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We have one in the hire fleet so you can try before you buy.
It won’t surprise you that the Waimak kayak has been
specifically designed for the iconic Waimakariri river, with the
intermediate Coast to Coast paddler in mind.
Steve Gurney and Gordon Robinson, along with “Think Kayaks Global”
(their joint venture partner) have spent more than a year carefully
combining their collective experience to bring this innovative
kayak to market.
Barracuda’s track record for producing high quality kayaks, and
their 20 year history with Coast to Coast paddlers is earned and
well deserved.
“We’ve targeted the Waimak squarely at the intermediate to advanced
paddler.
Our Barracuda Beachcomber sea kayak is hugely popular as a
beginner kayak in the race, with the next step up to the Enigma, a
faster plastic sea kayak. But then there was nothing to step up to
after that. So we’ve designed the Waimak for that gap in the range.
It is good stable intermediate kayak and is designed to be
comfortable as the Coast to Coast isn’t the shortest paddling
stage.
A typical Waimak paddler will have been paddling rivers for at
least 1 year, or perhaps this is their second or third Coast
to Coast.” Says Robinson.
“First and foremost, the huge advantage of the Waimak is that it is
lightweight plastic, so there won’t be any fibreglass repair bills.
It’ll bounce off those inevitable accidental bumps with rocks, and
the river rash in the shallow braids won’t bother it at all. In
fact the proprietary Barracuda plastic is slipperier over braided
rocks that fibreglass” Says Gurney.
“The Waimak is a racing kayak so it has none of the hatches, bungee
holders and fittings of our sea kayaks, which makes it even
lighter. So the weight of the vacuum plastic Waimak, is about the
same 15 to 16 kgs as a typical intermediate fibreglass boat”. Quips
Robinson. “We’re proud that we’ve been leading the world for 2
decades with our lightweight vacuum technology.”
“There’s a lot of innovation gone into the Waimak. And it’s obvious
from it’s eye-catching radical curves that we’ve been thinking
outside the square. Knowing the river so intimately and the
challenges that the river presents to paddlers, I’ve made sure the
boat is extra-responsive for the bluff rapids, and that it runs
fast in the shallow braids. The icing on the cake is that it had to
be extremely comfortable for the hours that we spend seated in it
for the race, so of course it comes standard with a Bumfortable
seat.”
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