I got a chance to paddle a Wheel Boy on Saturday and have a few impressions to share. Thanks to Bill Reap for bringing it down to Columbia and working around a family visit to the zoo. First a few things about me -
* I'm 5'10" tall and squashed the scales at 217# that morning, I've got thick legs, too
* I'm not a hardcore playboater, mainly a surfer, squirter, some flatwater play
* the day prior was the first time I had been in my own playboat since September (haven't paddled anything under 4 meters but once or twice since then either...)
In the parking lot : Whoa, this is a tiny boat, the smallest I've paddled. I'm not sure I would fit in a kayak of similar size (size 12 dogs). The cockpit was smaller than I expected, but big enough - if I fit in it, anyone will. The boat I tried had thigh straps, but I didn't feel the need to use them, I was snug enough under the cockpit rim to "get a grip". Bigger guys may have less outfitting to do. The foam on the pedestal and under the knees not minicell (at least not the kind I'm used to), but a spongier, grippier material - maybe neoprene foam? Very comfy. The pedestal is well made. Bill had added some minicell to make the seat higher (1/2"). The boat was heavier than expected given it's size, but this was not noticed again.
In flat water : I'm pretty sure I'm over the top end of the weight range - the bow and stern submerge significantly when I lean forwards of backwards. Plow squirts are automatic. This is a very stable boat - however, larger conversions are similarly stable. Forward speed suffered because it sank if I was not leaning back, as with other short boats, you must stay centered. However, after saying that, the boat was a lot faster than I expected - I was able to make headway even with the bow submerged! No issues with the roll - I thought with a boat this small I might overroll it the first time, but no.
I tried the flatwater moves I know - stern squirts, bow stalls, bow pirouettes, and cartwheels - and considering it has been 8 months or more since I played around with those moves, and I'm not very good at most of them in the first place, I felt they all fell into one of two categories - 1. easy or 2. they would come easily with some practice. My cartwheels were not vertical but, and this was a first for me, I was able to keep the boat spinning without the paddle (until I got dizzy and fell over
) It felt like it would be fairly stable on end, given it's size - I wasn't keeping it over either end very long, but felt like I could with some practice.
In current : The size was an issue for me - I had a tough time ferrying in any current or waves - however the stability made cross strokes comfortable. I could keep an angle, just could not make headway. The waves I could get to I pearled on pretty badly - again, size. The side surfing/spinning test was insufficient (the hole was pretty tiny), but the boat felt very smooth. When sroking backwards in I found it surprisingly fast and controllable.
The level was the same as the day before when I had paddled my Score and I tried to get to a wave that I'd surfed in that boat - I couldn't get there, but admittedly, the day before it was tough getting there in the Score and the rides were short. Given the size of the boat, the water temps and that I was in short sleeves, I passed on running our larger rapid (III+)...
I had a chance to paddle a Super EZ in similar conditions and I would say that the Wheel Boy was certainly faster and easier to control the direction/maintain angle. When it came to flat water moves, I felt that the Super EZ wanted to pop out of the water rather than stand - the Wheel Boy wins again.
I'm a bit to big, heavy at least, for this boat but was impressed with the speed and handling. I'm not sure how Marko squeezed that much speed out of that small a boat ! I can't wait to try out the Big Boy on a proper wave... Maybe I should go on that diet I've been postponing . Nahh, I'll just wait for the Big Boy
We shot some still and some video on flatwater, I'll try to get them posted somewhere soon.
