Wavesport Project X 64

I love kayaking. I enjoy getting out on the river. Heck even when my day doesn't go right I just relax and soak in the place kayaking took me. I really enjoy screwing around kayaking as well. Boofing rocks, ripping into eddies, stern squirts, cartwheels when I can pull them off... I love playing around and just having a hoot with kayaking. It fills me with joy, gets my adrenaline needs out of the way, and helps me reset from the drag of the work week. So, when I tell you I want to take this boat into my back yard and shoot it full of holes... understand damn well how frustrating and shitty this boat has been for me.

This boat was my first play boat. I picked it up not knowing shit about playboats. I only bought it because I had really maxed out all the fun I could have at the pool in a creeker, and was ready to progress my kayaking further with my practice sessions. I struck a deal with the local shop on this older model boat from the now defunct Wavesport boat. Pay $500 brand new (steal of a price) and bring it back and only pay a 10% restocking fee if I couldn't roll it. Got it, got it in the pool, rolled it, and had fun playing around.

I buy a lot of boats. It's no secret. So I got this, then picked up a 4-fun, then started playing around with other slicier boats... and this one kind of fell by the wayside. it was clunky with lots of odd volume. I remember deciding to play with this boat after sitting on it for a while. I got in and it was an instant turn off. Wacking my knuckles on it, couldn't get a good hip snap cause it was so deep, it felt like garbage. Paddling it on rivers a few times, it just wasn't all that exciting. I hadn't paddled enough other boats to know it when I first got in this boat, but I'd come to hate this boat.

The good about this boat:

It is the most comfortable playboat I've been in. The metric shit tons of volume right around the center of it and the knees gives you a LOT of room to fit yourself. With happy feet in there, it was just right. It's also REALLY easy to move the seat around, and the hip pads, and with happy feet in this boat I was perfect.

It's relatively slicey compare to the modern stupid shirt high volume boats. I've been able to hit a few cartwheels with it.

It's quite stable as long as you're dead center in it. I've run some fairly rowdy sections of river without major drama in it, but it's also not al lthat fun. Just stay centered, point where you want, and instead of playing around in the rapid, spend all of your energy keeping yourself in that just right centered position right over the boat. It's... doable, but fun? Not really.

The plethora of bad about this boat:

Fuck rolling this piece of junk. Maybe if you're taller it'd be easier, but for me at 5'10", the boat was so deep and I was so in this thing that rolling SUCKED. I just can't take full advantage of my hip snap as the boats high deck and cockpit rim literally prevent me from getting a full extension. Sure, I could roll it in a pool no problem. Hell I can (and have) rolled sit on top kayaks in a pool. The problem gets when you're out in the water. It just isn't near as easy as other boats, so when the current isn't working in your favor, this boat does NOT work with you. My 4 fun is vastly superior, and i'm over the weight limit for that boat even. Fuck this thing. I've never carped more rolls and gulped more water as the last time I took this boat out on the river.

Stern squirts... nope. Playing around on river features? Not really. Boofing up and flaring around on rocks and such, nope. As far as I can tell, this boat just wants to be in a hole or on a wave surfing. Everything else along the way, hell no.

Big volume, small package. Woohoo... get tons of air... everyting else along the way you can just eat a dick at though.

Running rivers. Sure? As mentioned above and throughout, this boat has tons of volume centered right around the cockpit. This means as long as you stay centered, this boat does great. However, it's not all that fun to run a rapid more focused on staying centered than moving around it or doing anything. See that wave train? Want to boof over the top of that big old fat wave? Maybe screw around a bit in it? Don't. Stay focused on being in that center, or you'll eat a dick. Oh and when you do eat a dick, you'll spend the rest of the wave train carping rolls instead of rolling back up to run it.

In short, don't buy this boat. Shoot it with a gun, give it a viking burial, make it into a planter in front of your house... but don't bother boating in it. It's garbage.