Our new Surf Kayak
So new it hasn't been named yet (see news pages to win one!)
Our test pilot thinks it may be the "Best Cross over Boat yet"
It will happily pull blunts, helix's cartwheels as well as surf it's heart out!
It is 6'8" Long (2.05 mtrs) and 26 3/4" Wide (68cm)
REVIEW
When coaching people to kayak people often ask what's the most important thing relative to kayaking in the surf, and the answer is always the same, FUN. If you're enjoying your boating the rest of the skills look after themselves, and it's been often quoted that the best surfer in the water is the one who's having the most fun. And that is exactly what the latest boat from Mega is. There is no other way of describing it, everybody who has had the opportunity to paddle it has said “that was so much fun”, “That boat is such a laugh” and “I haven't smiled like that in a kayak for years”. So why is it so much fun?
When I first saw it I was sceptical as to its performance possibilities. I thought: “It's ridiculously short; coming in at about 6'8 inches so therefore is going to be a nightmare to paddle out and charge down the line. It's pretty wide so won't transition from rail to rail easily, and has got a massive cockpit so will drag on all the bottom turns”. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. First paddle out was exactly as I expected short boat equals slow boat, so slow in fact that a 12 year old overtook me in his boat (I've since insisted on him paddling with a helmet dragging on the back on the guise that it's “developmental”).
Take off on the first wave was earlier than I expected due to the width and after that it wasn't like anything I've surfed before. Fast really fast almost falling down the wave, then does a super tight carving turn with no effort at all, point it down the line and it's twitching from left to right waiting for you to do something with it, while it's twitching it's developing speed ready for the next move, point it straight down the wave and bounce into a blunt and then reverse into a back stab. Wave one done and things are looking good. This is a surf kayak that feels like a freestyle boat to sit in and at the flick of technique from the paddler will behave like one, then with another flick goes back to surfing like a surf boat.
Fundamentally clever design has allowed this, the width has been compensated for by the aggressive vee in the tail, and the flare on the knee bumps is combined with the width, so that you rarely catch the cockpit on any turns. For those of you reading this that surf boards it's the kayak equivalent of a fish, short, fast and loads of fun. As yet it has no name “fat fish” would describe it's plan shape “personality disorder” would highlight the fact that it can swap between two different boating styles, but probably most appropriate would be “smiler” because that's what it'll make you doGlyn Brackenbury