Which Skis are working for the girls?

I never noticed a difference in the angle between the Stellars and the Swordfish, although I know of a couple of Stellars where the bracket on the bottom mount has been placed on the back of the foot plate rather than the front and this makes the angle much shallower, mine did not come like this and it was easy to adjust my friends one to steepen it up like my ones. In fact on the SEL, mine and my friends I removed the bracket and drilled some new holes which steepend the angle and made it the same angle as my SES came stock. So there is some variation but nothing that can't be changed.

With the Swordfish there is a large gap between the bottom of the footplate and the bottom of the footwell, this gets uncomfortable over time as my heel pushes into this gap and I've been meaning to fill this gap to remedy this.

On all my foot plates I've found the addition of further grip tape in the heel area to be a great help as well.

With the Swordfish there is a large gap between the bottom of the footplate and the bottom of the footwell, this gets uncomfortable over time as my heel pushes into this gap and I've been meaning to fill this gap to remedy this.

Yeah - to me this is a criticism of the boat. In order to get a really solid footplate, the bottom edge has to brace against the bottom of the footwell. Otherwise it feels spongy underneath your heel.

I haven't fixed this on mine yet.

The Red7 guys fixed this with a three point rail - but I found it quite awkward to adjust and I haven't seen anyone else follow their example. The Epic boats are built to a tight tolerance in this regard - the footplate impacts the bottom of the boat and is solid when you push against it. But it's still high enough off the floor of the footwell that it doesn't jam when it's being adjusted.

The Stellars have three point fixing Robin, if thats what you mean.

Kayaker Greg wrote: The Stellars have three point fixing Robin, if thats what you mean.

Aha! Ok, yes it is! (I haven't paddled a Stellar yet.)

robin.mousley wrote:
Yeah - to me this is a criticism of the boat. In order to get a really solid footplate, the bottom edge has to brace against the bottom of the footwell. Otherwise it feels spongy underneath your heel.

Well this thread is tracking the topic nicely but I guess since Rob is in on it ......

Some ski's I have seen where the footplate does touch the footwell have resulted in wearing through the footwell gelcoat with flex in the footplate. Some have used thick tape or high density foam to prevent this.

Well this thread is tracking the topic nicely but I guess since Rob is in on it

Ooops, done it again. Sorry!

Perhaps if people use the subject heading (see above) when changing topic all this combined wisdom on footplate angles and footplates touching the footwell wont be lost under the original topic heading.

what I have done on all my skis is to put Keeleze tape on the footwell floor , 2 strips running parallel down the length of the floor , so no matter where it is adjusted it still affords protection to the gel coat from the foot plate , and your heels don't grind sand into the gelcoat.

The other trick with Stellars, and their 3 point footplate, is to make a new stainless steel bracket, that mounts to the back of the footplate , rather than the front...you make it slightly longer so the cam lock clears the footplate...it has 2 advantages in my eyes, firstly it gives you more rearward adjustment, with the factory setup there is still about 25mm of adjustment available on the top rails after the centre one has reached its limit, and secondly it looks much tidier and neater and there is no chance of hitting you heels on the alloy cam lock handle.

I might have my earlier post backwards regarding the bracket on the Stellar foot plate, I need to check but the stock bracket can be used, just with a couple of new holes and I might have moved the bracket the other way around, from the front to the back, just trying to visualise it doesn't make much sense and its night time so haven't been able to check. Anyway, its an easy job to change the angle if needed.

Here are a few pics of the mods I did to the Stellar footplate, this is in our S2E double , as we had to move the rear foot plate back as far as possible. You can't use the original bracket , as you need to make one with the angle reversed , also the holes will be slightly different ( lower down on the bracket to compensate for the angle of the bolts thru the foot plate), It was a great outcome and looks neater than the original , as seen on the front foot plate.

Stellar SES is working fine for me, I'm 5'5", 55 kg.. you can adjust

My wife (who currently paddles a Stellar SR Excel) test paddled a Stellar SES Excel last week. (She's 5' tall and 51 Kg.) She had no issues with balance etc, its just that when the foot controls are fully back, she still has an issue with the hump when fully rotated and paddling hard. She hasn't dismissed the SES, but we will have to do a bit of rear padding and see if we can get the plate back another inch, if she gets it.

Owen, in all my skis, SEL, V10L, Swordfish, I've moved the seating position forward to help with the hump issue, didn't have to with the SES as it was just right for my height but definitely do able for her.

Just sold a SES Excel to a young lady who has been paddling for 13 years and started on a S1A. She tested it out for about a half an hour and bought it so I assume she liked it very much. She was about 5' 6" tall and weighed about 125#s. With adjustments it seemed to fit her well and it fit me, 6' 2", 150#s, very well too.