Whitewater Kayak Review – 2006

By: canoekayakmag | Friday, March 31, 2006

by Christian Knight

Photos by John Bolivar

first appeared in Whitewater 2006

Back in the 1990s, when the kayak industry’s technological learning curve was sharper than the bedrock on Vallecito Creek, the justification process was simple: Each new boat turned what had been an impossible move into an eye-rolling routine.

The 1997 class of boats that included the Savage Fury, the Wave Sport X, and the Perception Whip-It morphed front-surfing with the occasional paddle toss into flat spinning enders into eight-point cartwheels. The 1998–99 boats turned flat spinning into blunts and eventually aerial blunts. The industry’s technological learning curve has since slowed, however. And most kayak manufacturers now seem to be devoting their innovative energy to comfort.

This is something at which they have all succeeded in different ways. You can outfit Prijon’s entire system while sitting in the cockpit. Pretty much the same thing goes for Riot’s and Drago Rossi’s.

The reviews:

Pyranha 420
Dragorossi Stinger
Wavesport Project

Dagger Rx
Jackson Super Hero
Riot Astro 54
Prijon Cross

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