My first impression just looking at it was that it was HUGE! This thing is long, coming in at 8'11 this is only a little shorter than the Large Jackson Karma, also a huge boat. Before purchasing the boat I looked for lots of advice as to which size to get. I know a lot of racers use the 69, but I was concerned that in high volume rivers or if I chose to do a multi-day trip and pack out the boat with gear that it would not have enough volume. I had paddled the Jefe Grande and the Stomper 90 which I used to race the Sickline and felt comfortable in both. A lot of advice people gave steered toward the 69, but going with my gut I took the risk and went big!
As usual the 'Bad-ass' outfitting in Liquidlogics is in my opinion the best! It's like a compact couch, awesome! As soon as I hit the water the size of the boat seemed to be irrelevant as I span around in the eddy. It's extremely maneuverable despite it's length. Second thing I did was do some sprints, and holy crap this boat shifts! I wasn't expecting to notice a difference in the speed, I was just hoping to notice it on the clock in races. But this boat was noticeably quick off the mark and cut through current like a knife, I was sold!
The following weekend I headed out with friends and Wyedean Canoe Club for a mellow run down the Usk, Mill Falls. This gave me a chance to throw the boat in some small holes, waves and drops. The flatter hull and small chimes work really well on a wave, it carved and surfed nicely. The first thing I noticed whilst running a 3 foot ledge was that compared to the Jefe, this boat requires a lot more effort to boof! But where boofing is more difficult this boat has been designed to punch through waves and stoppers, which it does very well. The tail of the boat was designed so the end of the tail is flatter and more slicey, this allows you to cut the tail into the flow when paddling into holes or drops, lifting the nose nicely and firing you through the feature.
Whilst sat in an eddy I attempted a pretty impossible ferry into a micro eddy on the far bank. This involved ferrying into the tow back of the falls then paddling against a boil pushing you away from the eddy. Needless to say I hammered across the flow and cut through the boil and into the eddy with relative ease, I'm confident that this wouldn't have been possible in a Jefe!
I'm blown away by the boat and can't wait to you use it on some steeper whitewater. Tomorrow I head to the Flo Festival in Llangollen where I'm competing in the Extreme Slalom, with a prize fund of 500 quid I'm looking to cash in! With this boat I'm confident, fingers crossed!
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