I’m a smaller paddler, weighing in at 69kg and only 172cm tall; now many of you larger paddlers out there might be saying, “you lucky little !@#$”, because I can fit into nearly any boat. Sure this is true for playboats and basic river runners. But as far as creek boats are concerned it is very difficult for me to find a good fit with so many large creek boats on the market; which often make me look like a small child whenever I sit in 80gallons or more.
Now the small Solo is fantastic for me and anyone smaller; however, when looking for something faster with more space for over-nighting and so on, it is the medium Solo which I find is truly tremendous. After a close run in with a siphon it was also the medium which was responsible for getting my paddling confidence back.

This year has been a great year for rain in South Africa and our rivers have been swollen for months now and a larger boat suits the increased volume perfectly. I have been lucky enough to spend considerable amounts of time in the Lowveld paddling the Upper Sabie and Mac Mac rivers as well as in the former Transkei region, where arguably the toughest and most remote rivers in the country lie. The medium held out perfectly - very quick, boofs without any real effort and fast to resurface. It took virtually no time at all before I was back to normal hucking bigger and better stuff than ever before. </span></p>
The medium is an ideal expedition boat for smaller paddlers and brilliant kayak for bigger paddlers to take on lower volume creeks – in short it is a perfect medium for any boater (excuse my lame pun).

Enjoy the pictures.
Scott Reinders

sailing over Double Drop on the U2

Styling the 1st rapid of the upper Tsitsa

Quick to re-surface on the sticky “Greg’s Rapid” U1

being silly

Good day on the river

Posted on August 5th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Reviews