hi all ...gonna open a can of worms here ....in the collective experience of serious WW boaters ..who makes the most durable WW boat ?? i was looking at liquid logic jefe grande. not really concerned with $$$, and only mildly concerend w/ weight. IE : how well does it take the repeated rock hit's w/o cracking? Does anyone have any info on how thick a company's hulls are as compared to another's? i'm 5'7" and 200 #'s btw. probably going to being use it , if I buy , on up to class 3 waters. any other info is appriciated (ie: best hull type). does anyone feel there is a big enuf difference between company's to recommend one over another? ie: jackson vs. L/Logic vs riot vs. pyranhna? thanx
Many believe that Prijon’s HTP boats are the most durable, but from my years over on Boatertalk, I have been unable to form an impression of what boats are the most durable. Recent posts suggest manufacturers may be thinning plastic so their boats feel lighter, and that can lead to trouble. It appears that some manufacturers run into patches of bad boats due to minor variations in production control. Riot once marketed very light boats with a plastic called Xytec, but they had difficulty making the hulls with consistent resistance to tearing or holing, so they went back to linear poly.
So, I don’t think the data exists to answer your question. People have their beliefs, and builders have their off days.
jackson boats are crosslink… which they say make them significantly strong than the linear plastic the other guys use…
With that said, I’ve paddled ww kayaks from most manufacturers (and have a new jackson as well) and I’d just say that get the design you want and don’t worry about the plastic. They’re all pretty good and up through class 3, you probably won’t be stressing the boats too much.
pyranha is probably the one built most like a tank and heaviest too boot. I can't bitch too about my wavesport as it too has some serious gauges out of it but not problems if you can't count oil canning.
The lightest and best surfing of them all is the Jackson 4 fun, 2007 model but i cracked it after having it in the water 6 uses in a place i have been 150 times or more in other boats. In this use, creek ingor dropping it on to rocks was never involved.
ask the same question at boatertalk. The have a lot of creek boaters there who have had lots of damage. Also check out their older forums under words like cracked plastic boats, or Jackson and cracked boats etc.
What Schitzo said You can break any of them, and if you are doing something that can tear up any of the newer ww boats, you should probably be more concerned about your own durability, then that of the boat.
Figure out what type of WW paddling you want to do and make your choice based on specific designs that fit your selected style.
Any of the River Runner/Creek boats are going to be plenty durable. Heck, I think COLOR is a priority over durability. You have to be seen in public in that thing :-o
I am 5’10" / 250# and paddle the biggest Dagger Mamba. Love the boat and have beat the hell out of it. I think the biggest wear on most WW boats is off the water. Parking lot throw downs and dragging. The Jackson boats seem to becoming very popular right now, as did the Wavesport’s a couple years ago.
Cracking In my (limited) experience, it’s rare for boats to crack from “normal” rock contact in class III whitewater unless they had previous damage or were several years old. I have seen boats that were abraded to the point of the hull being noticeably thin that cracked.
There does seem to be a trend towards thinner, lighter boats. My old Jive was a bloody tank compared to some of the newer ones.
You should heft my old 55 lb Animas. It was made for REI specifically to withstand abuse when used as a rental. “REI” is molded into the bow in huge, unremovable letters. It weighs about 10 lb more than a standard Animas. It’s so stiff, I’m tempted to remove the front wall for comfort’s sake.
Animas The Animas was my first WW boat. I mostly used it to count fish :-o I was over the weight range at the time about 20# which kept the tail underwater most of the time. Even the mildest eddy was a window shade event. Wow! I sucked.
tough boat I have an Eskimo/Diablo(made in Germany) that has taken some serious punishment & held up well.The poly is very dense but still light enough to handle easily. bought it for my daughter but shes too busy for paddling. I’m gonna sell it with skirt, Werner paddle& float bag for $425.if there is anyinterest.
Some people had similar problems with the tails of the RPMs. Either I learned something in my slalom c-1, or my feet are heavy enough to counterbalance the stern, because I’ve never caught the Animas stern accidentally. The boat does run a tiny bit bow down if I sit up straight, so I removed the backband and often paddle lying back some, especially when attaining upstream.
Animas received repeated positive, even rave reviews when it first came out, but when people switched to “new school” designs, they lost their taste for managing old school boats.