About the reviewer

Paddling ability = learning

Test environment

Small weirs, surf, flatwater

Review

Firstly, this boat is my first playboat. Beforehand I've borrowed a friends Jackson 2fun and a Liquid Logic Ronin, so I can only really compare this to those two boats. Secondly, I'm not a particularly talented boater and I paddle about once a month in the winter, once a week in the summer, so if you want a review from someone with a wealth of experience this one probably won't help you much. I got this boat because I wanted something more versatile than most 'spud boats' all playboaters seem to paddle, so not something that would play really well, but only play. So, how did this boat handle. First time I paddled it was on flatwater. My first impression was this thing is fast. It accelerated suprisingly quickly and turned with ease. Rolling it was slightly harder than I expected but still pretty easy. Compared to a most playboats it has very square edges and very big rails. As such it doesn't edge as fluidly as most boats, and can suddenly flip over if your being lazy with your edge control. Trying to play it was a challenge, I could plow it onto its nose but couldn't get anywhere with stern squirts, probably because of the large volume rear end. In my mates Jackson I can stern squirt it up to vertical easily so i was a little shocked at how hard it was on this. Then I took it surfing in about 6-7 foot waves. It blew me away. Carves and flatspins are far faster and more clicked than before, and as on flatwater, this boat was super quick on a wave. It was easy to get it bouncing but it takes a while to change ones technique to fit this boat. It took a couple of paddles to get used to how this boat feels. Every time i paddle it I feel I improve, though it can be quite frustrating not being able to do tricks that i used to be able to do it a different boat.
The outfitting was very different to anything I had paddled before. it took a while to get set up right, and when it was it was very comfortable and I felt very secure, so well worth the time. My only gripe was the stickiness of the seat rubber. I've ended up covering the whole seat in duck tape just so it doesn't take me hours to get in. It also made it quite difficult to get out when paddling topless, and normally resulted in few less back hairs. The whole system feels very rigid but at the same time very comfortable, and its very difficult to imagine popping out of the thigh braces (which happened a lot in my mate's boat) All in all, very nice, solid outfitting, though it takes a while to get used to.

Conclusion

Its very interesting boat to paddle, and takes a lot of getting used to. Its far better than my ability, and on a wave its urging to go higher, bigger and faster. Once you've paddled a fish, all other playboats will feel slow and unresponsive. Its very different, but a super nice boat to paddle. However, I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner as its very unforgiving and not very easy to learn in.

About myself

I've owned this boat for a couple of years now and it is the first boat I have owned. I paddle rivers grade 3+ and occassionally get to play with it.

About the test environment

Dart Loop, Treweryn, Usk, Lune, Crake

Review

This boat is kwerky! It took me a while to re-learn how to roll. This is because this boat has big, square sides. This get caught on all sorts of things if you are not watching and this boat will have you over in a sec. However, if you are watching, you can use those rails to get to all sorts of places you have to work really hard to get to in other boats. Because of the extra bouancy in the back, it tends not to get sucked down or back, but also is nigh on impossible to cartwheel or do any of that playboating stuff in (Although I've met a man who can). It really comes into it's own surfing where those rails mean it can slice and slice and slice. I've not managed to get air in it yet, but that's probably more me than the boat.

Two very negative things however: 1. there are two metal logo plates on the side that peel off slowly when you are not watching. This caused me to slice my thumb open in france and large amounts of blood ensued everywhere. Was a nice clean cut however. My boat consequently does not have logos on the side any more. 2. No handles other than the two kwerky suitcase handles on the side. This means that if you ever want to be rescued, you must first fit your own handles. phew!

Conclusion

I am still undecided. Do I want a river runner or a playboat. This boat is not really either. It runs rivers but gets caught on things beacause of the rails, and it can be cartwheeled in the right hands but it has too much volume really for a playboat. I'm going to move on I think. My Drago Rossi experiment is over.