More New and Updated Skis ** MORE updates!** Wednesday, 11 August 2010 |
The Lamborghini of surfskis? Or perhaps the Volvo... Italy and Sweden are the origin of the two of the new skis that are on the market in Europe...
Allwave CX (Italy)
Mario Graziani sent some photos of a new ski designed by Allwave in Italy.
Better known for their Outrigger Canoes, which they’ve been building since 1991, this is their first surfski.
Rumour has it that one of the new skis may be finding its way to Cape Town – in which case a Surfski.info review will follow.
Bucket and tail (that tiller bar needs to be covered up!)
Hull view
Here’s a promo video that Allwave posted to Youtube.
Allwave’s website is at www.allwave.it
Carbonology Sport Vault (South Africa)
Following on the Atom, which is aimed at elite paddlers, Carbonology Sport are about to launch their new “Vault” ski.
According to Carbonology’s Hein van Rooyen, the ski was designed from scratch and is aimed at intermediate paddlers. The ski is the same length as the Atom, 5.96m, but is 30mm wider at the seat and has the seat position moved back a little.
Stability comes from a pronounced flat area in the hull from the feet to well behind the seat and the nose has greater volume than the Atom. This, van Rooyen said, also makes the handling easier for the intermediate paddler.
“We shaped the deck to fit in with the family look of the Carbonology Sport skis,” he said.
The pics below are of the plug; the moulds are reportedly almost ready and the Vault will be in production in a couple of weeks time.
The Vault’s bucket is 30mm wider than the Atom’s
The Vault has more volume in the nose than the Atom
Carbonology Sport’s website is still under construction but will be located at www.carbonologysport.com
Point 65 (Sweden)
(Hmm… perhaps the crack about Volvo isn’t appropriate – to me Volvo has traditionally meant “safety” and “family” in cars. Surfskis are about speed and adrenalin! Also Volvo Cars isn’t even a Swedish concern anymore having been bought by the Chinese! Sigh.)
At any rate, Point 65oN Kayaks, to use their full name, have been in the sea kayaking market for many years and have recently branched out into surfskis.
XP 18/Spyder
The XP 18 is actually a sea kayak, but has some of the attributes of a surfski, having been designed with downwind and crosswind performance in mind.
In the car industry (I'm told!), Spyder means "without roof"... and the XP18 Spyder is just that: an open sit-on-top surfski-style cockpit.
The hulls of the two versions are identical.
One for winter; one for summer?
Bourbon Orca
Now this is a radical looking surfski, designed by Magnus de Brito of Point65.
Here’s some promotional footage, showing the testing of ski (code-named the XP21) in Sweden in mid-winter!
Point65’s website is at: www.point65.com
Stellar Kayaks (USA)
Stellar are a relatively new brand on the market, and have taken plenty of flak for their association with Flying Eagle, the company that used to manufacture the Epic skis in China. (Flying Eagle and Epic are in the midst of an acrimonious and torturous court case in China).
However, the skis look different (as can be seen in the photos) and more importantly are reported to behave differently to the Epic designs.
What’s new? Stellar have just released a model aimed at the novice market. This is the Stellar Racer (or Stellar SR). The ski’s vital statistics are:
- Length: 5.84m/19’2”
- Beam: 48cm/18.9”
- Weight: 10.9kg (Ultra), 11.5kg (Excel), 14kg (Advantage), 15kg (Sport)
The ski is the third in the Stellar range, the other two being the Stellar Elite (SE) and the Stellar Elite Small (SES) – designed for paddlers 90kg and under.
Stellar SR Cockpit – note the 3-way footplate anchor
The Stellar website is at: www.stellarkayaks.com
Think (Canada)
Look out for the Think team in San Francisco – Sean Rice and Ben Allen will be paddling the new Think Uno Max.
Rice chose not to use the ski in New York this coming weekend. The race is on flat, albeit choppy water, and he prefers to use the Uno just the way it was last year when he won the event.
But the US Surfski Champs in San Francisco is another story – 2/3 of the race is almost certain to be a classic downwind – and Rice is looking forward to the enhanced downwind performance that has been designed into the Uno Max.
The differences? Think CEO Daryl Remmler was not over-forthcoming on the details but from what he and Sean let slip, I gather that the Uno Max has:
- More volume
- A little more rocker
- A slightly changed seat position (moved towards the tail)
It’ll be interesting too to see how the Rice and Allen fare in San Francisco in ten days time – Allen beat Jeremy Cotter in a sprint finish three weeks ago...
Think Kayaks' website is at www.thinkkayaks.com
Ocean Built (Australia)
On seeing the pic of the Point65 Bourbon Orca with its distinctive raked back nose, Justin Brent-White of Ocean Built in Australia wrote to say that they too have been working on a ski with a similar nose.
"We feel a little gutted that the ski in the web site is so similar to our design that was created by our team last year, Dawid [Mocke] saw a sketch in Perth early this year so we are not Xerox copiers!" he said.
"We tested the 1st prototype in the Rottnest Island race with Brendan Rice and have moulded off our plug last week," he added.
The production ski's nose is not quite as radical as in the sketches.
Great to see another Aussie-designed ski coming out.
The OceanBuilt website is under construction but may be found here: www.oceanbuilt.com
Custom Kayaks (South Africa)
Custom Kayaks are close to launching their new ski too. This one is called the BULLET...
"In the old days when we all built our own skis," said Custom Kayaks owner Mark Lewin, "we all had a fast "BULLET" for flat conditions, a ski that ran well and a ski that was good in the surf for the lifesaving races..."
The deck and cockpit are roughed out, ready for the final smoothing process
While the hull is complete and ready for moulding, Mark, with the help of his son Barry, is making the final adjustments to the deck and seating position.
From the video below you can see that they seem to be pleased with the performance of the boat... It'll be another couple of weeks before they actually move into production.
Here's a video interview with Mark Lewin on the ski.
