Hi Mark, I've owned a Shadow for about nine months now (I'm 5'7", 150#) and am pretty happy with it. I can't compare it to the Meridian SK but I'll tell you what I like and dislike about the Shadow. At first it seemed unnaturally tippy to me but within five minutes on the water I compensated for that. It edges nicely and you can put it on it's ear where it feels very stable. It seems to take a bit more of an effort to get going than I was used to but once I do get going I can sprint at 6 knots fairly easily. It's well built and has all the normal fittings of a production boat. The Keepers footpegs are a bit on the small side but they can be adjusted while in the boat if you're barefoot. The seat is pretty comfortable once it's padded out with some closed cell foam but it extends about 2-3" over the cockpit coaming which makes it difficult to lean back too far. The kneepads placement is well thought out. The rudder is easy to deploy just by extending your paddle back and flipping off the keeper holddown. One thing that may be a drawback is the small storage areas fore and aft of the bulks. It's not an expedition boat but will do nicely for a weekend trip or an extended trip of a week or so with careful packing. The hatches and bulkheads haven't leaked a drop. One thing that annoyed me is that their brochure states the weight as 53 pounds and it certainly seemed heavier than that to me when I demo-ed it, but the paper work that came with the boat didn't jibe with the brochure and I think was 5-8 #'s heavier than the brochure. I assume they weigh a bare hull for their brochure without rudder, seat, hatch covers, deck fittings, etc. So if 53 #'s is the upper limit your friend can carry, just be mindful that it's going to be about 10% more. Hope this helps and if you have any questions, just yell. -Nick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Mar 10 2000 - 17:11:01 PST
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