As I was leaving for my trip up to Canada to test the new Biscuit protos I got a couple of the new production Remix XPs to bring along as well. I figured they would be fun to have, because of all the flatwater on the Ottawa and Marlow said that the fishing was good. You can't playboat all day every day, can you? Well I can't.
The XP is based on the Remix. It has almost the exact same lines and proportions as the Remix. All we changed really was the width, length, and I did peak the ends of the bow a bit to help it track just a little better. Woody and I have paddled these boats in a bunch of places on fairly hard whitewater and they have performed really well as a whitewater boat, then when you hit the flatwater you just drop the skeg and chill.
The first time we had them out was on the Ottawa river. Marlow was fired up to do some fishing, and the sun was setting after a full day of playboating so it was all relaxing. Except for the fact that we needed to get down through Phil's hole. The boat was paddling well though so Marlow got the idea to try to surf the Hero Wave above Phil's. Not a big deal but if you wash off too far one way you have a decent chance of ending up in a big hole. Fortunately there is a big pool below the rapid. But what happened was that the XP surfed the wave like a dream. Mar was able to cruise around on the wave and "carve" about. Then a really funny thing happened Marlow got this idea, "hey I am going to drop the skeg". Thats when the really funny part started. The boat tracked perfectly on the wave. Marlow picked up his paddle, and of course the first thing you do is "air guitar", then he pretended to fall asleep, and then lay his paddle down and just sit there while the boat just cruise surfed a nice wave above Phil's hole. Next, "lets test the hatch and spray skirt". Marlow takes off and drops through Phil's backwards and everthing holds on fine.
Of course after that its back to serious fishing. We cruised the flats from McCoys back down to CJ's house fishing all the way. Mar caught a couple of fish looking like the true outdoorsman that he is and actually caught a pretty nice fish but after getting it in the boat it got away while shooting pictures of all things. After our first test of the final production Remix XP 10 we are giving it a huge thumbs up and who would have thought it would surf waves like that. Self support on the Canyon here we come. Hope everyone's summer is going well. Shane
