River Running:
It's a quick little boat, but its a little quirky at first. You ALWAYS have to mind your edges, but its actually super stable, and most trip ups just resulted in a little change of direction. I only got flipped once while running any rapids, and that was the entrance ferry. Both ends are fully out of the water at my weight , and the big shovel nose didn't sub out in holes at all. All in all its a great river runner for someone of my weight for up to class 4 stuff, and possibly some easy 5s, but I have a creek boat for the really steep stuff. Almost all of the 165+ paddlers I have ever talked to about the boat complained about its edginess, but I suppose for my weight its much less of an issue. I'd be more comfortable in big water in this thing after one trip down the ocoee than I am in my spin after a half a season of paddling...
Waves-
The ocoee isn't known for its wave play, but from a few rides on the front wave of Double trouble I can tell that this boat would be awesome on big features. It also surfed smaller ones very easily too, but wasn't as loose as it is on big waves. On the small wave/hole below slice and dice I had the smoothest rides I've had (mind you this is 1 hr into paddling the boat), It's a real retentive little boat
Holes:
I'm a big hades hole fan, and that for me is the make/break point for a playboat. On my first ride I hit an aerial blunt... I've never even come close in my spin, but the vibe just wanted to bounce up and I knew what to do from there... I also got REALLY close to hitting my first loop... Boat goes all the way up and I pulled it around, but it fell over sideways at full height. I still came up in the hole though, which surprised me so much that I didn't know where I was for a sec...
Flatwater:
For my size, this boat isn't the best flatwater playboat I've been in. It has great bow stability, better than any boat I've ever paddled, as it would stay vertical with no effort. The flatwater cartwheels were bad as well, but the play on waves and holes are certainly a worthwhile tradeoff for this kind of performance on river features. I am sure with practice it would be no problem. Being that its pretty quick for its length it isn't too bad when you've got to get through some flat water either.
The conclusion:
If you're a medium to smaller paddler, looking for a performance playboat, I'd give it a 9.5 out of 10. It only loses that half point from its slight difficulty in flatwater manuvers, but with a boat like this you'll be racing through the flatwater to get to the next feature, rather than messing around there. Definitely an awesome awesome boat. Its not a matter of if I'm getting one, its a matter of when. Anyone know what they give for a Kidney?
Tim