[Paddlewise] Canoecopia 2001: Big Guy Boat News

Canoecopia, in Madison Wisconsin, was held this weekend. It's always fun to
go there, because beyond being a sign of the oncoming spring, there are a
lot of dreams to generate and a lot of neat things to see. The show is
especially useful to me, since it's a chance for me to check out boats and
gear for big guys and gals, food for updates on my web page.

There are several points of good news for the big guy boater brigade coming
out of Canoecopia this year. I think I detect a little more interest in
making boats or boat options available to the big guy boater than I've seen
in years past, and Brian Henry from Current Designs said as much.

Possibly the biggest news in sea kayaks for the big guy came rather
surprisingly from the Britboat front. I'd been hearing rumblings that
Valley and Nigel Dennis were going to come out with some boats with
somewhat more latitude for big persons than they've had in the past. One of
my first stops was at the Great River Outfitters booth, where the rumors
proved correct. Valley is now offering an "Excel" version of the composite
Skerry, but since it's eight inches longer and an inch wider than the
regular version, it seems more like a new boat than a minor redesign. I'm
six feet, 300 lbs, and have a 29 inch inseam -- but even considering that
the thigh braces would need a little carving the boat was a good fit.

And that wasn't all the good news from Great River Outfitters. Nigel Dennis
Kayaks now has a new big guy boat, the Poseidon. Similar in size the Romany
16, it's again not the same hull and strikes me more as a new boat than a
redesign. It's at the absolute limit of fit for me and would require some
seat work for the long term, but this boat and I clicked right from the
beginning -- it has that "wearing it" feel of a boat that you could take on
serious stuff in. However, I do wonder if a boat that narrow (21.75") and
short would have adequate capacity for a guy my size. I really want to try
one on the water.

When it comes to big guys boats in plastic, Perception has probably the
largest selection. I tried on several boats and found them ranging from
adequate in fit to even too large. The plastic Shadow, in particular, seems
larger than last year., but the Captiva seemed huge in the cockpit --
probably because it was the first boat I tried on after the NDK. However,
I'm reluctant to recommend any Perception plastic boats because of the
instability of the plastic, especially when you leave them out in the sun.

Another surprise was an 11-foot Old Town Loon in fiberglass! Although
strictly a recreation boat, it's a lot lighter than the plastic ones, and I
hope means more glass kayaks from OT in the future. Two more Old Towns, the
Nantucket and the Castine are a tad more sea kayakish although still pretty
much rec boats at around 26 inches wide, but might make a good boat for the
beginner, and for a waterfront boat would have much more stable plastic
than the Perceptions.

I spent a fair amount of time around the Current Designs booth, since one
of the guys I came with bought a Solstice GTS (one of three boats he bought
at the show). I spent a fair amount of time wishing I could fit into a
Caribou, but didn't really notice anything new for the big guy there,
although the Solstice GTHV is still a darn good big guy boat.

Not a lot else new for big guys in sea kayaks caught my eye, but for the
normal person, I have to comment that the 17 foot plastic Wilderness
Systems Cape Horn is the first WS boat that's impressed me in a while.
There are some very nice features on it, but it's too small in the cockpit
for me.

Due to an interest in white water that's renewed in recent years, I spent a
fair bit of time looking at whitewater boats. The rapid move toward
playboats left boats for big guys behind, but they are starting to catch
up. Before the show I had been touted onto the Wavesport BigEZ, although I
had doubts about the volume. I didn't try it on, because one look told me
there was no hope of fitting into it.

I'd also been touted onto the Dagger RPM Max, but didn't get to try it on
as the only one Dagger bought got snapped up in the first few minutes of
the show. I did, however, try on the Dagger Honcho, which is a fairly
radical playboat. I was surprised at how well I fit into it, although
there's not a lot of foot room. I wouldn't want to spend hours there, but
some work on the outfitting might help. The rep told me that the Max was
bigger and more comfortable, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Pyranha had a couple boats that were really interesting. The Micro 250 was
really surprising. It was snug but not a bad fit, and had that "one with
the boat" feeling of the NDK Posiedon. I was really surprised to get out of
the boat and tape the cockpit width at 15 1/2 inches! Normally, I can't fit
in a boat that narrow, but they'd done something that made it fit. The
Micro 250 is more of a downriver/creeking boat, while the other Pyranha,
the H2Zone 255 is more of a playboat -- in fact, it almost seemed to be
crying "Play me!" when I sat in it. The H2Zone was a tighter fit in spite
of a wider cockpit, but I'd sure like to try one on the water some time. A
few years ago, Pyranha got a bad reputation for their plastic, and the rep
admitted it, saying that they'd used a plastic that was very sensitive to
the correct heat in the casting, and their ovens weren't good enough to
handle it, so some bad boats got out. They've changed plastic and ovens
since and appear to be back on track.

I probably should point out that all of the whitewater boats that I tried
were near, or maybe even a little beyond the limit of fit and capacity for
a guy my size.

Another nice surprise came at the Kokatat booth, where I got to talking
custom gore-tex dry suits. It turns out that Kotatat is willing to custom
make big guy dry suits, although they don't particularly advertise it. The
impression I got from the rep was that the extra size charges weren't even
too bad, although I wonder what would happen when it came down to an order.
That's still a lot of bucks, though,  so an extra fifty or or hundred or so
on a purchase that large would be hardly noticable. 

Canoecopia was its usual fun in talking with outfitters and dreaming about
trips that would be fun to take, although I'd have to hit the lotto to take
all that I'd like to. I didn't get to as many presentations as I would have
liked, but made it to several good ones. Josh Teitelbaum's friend Omer
Singer proved to be a neat guy with an interesting presentation, and
there's another couple entries on my list of places I'd like to go someday.
The best presentation I saw -- in fact, the best kayaking slide show I've
ever seen -- was Chris Duff's account of paddling around New Zealand. A
very interesting and difficult trip through much remote and awesome
country, done by a very neat, sensitive and well-spoken guy. If you get the
chance to see this presentation, take it. I'm really looking forward to his
book on the trip, due out in a year or so.

About the only downer for the weekend, except for the drive through the
Chicago traffic, was the long lines to check out purchases. The wait was up
to an hour on Saturday afternoon, I was told. I had my eye on a couple
hundred bucks worth of stuff, but the discount wasn't worth the wait when I
could mailorder the gear directly. Rutabaga needs to work on that -- it's
costing them.

Shows like Canoecopia are a good place to see what's on the market and try
stuff on for fit, although I'd be reluctant to buy any boat cold from just
having seen it at a show -- who knows what surprises lurk out on the water?
But it was worth attending and I'll probably be there again next year.

-- Wes


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Wes Boyd's Kayak Place               http://www2.dmci.net/wesboyd/kayak.htm
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