C-Forum

If someone has experience with it, could they fill me in. I have paddled the Probe 12 and the Outrage, as well as the Ovation from that era. Stability, speed, manouverablity, etc. There is a used one for sale close by but I wouldn't get to try it. Thabnks.

I like the Shaman. The original Shaman was a composite boat which is still made by Hemlock Canoe. I have one (probably the first one made judging by the serial number). It was a 4 meter long boat (13' 2") to meet the existing minimum length requirements for the combined slalom/downriver racing class for which Harold Deal designed it.

I have heard that when Mohawk Canoe decided to mold it they wanted to market it as a "12 foot boat" so about 5 inches was taken off the overall length; the Royalex boat is 12' 7" in length. As for any Royalex version of a composite hull, the bow is blunter and the lines not as sharp.

The Shaman is fast for a whitewater boat. Definitely faster than the Probe and probably as fast as the Outrage. The hull is highly asymmetrical and paddling it takes a bit of getting used to. The hull is highly swedeform and significantly narrower in the bow than the stern which makes cross-strokes easier and adds to hull speed. The rocker is also asymmetrical with more rocker in the stern than the bow. Although it is certainly not a sharp chine boat it does have a slight bit of edge, and what edge there is is asymmetrically placed and centered ahead of amidships. The boat responds differently with weight shifts. Leaning forward tends to engage the narrower and slightly edgy bow end for eddy turns. Leaning back on the more rockered and rounded stern frees up the bow when surfing.

Overall I find the boat pretty user friendly. I have sometimes found that the narrower bow tends to knife into wave trains and it is sometimes necessary to weight the stern a bit to free the bow to reorient it.

The Shaman is an awesome boat. I would say it's faster than an outrage but not as dry. It excels on upstream maneuvering. Overall, it's just a really fun boat to paddle, especially compared to the barge like nature of the probe. If it's a good price in good shape you wont regret buying it!

I miss mine...overall a great design much faster & more nimble than the probe, rolls faster too.

The only negatives I had were:

- that the rear of the boat became quite sticky when side surfing in holes.
- sometimes it could be difficult to release the front chines when on an offside carve