Heres a review worth checking out on our new baby SCUD boat by Blair Bowker. Hes been paddling the boat pretty much every day since we got the first ones out on a good variety of water. Low, medium and big pushy stuff as well. The rivers have been cranking over the last couple of months. He likes to go hard and nails some pretty sweet lines.
Since I last wrote my review, Mark Eames, Andi OConnell and myself have been down on the west coast, boating and giving the SCUD the west coast test it deserved.
We managed to get into some classic runs including Falls Creek, Anatoki, Upper Hokitika, and finished off with a second descent of the Upper Crooked River, which was last paddled ten years ago!
I dont say this lightly but the SCUD is by far the best creek boat I have ever paddled!. Perfect for the steep west coast runs. Every time I jumped into the SCUD to drop into a big class 5 rapid my first thought was "Im glad Im in the scud".
Contrary to my initial doubts about the high side walls, I actually found them a help especially when dropping into features I needed to travel across, and they caused me no problems. The SCUD boofs like a dream and its slower speed gave me more time in the long complex grade 5 rapids we paddled, especially in the Crooked where some of the rapids are well over 100m of class 5 before there’s an obtainable eddy. The flat hull is a dream for jumping holes, skimming well. The SCUD is definitely a last stroke boat — so you have to be prepared for that, and if you are youll enjoy creeking like never before!
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