Whitewater Kayak Review - 2006
The Bronx. Compton. Newark. Hood River. All have one thing in common: gangstas. Just as wearing the wrong color in South Central can get you shot, paddling the wrong boat in the Columbia Gorge can get you laughed at. But money is tight for everyone, so even the hardcore homeys in the hood are going to have to justify dropping a grand for a new kayak.
by Christian Knight
Photos by John Bolivar
first appeared in Whitewater 2006
We picked up three hardened kayakers to get their straight-up take on each boat’s level of performance and comfort, because one thing the Boyz know is how to be legit. Christian Knight........Josh J. Bechtel.........Todd M. Anderson
Back in the 1990s, when the kayak industry’s technological learning curve was sharper than the bedrock on Vallecito Creek, the justification process was simple: Each new boat turned what had been an impossible move into an eye-rolling routine.
The 1997 class of boats that included the Savage Fury, the Wave Sport X, and the Perception Whip-It morphed front-surfing with the occasional paddle toss into flat spinning enders into eight-point cartwheels. The 1998–99 boats turned flat spinning into blunts and eventually aerial blunts. The industry’s technological learning curve has since slowed, however. And most kayak manufacturers now seem to be devoting their innovative energy to comfort.
This is something at which they have all succeeded in different ways. You can outfit Prijon’s entire system while sitting in the cockpit. Pretty much the same thing goes for Riot’s and Drago Rossi’s.
The reviews:
Pyranha 420
Dragorossi Stinger
Wavesport Project
Dagger Rx
Jackson Super Hero
Riot Astro 54
Prijon Cross
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