Fluid have been working hard developing their new range of outfitting. A great deal of attention has been given to making a system that is easily adapted, relatively light weight yet at the same time remaining highly effective.
Category: Outfitting (Page 6 of 11)
Flying boats! I have seen it happen and it has happened to my kayak on one occasion. The sinking feeling you get as you see your boat fly off the top of the car isn’t very nice.
In the case of my kayak there was a flapping sound, followed by the clunk of the buckle hitting the car roof followed by a whoosh as two kayaks flew off down the road! Fortunately on both occasions no one was hurt and the damage to the boats minor. If it had been later in the day it could have been a different story.
Tying your boat onto the roof rack correctly is critical. It could save both your kayak and car from serious damage and keep other unsuspecting motorists that little bit safer. Using good quality straps or rope is a must and if the strap/rope is worn then they must be retired.
At the end of last year Pyranha released the Burn MK3, if you have had a chance to paddle one its not a bad kayak, one of the best creekers and river runners on the market today, even Tom Parker has put the Everest away, always a good sign. Price £949.
So what to do with the mould of the MK2 Burn, nothing to wrong with the design, has been tried and tested on the worlds hardest white water. This year in the Pyranha range there is a kayak at £599, the Pyranha B-Two hitting the price point for club paddles just breaking into white water or people wanting a coaching kayak. Well its the old MK2 Burn, its been de-speced to hit the price point of other manufacturers, still comes with the yellow grab handles, aluminium rescue points, connect 30 seat, thigh grips, back band, centre foam and full plate footrest, at the price its a bargain.
Now, for an extra £90 you can buy the extra parts to turn this sleeping monster into a full on creeking river running monster. What does £90 get you, well a pair of hip pads including fitting kit, webbing attached to ratchet runners, a pair of ratchets and a pair of guides for the webbing.
Pat Keller has kindly agreed to share his Dagger RPM Max upgrade on Unsponsored. Pat has taken the standard RPM Max shell and added one of Daggers new Contour Ergo outfitting systems.
The seat swap was pretty self explanatory (a few bolts and a bit of man handling to get it in), but it’ll be best to use the plates that come with the creek seat than just washers.
A nice idea from our friends at Werner.
As yet I haven’t seen any Titan designs in the flesh but would certainly like to try a couple of the boats out. Below is a video from Titan showing the Reactor Outfitting system.
Reactor Outfitting from Titan Kayaks on Vimeo.
2014 Connect outfitting tuning guide from Pyranha on Vimeo.
Tom Parker takes you through the new 2014 Connect outfitting and how to set it up so you can get the most out of your Pyranha Kayak.
http://pyranha.com
http://www.tomparkercoaching.co.uk
Grab handles and security bars are one the bits of kit on a kayak that I have in the past paid little attention to. But I have found that if the design is right they are great for carrying and rescue duties. If not they can be a nightmare.
Most manufacturers use either a metal bar or some sort of climbing tape arrangement. In all cases you should periodically check your boats outfitting to ensure that they do not have any sign of damage or excess wear. All manufacturers can supply replacement parts if required.
Shane at Liquid Logic has filmed one of his Safety/Security bars being put under extreme conditions. Well worth watching.
Security Bar Testing from Shaneslogic on Vimeo.
We recently did another Security Bar test. It’s always fun so I filmed it again. The head of the screw popped at just about the same time as the insert that the bar is attached to pulled out of the plastic.
Different Setups:
A common problem faced by paddlers each time they buy a new boat so the issue of water finding its way in. Reasons for such problems can be placed into one of two categories;
* The paddlers kit is letting the water in.
* The boat is really leaking.
If your paddling kit doesn’t fit correctly it will leak and yes the boat will fill with water. If it’s a simple case of ill fitting dry top or deck then the solution may be easy but expensive – get some kit that fits. On the other hand your kit may need a little TLC – check seals/seams and repair or replace as necessary.
In most cases water getting in tends to be com a deck that isn’t a great fit on the cockpit or on the body tube.
Nick Wright, engineer and all round carbon fibre repair guru has sent this slalom K1 repair in to the site. Many thanks Nick.
Once again, by poor old slalom boat was not doing too well, and it was time to fix it up (especially with BUCS just around to corner). The current problem was that the very end of the tail was cracked and leaking quite badly.
I spent lunch time today carrying out a few kayak repairs by welding up a couple of boats. The first was a 6 month old Pyranha Karnali which had been damaged after its pilot left it to run the Morriston River Race by itself. First impressions indicated that the nose of the boat has been turned up, however the hull shows no sign of deformation.
We all know that feeling – The deep pain/numbness associated with being packed tightly into a plastic container and thrown around for an hour or two.
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