Say what you want about Corran Addison but the guy definitely bought his love of surfing into the white water world and influenced boat designs along the way.
I love the talk about the "spin disk" which is actually on my Riot Trickster (also designed by Corran) released about 4-5 years ago. The Trickster is a good surfer as far as a white water boat goes. Love to try these two to see how they surf.
I thought that companies were moving away from the spin disk as it hasn't lived up to the hype. (Manufacturer's Debate series) My dom has the spin disk as well although I'm not skilled enough to determine if it is a benefit or not in terms of looseness. I got excited for a minute as I thought Liquid Logic had developed a true surf yak. A surf influenced playboat is still cool though.
On a side note, I was watching LVM Greatest Hits Volume 1 last night and I fell asleep with images of surf yakkers tearing up killer waves.
"Spin Disk = …" hype. I don’t notice any difference in how the “spin disk” works. Actually my Chronic feels easier to spin than any of my other boats. Flat bottom, triplan, no disk but the hull is way shorter than the other boats.
I also don’t buy necessarily that the hard rails give you more “speed.” I feel that’s probably “hype” as well.
Amazing that he is able to stick to such a steep wave with a white water boat. Wish there is video so I can see if he is actually carving across the wave face. Wonder if he has the 1" fins in. Perhaps, great skills make up for all!
Yeah… I think the intention is to have the qualities of a play/rodeo boat and a surf boat. Corran plays the that big standing wave, “LaChine”, up in Canada. The boat can then also do rodeo tricks while surfing steep ocean waves.
I still suspect everything is a compromise. No way can that boat get the speed of a dedicated surfing boat. I suspect it doesn’t have the speed to make it pass/evade the closeout sections. Rather, you let the wave break and do tricks in the foam pile. On big wave days, I rather get a decent ride and have the speed to cut around the corner of a soon-to-close-out wave and paddle back out without having to go all the way in and fight my way back out through the break zone.
Before and after pictures From our experience making amature surf videos, you want to make sure you see what happened 2 seconds later. Of course he could probably walk on water so why doubt it just worship. Pretty cool shot in my book. The guys that criticize him for being such a hot shot are probably just jealous I guess.
Hope my comments aren't taken as "criticism." I just want to see the the ability of that boat to carve. Kinda of an academic exercise since I 've been in discussions about surf boat designs. I think each boat design favors a certain set of characteristics at the expense of others. So, I would love to see a video and a firsthand look/assessment of how the boat behaves on the steep face.
Of course, high skills trumps alot over less than ideal equipment. ;) I have no doubt this guy is highly skilled. I think I would be wetting my drysuit with big collapsing curlers like those coming at me... LOL!
holy cow! Those waves are incredible and I would be saying some pretty quick prayers if I were in that situation! Those pics are awesome too. From the look of it and as I’m not seeing much of a carving trail on the face of the wave, I’m assuming that he’s almost bouncing across the face of those waves. Man I can’t believe he can take a whitewater boat out on those things and not get beat up like crazy! There is no way he could generate enough speed to escape if the wave dumped faster than he expected. Still he must be an awesome paddler to be able to handle those conditions with that boat. Videos would be sweet though.
Corran always gets beat up on Boatertalk. His detractors jump on him for any little thing. I personally don’t care either way but am appreciative of the fact that he designs great boats and has helped expand the sport of whitewater boating.
Actually… More than “academic.” I need to rent a boat for the “Intermediate Open Plastic Boat” category in SC. I was thinking one of the Neckys, like a Zip or a Witch. But, jeeze, would it be cool to find a DR Squaretail or the LL Vision to rent for the comp…
I don’t notice any difference in how the “spin disk” works. Actually my Chronic feels easier to spin than any of my other boats. Flat bottom, triplan, no disk but the hull is way shorter than the other boats.