new CD kayaks

Anybody had enough paddle time in new oracle or

willow to give reviews ?

proto boats
I paddled the prototypes of both those boats last year. The Oracle was the nicest ABS sea kayak I’ve ever seen. They beat out Perception, Dagger, Eddyline, Delta, Hurricane, and Seaward boats in my opinion. It was stiff, responsive and fast. It is a great boat for someone without the clams for a Solstice GTS. The Prototype I paddled had a thigh brace setup that was not chosen for the production boats. CD is spending all their effort these days in improving the cockpit comfort so I expect the production boats will be quite comfortable.



The Willow was another preproduction boat. The one I paddles was a High Volume built so that the typical kayak buyer could test the boat in full knowledge that the boat was built for a smaller paddler. From waist down, I’m a smaller paddler so the fit was loose for me. SO I infer a lot about how the real boat will actually paddle. I think of it as a better Squamish. It has lower decks and a day hatch but much narrower than the Squamish. This looks to be CD’s answer to the smaller female boat. It was more stable than the Rumor and drier in wave but not as fast. Dave Kruger took so much volume out of the Rumor’s bow that it likes to torpedo in waves. The Willow has more flair and more of a cheek to it so it was what I would expect from a good British designed boat. Other than these comments, I found the Willow to be so-so for boat performance. It’s good at a lot of things which means flexibility but not terrible at anything either.

any links to these products or
anyone know when they plan to release for production?

thx

Available Now
Both of these boats are now at dealers.