I have the opportunity to pick up an Easy Rider TSL-I decked canoe on the cheap. There isn’t much information out there besides from the company. Anyone have any experience with this boat. Thanks in advance!
nice boat
I have paddled a few hundred miles in a TSL1 (worked for an outfitter that has a fleet of them, though most have been retired)
A nice handling river boat that is designed for whitewater, though I’d think they could pur a bit more rocker in the design - guess its a design compromise between ww and flatwter. With the large center cockpit, its easy to load a weeks worth of camping gear, or I suppose, to add a pad for a passenger.
Usually, we had the spray skirts along, for rougher water - and always had the center cockpit covered.
most of the TSLs were retired after many years of service - too many repairs after the glass got beat up and fragile, but I’d think that a non-outfitter boat would have been kept in better shape.
Only thing I didn’t like about the boat is the seating - a flat board that became uncomfortable after a few hours of sitting - I used to bring a thin pad with me and tied it to the board seat. On flat water, I’d often sit on the back deck, just to stretch out my legs - the boat is not all that deep, and you kindof sit low, with your knees up high - the seat-board was held on with bungee cords - i presume so that it could be removed for kneeling. I never did any hard whitewater in them, but did kneel occasionally for a bit, and didn’t have any problem though big feet might be an issue unless you did remove the board.
With the deck, especially when using the skirts, the boat was not too affected by wind - the weight (85lbs)
also helps in the wind.
Oh yeah, another thing I didn’t like, was loading the 12th or 14th boat up on the top tier of the trailer after a trip - that got to be real work.
what Mattt said…
HEAVY, thick,stong lay-up, ok in mild WW (I’ve had it in Class IV) HUGE load capacity. works OK in flatwater too.
I had one for 10-12 years and put alot of miles on 'er. it’s a tough job getting it on the car tho!
steve
