NELO ski comparisons

I'm trying to get an education on NELO skis and there does not seem to be a lot of general information out there. Using google and the search function here I came up with the following (and please forgive my Epic comparisons. They are the only boats I am familiar with):

The Vintage seems to compare (specification wise) with the V10.

The Viper seems to compare with the V8.

The 560 appears to be a hybrid K1/Ski with no Epic comparison.

The Ocean is maybe closer to the V12/14?

Are these comparisons valid? If I am an mid-pack V10 paddler, should I expect to be able to jump into a Vintage and have no major issues?

What about NELO layups? I see they have an "E" and a "WWR". Is "E" like Epic Ultra and "WWR" like Epic Performance? How do they compare weight wise? NELO does not list boat weight.

BTW: NELO, your website sucks.

The weight is similar to other makers but the Nelos are uncomfortable very unstable and have the worst rudder cable adjustment.

Comfort is subjective and dependant on the person paddling the ski, a friend of mine reckons his Nelo had the most comfortable seat of any of his skis. Not sure what is wrong with the cable adjustment to make them the worse? Pictures online look similar to Fenn (very easy to adjust).
Two friends of mine paddled Nelo skis to first and second in the 2013 James Bhutty Moore-morial race here in NZ (33km downwind).

Not just my opinion my fellow paddlers also find the bucket uncomfortable. the cable adjustment is 2 allen screws directly to the pedal independent with each other so if you want to give it to someone to try you will spend a lot of time. Other than that it's fast and sea worthy

agree comfort is highly personal, but my experience of the nelo ski's I have paddled are the same: uncomfortable & unstable

nelo vintage is significantly less stable than v10 2G
nelo ocean is more unstable than v14/v12
nelo 560 too unstable / uncomfortable in the flat water for me - I was hoping for a lot with this ski as I prefer the shorter ski's & hoped to find a K1 replacement, but was left disappointed

as regards their seat, I am told those that come from a kayaking background will adapt to them best. I found that it had a gentle slope behind the seats low point which made it difficult to find the sweetspot & i would end up leg driving up this slope in no man's land - prefer a high support back to the seat.

obviously Tim Jacobs has managed to get some great results out of this ski

I look forward to seeing what comes out of the nelo stable under Oscar as I imagine the seat comfort & stability will improve
Nelo create beautiful craft, so I am excited to see where they will be going in the future......

There are plenty of people out there that that don't find the Epics comfortable, myself included and several of my friends. So changing seats suits some, makes it worse for others. Personally I have made my own seats to closely mimic the Nelo design with the cut out for the relief of the tailbone area, I was making them like this before I saw my first Nelo seat.

have seen some pics of your seat mod's - look impressive.

do you find they compromise stability with the higher centre of gravity?

suspect if I put a 3mm foam pad in the nelo I would not slide around & stay in the sweet spot, without compromising stability?

the new stellar SES has knocked the back out of their seat like the nelo which I am enjoying after getting used to it & putting a central rubber pad to stop sliding

these seats do allow better rotation / leg drive

for me the nelo ski difficulty was primarily instability.......... so look forward to what comes out in the future.

If a seat is made so that it only removes pressure from the key areas being the sit bones and tail bone the change in height is negligible and does not affect stability, if anything it improves stability with the better fit. Obviously if you make your pad higher than it needs to be stability will be worsened. My sit bones still touch the bucket through the material of my seats, but I'm better supported over a wider area so comfortable and can still slide on the material and a plastic bag. Usually my weight is shifted slightly forward to get the relief from the tailbone area, but again this is minimal with a bit of time taken to get a good fit.