How does the l'Edge handle big water?

[leclercraven]

All I've seen is videos of people using the Esquif l'Edge in creeks... the boat seems to handle pretty much everything you can throw at it: rocks, edges, micro eddies, big holes, falls.... I live in Ottawa, so can anybody tell me if they've ran the huge waters of the Ottawa or Gatineau rivers with a l'Edge? How does it handle let's say something like the Coliseum or Haute-Tension? You know, BIG rivers with 6 foot+ waves and stuff... My Esquif Raven does a pretty good job at getting me through that type of stuff. I would just like to compare.

Any good video out there of the l'Edge running those type of rivers?

[Cheeks]

I saw a lot of them at GauleyFest. Wayne's C&D River Life has a lot of shots of L'Edges (and a flying Outrage) going through Pillow Rapid

http://www.fullgnarlz.com/component/jomtube/video/68" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Joe Gumpy got his Option through just fine, MarkZak styled the Upper in his Ion, and Jim Machaud made it look easy in his fifteen foot coal barge, er, Outrage X. The point is, the paddler is probably more indicative than the boat, any of those boats seemed to do fine.

I always thought my Viper 11 handled the big water well too. A little wet, but it had the speed to keep me from stalling out in big wave trains.

[leclercraven]

That's a great video "Cheeks"! I've seen it before. But again, that video features creeking style boating.
How does the l'Edge handle bigger rivers with bigger holes, waves etc.? Here are some random personal pics of the type of river that I'm talking about...

[Dooleyoc-1]

The L'Edge is incredibly dry in big water. It is also very stable on boils, surging eddylines and funny water that you face on flood stage rivers and big water.

It's only disadvantage on big water is hull speed if you are in the middle of the river and need to ferry and/or generate hull speed to get to the other side of a wide powerful river quickly to avoid a hole.

Of course it will handle better in big water than bigger boats if you're full...

Everything is a trade-off but the quick answer is that yes the L'Edge can handle big water just fine.

[leclercraven]

The L'Edge is incredibly dry in big water. It is also very stable on boils, surging eddylines and funny water that you face on flood stage rivers and big water.

It's only disadvantage on big water is hull speed if you are in the middle of the river and need to ferry and/or generate hull speed to get to the other side of a wide powerful river quickly to avoid a hole.

Of course it will handle better in big water than bigger boats if you're full...

Everything is a trade-off but the quick answer is that yes the L'Edge can handle big water just fine.

Great, I guess I would have to try one then. Do you know of any good video footage of one in big waters similar to my pics?

[ian123]

It's fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhBkPy968Gg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6S2ut02xC8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (last minute or so)

[Cheeks]

Guess I'm gonna have to come up to Gat fest if it makes the Gauley seem like creekin'

[leclercraven]

Guess I'm gonna have to come up to Gat fest if it makes the Gauley seem like creekin'

LOL... Don't get me wrong, the Gauley seems like a wicked river, but the rivers up here tend to be much wider and deeper... To me, the Gauley looks like a small narrow river or medium sized creek. We don't have many of those in my area. And yes, you would absolutely love the Gat!

[esprit]

The L'Edge handles the Ottawa and Gat amazingly well.

You are welcome to try one of our's anytime... Once we get home from Mexico.

Jim

[djutzi]

What Dooley said...

I've had my l'Edge on the Ottawa and the only time I got burned was at McKoy's, trying to ferry from river-left to river-right above Hrorseshoe to make the tongue there. I blew the ferry and got munched in the left side of Horseshoe. Conversely, the week prior I made the same move in my Ocoee, no problem. The difference was hull speed.

I've had mine on the Rouge 7-Sisters section as well at a fairly high water level, and it was very stable and very dry...the only exception was when I swamped the boat going through a big wave after not quite ferrying out far enough, again due to the slower hull speed.

Haven't paddled the Gatineau yet in my l'Edge but saw tons of people in l'Edges at least year's Gatineau Fest, and they were having a blast...no problems whatsoever.

Hope this helps.

[leclercraven]

Guess I'm gonna have to come up to Gat fest if it makes the Gauley seem like creekin'

LOL... Don't get me wrong, the Gauley seems like a wicked river, but the rivers up here tend to be much wider and deeper... To me, the Gauley looks like a small narrow river or medium sized creek. We don't have many of those in my area. And yes, you would absolutely love the Gat!

Just watched more videos on the Gauley... Definitely not a creek!! Sorry... I would compare it with our Rouge River, quite similar I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_QFtjW6 ... re=related

[Craig Smerda]

It wasn't designed just for creeking...

Paddling a short boat can teach you a lot about how to actually utilize a rivers features to get you were you want to go rather than soley relying upon hull speed.

I've been on a few high volume rivers with big waves, holes, and must make lines in a CUFly and lived to tell about it.



Mind you... yours truly spent about a decade exclusively paddling the Spanish Fly but here's a few thoughts regarding hull speed.

