C-Forum

I have come across the opportunity to get a zoom. Was just curious about the opinions from others who have paddled this boat. Also, I am a 185lbs.

I've been paddling a Dagger Ovation. It was my first boat and for the most part the only boat I've paddled. I know paddling the zoom will be night and day in comparison to the ovation, but I've been looking for a more aggressive boat to step it up a bit.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice you might have.
Casey

Zoom is a hellva boat but it take a hellva paddler to handle it. It requires you to be on your toes always, even in an eddy. It will be a rought learning curve, but after you master it you should be able to handle about anything. The Ovaluation was about the worst boat open boat Dagger ever built, of course it was better than the best Kayak they ever made. I built the table for the Ovaluation and had to work with the mold a lot and the whole time I was building the table I was sayin to myself what the hades was he thinkin. If you get a Zoom it will be like you have never paddle an open boat after being in the Ovaluation. Get the Zoom, get good in it and you won't have to take a back seat to no one. Martine and Andrew both paddle a Zoom a lot and they swear by it, no braceing or backpaddlin allow, if you ain't diggin you dying.

Oh that's war the problem, too much time indoors with them bote fumes... while you was inside the shop, some of us were outside paddlin..... pleasse bebraceing, pleeze do sum backpaddlin, an if you alloways diggin you surley will dye

as for a Zoom - just try one, some love it and swear by it... and others, well - it's good to have and make your own opinion... just try b4u-buy, because it's light years removed from were your at now.. not saying you can't, just that these days Ovation's are a discount rack item (as you seem to already know)

... be careful of guys with snake oil, car salesmen, and guys that work for canoe company's - cause their stuff is always better than the other guys

Ovations (known as Slovations in my neck of the woods for their lack of speed) weren't and aren't that bad. Great beginner boat, excellent surf machine. I think a far worse Dagger design was the Impulse.

Going right to a Zoom from an Ovation could definitely be a challenge. Most people take an intermediate step by moving to an Ocoee.

I agree the ovation isn't that bad, some beginners appreciate it for its stability; one of the most flat and large boat in the middle section... Stability would then be the greater difference going to an zoom; I agree that an ocoee, prodigy, detonator would be better choices for an intermidiate paddler who doesn't want to spend half of its trips underwater.

Hmmm, might even encourage learning to roll. Oh wait, open boaters who want to roll usually switch to c1. Now there's an idead Casey!

Casey:
If you don't like the Zoom or if its not for you the guy who was interested in your Ovation would be interested in your Zoom. Roll, is that what you eat eat with Sunday dinner?
greybear

Casey, That's funny; we call them slow-vations here in Tejas too.
Good beginners' boat. One of my friend can hole-ride his all day.
I'd say go for the ZOOM, it will be a RADICAL change; but, if you cannot adapt... either sell it or store it and buy a Viper/Prelude/Ocoee/ect. until you can adapt. Especially if you can get it for a good price. It is supposed to be an awesome little boat.
I have a Viper11 and a Prelude; both of which, I highly recommend.
They too will be a somewhat less radical of a change.
But, change is good.

Buy an Ocoee or Viper 11...less of a learning curve.

T.Prater

I'll just see how it goes. I'm sure most of you will see me chasing it down the river on quiet abit. Make sure to get some pictures!

Gabe and Kevin.. Hopefully it won't be quiet as horrible as that day on the BSF

OK, I know I can log in on this topic...

I had my very first horrible failure of a solo canoe workshop in an Impulse. It almost made me quit canoeing forever.

I had my second (several years later) workshop on whitewater canoeing in an Ovation. It was fine. I paddled the Ovation for a couple of months.

I then moved on to an Outrage, which was really a comfortable move up from the Ovation. From there, I went to an Ocoee which was a fantastic blast of a boat. I love the Ocoee. I felt like a hotrod paddler even though I wasn't. The boat made me able to do so many things I couldn't do in the Outrage.

So, then I moved on to a Zoom this past summer. It took me down a half a class. I swim a lot more. I've learned a brace is good, in spite of what others here have said. But, I think once I've gotten comfortable in this boat, I'll be a really competent paddler. Plus, it's made me interested in learning to roll, which I think I'll be able to do eventually. It's given me goals, and that's really important. If I can get to be a good paddler with the Zoom, I'll be a good paddler, period.

Deb

oc1kcwlkr wrote:I'll just see how it goes. I'm sure most of you will see me chasing it down the river on quiet abit. Make sure to get some pictures!

Gabe and Kevin.. Hopefully it won't be quiet as horrible as that day on the BSF

Well it almost certainly has to be better than that day. I was starting to worry you'd drowned in flat water when you fell behind...

IMHO, u r an excellent weight for the zoom. I'm 210-220, which is way too heavy but have had the zoom as my main boat for the past 4 years,
It has zero intial stability ,, you'll always be on edge, you will brace from the get go, or its swimming time.
Sometimes I get in a zone and can handle any 'ol hole. See the CBoats '09 calendar, I'm the June centerfold having a perfect run over Ohiopyle Falls. On my next run, I broke my Werner paddle in half over my nose.
The control comes and goes (more often goes), and as my paddlin" bud PAC says, it's a matter of confidence. I was so confident after having it the 1st month I went and did the Upper Yough and got trashed well over a half dozen times. Haven't rtnd since....maybe this is the year? Other times, I can throw that thing around as if it were an appendage.
I've paddled most other open boats and if I were to buy a new one now it would likely be a Spanish Fly. But my zoom still has lots of life in it and I'm still relatively fit (which I believe you have to be to paddle it), so it will continue as my primary river vehicle, cuz when you ARE in the ZONE in a ZOOM, it is a hellava lot of fun and well worth the focused effort.

STOTR
Big Al

Well said Big Al ! As a former Zoom paddler I can 2nd his comments