTESY WAVE SPORT KAYAKS (
WWW.WAVESPORT.COM)
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