While the Wave Sport team might not be lucky enough to be down here in Ecuador paddling with Team ERA…they do seem to be having a blast paddling in West Virginia. And working on the 2008 Fuses. Check out updates on their hard work at the Team Site: Doubleyouess.
From the Field: A Review from Tony Turner
I am a loyal EZG 50 fan and love how someone like me can get in and play and river run with ease. But there is a new boat in the line up that is going to freaking rock!! The Fuse.
I was skeptical about the Fuse at first because of my loyalty to the EZG 50. I initially tried the Fuse 56 gallon boat and felt I could not make it do
what I wanted. River running was fine, but playboating was really hard.
Since I was used to the EZG 50, I thought that I would need the 56 and not the 48. I recently took the 48 to the whitewater park in Charlotte and was blown away!! I was flatwater cartwheeling, cartwheeling in the holes,
catching all of my eddies, ferrying like a champ, and overall river running
was perfect. I honestly have not had that much fun kayaking in a while!.
Now I am 6’0, 170 lbs, 32 inseam, and wear a 91/2- 10 size shoe. I felt like I would be on the upper range of that boat, but was comfy once inside.
I would like to know what kind of rivers we will be paddling because I am
thinking about bringing this prototype down with me to Ecuador for Steve and you guys to check out. I can’t wait to get back in this boat.
Attached is some feedback from a whitewater park loyalist in Charlotte.
Also, here is a link to the Team Dagger site where we got a little buzz from a local roll clinic I attended.
http://www.teamdagger.com/ssp/news?news_id=188
See you soon!! Tony
More feedback from boat demo:
Thanks again for letting me try out the new boat this weekend! I really
enjoyed it. Here are my thoughts:
It was a little big for me, but that would easily be fixed with some extra
padding in the toes and hip area. Despite being pretty loose in the boat,
I didn’t have much trouble rolling it. (A couple of times I had to try more
than once). To me, this means that the boat must be pretty easy to roll,
but I used to paddle a Wavesport T1 and every boat seems easy to roll after that one.
It seems super stable. Maybe even more stable than my EZG42. In fact, it sort of reminded me of my ezg42, except that it seemed a little shorter and wider. I caught the back edge a little more when I was trying to spin than I did in my EZG (which flipped me every time), but I seemed to catch the front edge less than the EZG when I was ferrying. I had more trouble catching waves on the fly than with my EZG, but I’m sure some of that is getting used to the boat. It surfed nice and seemed fast for its size. I was also quite tired after playboating most of the day, now that I think about it, so a fair test would have been at the beginning of the day when I first started paddling instead of after 4+ hours. J
I liked it. It was a very comfortable boat. Is the foot thing something
you put in there for you or is it part of the outfitting? Whatever it
was, it was nice and seemed more comfortable than foam or beans. My feet /shins definitely weren’t crammed in there like they are in my EZG. That was nice. Oh, and the backband was more comfortable and didn’t slip like the one that I used to have in my EZG.
So. I’m 5’7 and weigh about 130, so I weigh a little less than you. If
I was going to buy one, I’d probably want it to be a little smaller
(preferably not quite as wide), but I have that problem with a lot of boats.
All in all, it was a great boat!
Janet