"It's great to have hull speed but for the most part it's not always the deal breaker in regards to me liking a boat or not. I'll confess... I'm actually a fairly lazy paddler when I can be and I always try to let the water do the bulk of the work. I'll often times search out the greatest concentration of current (green water) to propel myself or catch the blade in. I actually can turn it on when I have to though.... "uh oh... time for a boof stroke" A Spark for example has loads of hull speed but for the average boater at times that speed means missing eddies or not being able to turn the boat quickly and easily. It doesn't mean the boat can't... it just goes forward really fast even better. For creeking or running drops/slides/etc. I don't always find speed necessary as sometimes going with the rivers flow and throwing in a few quick powerful tugs on the paddle at the right time yields more positive results. My favorite boat (SpanishFly) really does lack speed at certain times when you really wish it had more of it... but for the most part it isn't needed for running a drop or steep ledges with fast moving water. It's those times that you have to have a bit more speed that made me deviate away from copying the SPFly's rocker profile completely.

So... If a boat has too much speed (typically less rocker) and not enough speed (typically lot's of rocker) you often compromise a bit of the boats turning ability for getting in and out of those tight spots when creeking or running tight and technical rivers. Finding a balance between these two things is really a challenge... especially having only nine feet to work with.

I feel as though every boat's platform and length combined with it's own intended uses needs to find it's own ideal hull speed and turning ability. Each time you move one direction... you lose a bit going the other direction. As it stands I feel that this boat has fairly good overall hull speed for it's length and very good turning ability. The L'edge is far faster than the SpanishFly in a straight line or accelerating on the flats and in the green water. The SpanishFly would most likely beat it an "into and back out of" the eddy competition. The L'edge is far drier. It has more volume. It will be less taxing on your body after long stretches of flatwater... and for those of you that asked for it... it actually looks like a canoe."

James Weir paddled a Spanish Fly on the Grand Canyon a few years ago...
http://blog.jamesweir.net/2009/11/grand ... dling.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[leclercraven]

It wasn't designed just for creeking...

Paddling a short boat can teach you a lot about how to actually utilize a rivers features to get you were you want to go rather than soley relying upon hull speed.

I've been on a few high volume rivers with big waves, holes, and must make lines in a CUFly and lived to tell about it.



Mind you... yours truly spent about a decade exclusively paddling the Spanish Fly but here's a few thoughts regarding hull speed.

"It's great to have hull speed but for the most part it's not always the deal breaker in regards to me liking a boat or not. I'll confess... I'm actually a fairly lazy paddler when I can be and I always try to let the water do the bulk of the work. I'll often times search out the greatest concentration of current (green water) to propel myself or catch the blade in. I actually can turn it on when I have to though.... "uh oh... time for a boof stroke" A Spark for example has loads of hull speed but for the average boater at times that speed means missing eddies or not being able to turn the boat quickly and easily. It doesn't mean the boat can't... it just goes forward really fast even better. For creeking or running drops/slides/etc. I don't always find speed necessary as sometimes going with the rivers flow and throwing in a few quick powerful tugs on the paddle at the right time yields more positive results. My favorite boat (SpanishFly) really does lack speed at certain times when you really wish it had more of it... but for the most part it isn't needed for running a drop or steep ledges with fast moving water. It's those times that you have to have a bit more speed that made me deviate away from copying the SPFly's rocker profile completely.

So... If a boat has too much speed (typically less rocker) and not enough speed (typically lot's of rocker) you often compromise a bit of the boats turning ability for getting in and out of those tight spots when creeking or running tight and technical rivers. Finding a balance between these two things is really a challenge... especially having only nine feet to work with.

I feel as though every boat's platform and length combined with it's own intended uses needs to find it's own ideal hull speed and turning ability. Each time you move one direction... you lose a bit going the other direction. As it stands I feel that this boat has fairly good overall hull speed for it's length and very good turning ability. The L'edge is far faster than the SpanishFly in a straight line or accelerating on the flats and in the green water. The SpanishFly would most likely beat it an "into and back out of" the eddy competition. The L'edge is far drier. It has more volume. It will be less taxing on your body after long stretches of flatwater... and for those of you that asked for it... it actually looks like a canoe."

Thanks Craig. I'm hoping I can try one eventually and see for myself.

[h2sk1]

Thanks Craig. I'm hoping I can try one eventually and see for myself.

Last year Paddle Shack rented L'edges, and possibly Camp de Base in Hull. There are lots of them on the Ottawa, and at least one raft guide paddles one. We saw him run down the meat of Phil's, then take on Dragon's Tongue. I haven't seen anyone run Elevator Shaft in one, but I'm guessing that's been done.

Lastly, go to Gatineau Fest - Esquif has all their boats there and you can try out the Ledge if you get there early enough on Friday and talk to them.

[mapturbator]

a good friend of mine just ran the Nordheimer Race on the Cal salmon in a L'edge and that is definitly big water class 5 (google gaping maw and bloomers). He had a cam mounted on his stern but hasn't posted it yet.

Not a lot of us open boaters up here in N. Cal so he naturally won the canoe division. More competition next year would be awesome! Usually first weekend in May.