Mega International Kayaks Ltd - Maverick Details Page

Maverick Reviews

Simon Hammond - World Surf Kayak Champion
"I've surfed a few surf craft in my time but I've never had such a great first session as when I recently paddled the Mega Maverick. With its classic highly rocked bow it was no trouble at all to paddle out through the breaking surf skimming up and over the biggest white wave faces with ease. Once out beyond the break the Maverick was quick to move about in, this kayak maintains good boat speed essential in the surfing environment. But the best features come out during the ride. Starting with an amazingly easy take off, due to its relatively wide tail, followed by incredible speed down the face and the ability for this kayak to carve fantastically sharp bottom turns. This kayak has some great design features including three well positioned fins, a sharp rail from the centre of the boat all the way to the tail and a beautifully rigid and wide hull which gives this kayak all the speed and stability you could wish for. This is a versatile surf kayak suitable for all sizes and abilities, if you surf once a year or every day you should try this boat out, you'll be amazed."

Brackenbury - BCU Level 5 Surf Coach
I am a surfing snob. I surf eight ounces of Mega carbon joy, or a handcrafted precision surfboard shaped by a man that’s done it since he was born, or the fine balance of monofilm and epoxy of my wave sailing kit. I don’t like surfing plastic boats, they’re heavy, you can’t turn them as hard, moulding techniques sometimes compromise the shapes, and invariably they’re yellow. So you can imagine my delight when given the opportunity to surf the new plastic Maverick from Mega. The first thing that instantly drew my attention was the shape. Ski like is the only way to describe it. The hull is built for speed, with a single concave in the nose running through into a perfectly flat tail to provide maximum water release. The fin positions are right back in the final third of the boat. The rails are shaped to maximise speed being soft at the nose to help engage the water, and getting progressively harder down toward the tail. A perfect constant curve runs down the rail from nose to tail. All this in a plastic boat! I was sure all my preconceptions would be realised on the water. But they weren’t. I was able to paddle it using the same box of tricks that I apply to my carbon boat, it was comfortable, the seating position is much improved on previous models, it felt loose on the wave with the ability to attack the lip at an angle that would allow re-entries, the hull provided plenty of speed on both slow, fast, and critical waves. I actually had two really enjoyable sessions in it! This is a well thought out, designed, and manufactured boat, and offers high performance without the associated high price tag. Yes it was yellow, and yes the name did encourage you to sing the Top Gun theme tune whilst paddling out, but on the water it is a true surf craft, happy to just cruise down the line or explode into a big manoeuvre. If you are looking for the resilience of plastic, married with ski like performance, there currently is no better product. Will I be ordering one? I actually have! ... Glyn