About myself

I've been paddling for about 10 years now. For the last four years, I've been looking for a boat to replace my beat-up WS Stubby for low-volume creeking. Looks like the SCUD is a perfect match - finally.

About the test environment

Escanaba had some powerful holes, while Silver required precise maneuvering. Both are creek-type runs. Silver was running quite low, lots of rocks sticking out.

An update: Paddled the Yellow Dog - Class 4 drops separated by Class 2 stretches.

Review

It took me about fourty seconds in a pond to decide that this is a boat I wanted. I picked it up in Rocky Mountain Kayak in PA. To explain - I was looking for a short creek/allaround boat that would be hard to flip, yet easy to turn and ferry. The "hard to flip" part I discovered right away in a pond. In that regard, it's head and shoulders above all other small creekers/allarounders that I've tried, except for maybe the Nomad (which is way too long for my taste). The SCUD simply will not flip. It feels like the boat has training wheels. Makes me feel very safe. When fooling around with it on a trial run, quite a few times I was certain that I was going over, but the boat would have none of it. The boat remained stabile in turbulent features, too - when balancing on pillows and stuff.


The cockpit is very roomy and comfortable. My sprayskirt turned out to be too narrow for the wide cockpit rim (even though it fits fine on Pyranha, Wavesport, and Prijon), so I had to get another sprayskirt. The cockpit rim is recessed into the boat - looks like the sprayskirt is very well protected.


The maneuverability is great. The boat spins on a dime (especially if I remember to engage the rails). Last-instance course corrections are very easy, too. It surfes nicely, though it prefers spinning over front-surfing.


I'm still getting used to not being able to sink the stern - I hadn't realized how much I've come to rely on it, especially when ferrying and front-surfing. But you'd expect this in a creekboat, and SCUD's short length partually compensates for it.


Rolling the boat is very easy. There's a fun moment in there - when most boats are "teetering" on the way up, the SCUD's amazing stability kicks in, and it completes the roll for you, so it feels snappier than normal. Handrolling is easy too.

Holes

It goes through holes quite easily. I haven't had a problem "skipping over" or punching through, and it stays level - neither the bow nor the stern try to submerge. When sitting in a play hole, there's freedom to move around. The SCUD doesn't force you to sit in a through like a displacement hull boat would.

Hull speed

Compared to the longer creek boats (and all of them are longer), the SCUD is slow, especially when paddling flat water. But it didn't seem much of a problem during attainments and ferries.

Outfitting

Very good, except for the foot brace. Foot brace is just a couple of blocks of foam thrown into the boat. Make sure to check it before you take the boat on the river, even for a demo. I added some foam to fill in the empty space, and attached it to the hull. I wrote to Bliss-stick about it, and Norm answered that they are going to change how they ship it.

The rest of the outfitting is well made. You can adjust the thigh hooks not only back and forth, but also change how deep they stick in. The moulded seat is high and comfortable, and feels solid. There's a Pelican box attachment in the seat, that can fit a good-size box. The boat has plenty of beaner attacment points, a security bar, and comfortable hand holds. The drain plug is seated deep within the plastic, there's no way to damage it.

Update

Came back from another trip up North. This time we did the Yellow Dog (descriptions: AWA, Midwest Rivers). Again - the SCUD is very forgiving and stabile. One of the drops had a hole in the middle of it, where everybody was penciling in, stalling, and flipping - but not the SCUD. It just skipped over it and stayed upright (click for larger photos):
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(Sorry - I was the one with the camera, so no pics of me running the drop. You can see the tip of my bow though ;-) ). At another drop, I screwed up - went too far right and was on my way to a log sieve - but the SCUD was easy enough to quickly turn, and then when I lost my balance, it stayed on the side instead of flipping, so a quick brace allowed me to remain unscated. Did I mention I love this boat?

Conclusion

Love it! This is going to be my creeker for years to come. My search for Stubby replacement is over :)