Craig Smerda wrote:yes... I hear you both on the glide/speed issue... but you'd want to be able to turn it quickly right?
My 2 cents... I paddle C1 almost exclusively on anything harder than class III. Why? Because I like taking wet lines! Plugging holes, riding big waves, surfing holes, etc. And I hate bailing. And well, maybe I'm kind of a puss sometimes, whatever. I have converted many boats, creekboats, playboats, river runners, etc. All of my conversions are great boats to paddle in different conditions. Not once have I thought, "oh geez i can't make that move because my boat (c1) was designed as a kayak and can't do that anymore". In a C1 you have advantages and disadvantages, but as long as you pick your conversion boat out wisely, you should have a fun ride (i.e. wide boat, not super duper sharp edges, whatever).
While a C1 specific design might be great, I wonder if it will really appeal to everyone's interests. One person's idea of stability, speed, agility can easily differ from another's.
With the kayak manufacturers tweaking designs every year and marketing the heck out them to the point that kayakers feel like that new design just might let them boof or style a move that they've screwed up time and time again.... whats the point in making a C1 specific boat that might cost me $1,000 or more when I can get someone's 1 year old Nomad, Everest, Burn, Karnali, Remix, Jefe, Blunt, whatever for like $300-$500. Especially considering the frequency with which I break my creek boats, usually 1 a year.
I would recommend telling your nose-plug wearing kayak buddies that the reason why they messed up that one important move is really their outdated boat design, not their paddling skills. Encourage them to buy new boats every year so that the C1 community can stay strong and have lots of options. I just feel like C1, OC1, OC2, OC3, whatever will always be a smaller subset of the sport and maybe sometimes we have to recognize that kayaking drives the majority of the market. Sorry I don't mean to burst anyone's bubbles, I'm just saying that I'm not complaining about my conversion boats and I don't want a 9-10' long creek boat.