Re: ICON ski thoughts

Hi Dave, Rob wrote a review on the Icon some time back. I will give you my impressions of it.
I have had my Icon for almost two years, and came from a spec ski background.

The Icon is a well made sturdy ski, the seat is one of the most comfortable around, its a bit wider than some skis and consequently is easier to remount, I have only ever used the side saddle remount.

Its built for a bigger person, and as i'am 5'8" and 80kg I have had to pad the side of the seat. It is a fast ski downwind with good secondary stability. The ski has a lot of volume up front and can wander a bit in strong side wind, heading into the wind it tends to ride up a bit over a wave where skis like the Fenn Mill will slice through the wave. The Icon has a good rudder system and with the addition of a small weed deflector collects no weed.

Now the low down on stability.(i might add that Iam a very average paddler) The Icon cockpit is very similar to a spec ski, you are sitting quite high compared to similar skis. I found this to be a very challenging ski.

On flat water its stable, in rougher water I get into trouble with reflected waves but thats my lack of skill, not the boat.
two months ago I had the seat lowered by 20mm, just to see what it would be like.
What a difference! with my skill level and the conditions I paddle in (perth) its a really made me a more confidant paddler. I dont know why Custom Kayaks dont have an option for a deep seat version like they do with their Mark 1.


In short, a well built,fast ski suited to a more experienced paddler with a few miles under the belt.
regards
Bob.

I second most of what Bob says.

I have one of the first Icons out of the mould and have given it a hard life but its still going strong. Unlike Bob, I actually prefer the Mako 6 cockpit but live very easily with the Icon seat (no padding). I come from a river K1 and surfski background but had an 18 year break (very silly of me). The Icon was my first ski after the break and apart from a few swims in the first month, I have never had any stability problems. I have paddled quite a few other modern skis and find that the Icon has very sharp handling downwind compared to the ones I have tried (Fenns, V10). I don't have any problems in cross winds with the high bow - but maybe I'm just used to it.

I think it is a very under rated ski - it does not have a high profile in the top results because Custom Kayaks does not tend to sponsor paddlers at the top end of the sport, but it is very well represented in the mid field. It is a very popular ski here in the Caribbean, with 7 of the top 10 places in our recent Soualiga Challenge.

Try one and think of where your paddling will be in 6 months time if you feel a bit unstable at first.

Stuart

Bob.

Was the 'deep seat' modification expensive?

I paddle an Endorfinn and in good conditions, I can just about stay upright on a spec ski and managed a 100m lap without swimming in a Fenn Mellenium, although I had great difficulty getting into it!.

There is an Icon for sale and this modification, if not too expensive, may make it a good buy.

Hi Richard, the modification was not too expensive, if you are in Perth email or phone me.

I will give you the phone number of the person who did the modification and speak to you about it.

The Icon, from memory has about 50mm from the under side of the seat to the bottom of the hull.

we decided on 20mm so as not to upset the balance between seat height and where the bottom of the foot wells are.

on the first test paddle it was obvious that the ski was more stable and heels still below seat height, I dont know how much more you could drop the seat without affecting this.

when I picked up my ski I couldnt tell where the seat had been modified. it was that good !!

Before you commit to anything I would be more then happy to let you try mine. If your finding the Fenn MILL hard to get back into, you will be plesantly surprised with the Icon. The Fenn MILL is still a fantastic ski to paddle, but if you cant remount it becomes a safety issue.

regards Bob ph 94092687 (h) 0403844136 (m) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Thanks for the insight guys. That helps me quite a bit. I'd definitely want to paddle this one before I buy it.

Bob.

You are a star - this is a public THANKS!

Bob kindly let me try his Icon last night and I paddled for about 40 minutes, with Bob paddling my plastic ski. This was my first 'real' paddle in a LD ski after a 100m paddle in a Millennium.

I thought the Icon was fantastic, looks good, venturis work and dry!

It was windy and the river slightly choppy, so it wasn't ideal conditions, however I didn't need any 'major' brace strokes to avoid a spill - just a number of minor ones!

Downwind, the ski just wanted to run by itself! In fact when we swapped back, Bob was continually dragging a paddle to slow down to my speed!

The changes for the deep seat modification on Bob's Icon are only just visible when you know they are there and look for them.