About the reviewer

I've been an active WW paddler since 2004 and paddling mostly playboats in Finland and Sweden. Been paddling the Riot Astro now for two full seasons.

Test environment

Rivers and playspots in Scandinavia. The White Nile in Uganda.

Review

I'll try to keep this short and informative.

Pros:
+ Simple and no-nonsense design. Spin disc with fairly agressive edge and huge kick rocker. This boat wants to go big! The tail rocker is especially big - probably the biggest on any playboat. This does several things: The boat is slow, but bounces big. You need to lean forward to get it up to speed on a wave. Tricks are very easy to stick on green wave because the huge tail rocker means you won't catch a rear edge.

+ Balanced ends. Compared to other newer playboat designs the Astro has fairly slicy ends, which means for easier cartwheeling and the boat is balanced on end-to-end.

+ Riverrunning. This boat is surprisingly stable platform for riverrunning. The simple hull design and fair amount of rocker means the boat is predictable in moving water. Designer of the boat has a taste for big water and it feels in the design.

+ Hole play. Many thing the Astro as a big wave, big air machine and arguably it is that, but what in my opinnion sets it apart from many other design it's its slicy balanced ends for hole play. On top of that Astro goes very big for loops even without any supplementary flotation like overthruster or a beach ball in between of your legs. It's a bit harder to flatwater loop, but in a hole it goes as big as anything.

Cons:
- Outfitting. The Unity seat doesn't offer much in terms of support for the hull and an oil canned Astro is more than a familiar sight. Sure you can remove the seat and put some foam under the seat for extra support, but it doesn't remove the structural issues with the seat. And anyways it should be manufacturers responsibility to build a complete product. The seat has aluminum rails that are attached to the sidewalls of the hull. There is some sideways movement in the seat with this attachment which can be prevented to a degree by putting some foam block between the rail and the side wall. Still the little movement left will gradually weaken the aluminum rail and fail enough earlier this season the other rail was broken. The power seat might be an upgrade for the structural support for the hull, but I don't have any experience with that.

The seat itself is comfortable and the backrest is nice and supportive as well. The strap/ratchets system that tightens the back rest is very poor. There is only one ratchet in front on the seat and the strap run for way too long way all the way around the seat to make a precise adjustment for the backrest. The system also puts way too much pressure on the ratchet and it fails pretty fast.

All in all the outfitting is not very robust and it's breaking apart big time.

The plastic of the boat feels pretty much up to the same standard than other manufacturers, but the poor structural support for the hull makes is look worse than it actually is.

- Weight. Compared to other similar boat on the market the Astro is somewhat heavier. I don't have any exact figures, but by the feel of the hand it feels few kilograms heavier than similar boat from other brands.

Conclusion

The design of the Astro is one of the most successful in the pure butt-bouncer category, but the function and the integrity of the outfitting leaves more to be desired. If I would get the design of the Astro with a robust outfitting I would be a happy paddler.