The Torrent XL was designed in late 1983-early 1984 by a Penn State Outing Club design team led by John Sweet. In addition to Sweet, the team included two PSOC C2M teams – Doug Westphal/Pam Barr & John Coraor/Hanna Nekvasil-Coraor. Sweet and Westphal did most of the design work, the rest of us mainly contributed grunt labor. The starting point for the boat was the original Torrent C2 designed previously by the same team in late 1982-early 1983 and first paddled in the 1983 racing season. The original Torrent (missing from your listings) was specifically designed for lighter doubles slalom teams, such as was often the case for C2M. We felt that the Paramax II (a/k/a Argumax) , the then current slalom C2 in 1982, was too high volume and had not made the same design leap forward that Davey Hearn and Jon Lugbill had made with the Batmax.

All of the serious PSOC C2M teams paddled Torrents in 1983. The C2 team of Dave Paton & Al Blanchard also paddled one in U.S. Team competition even though they were heavier than the target weight range (it was designed for a maximum weight of around 285-290 pounds). In order to provide a similarly competitive boat for such heavier teams, we modified the Torrent to produce the Torrent XL. Davey Hearn and Jon Lugbill did not participate on the design team for either the Torrent or the Torrent XL, although they did offer their comments on the XL prior to its completion. The XL plug was paddleable, and at one point in the dead of winter, Sweet brought it to the David Taylor Model Basin in DC for some testing. My wife and I paddled it in the basin while Davey Hearn and Fritz & Lecky Haller observed and made comments (I don’t recall Lugbill being present, but it is possible.). I believe that the Hallers paddled it briefly in the basin as well. The boat was largely finished at this point, but we did make some minor modifications as a result of observations and comments at this session. Since we left Penn State in 1985, it is possible that the plug and/or mold was subsequently modified to meet the new 1985/86 requirements regarding blunted ends. If so, this may have involved others beyond the original design team, but the bulk of the boat depicted in your catalog photo appears to be relatively unchanged from the original Torrent XL.