Old Man River Workin' on the Clean
Back on the blog again. Still trying to fill you all the way in on the trip to Canada where we were testing the Biscuit. Like I said before the water was not ideal for the big stuff on the Ottawa but the smaller playspots were on. So it was a great testing for that. But we were getting a little concerned that we wouldn't find a nice big wave for us to really check out its big wave potential. And then we got the call from Guillaume. High Tension Wave was coming in on the Gatineau River. Marlow's eyes were lighting up and non of the rest of us had ever paddled this wave but I had seen tons of photos and videos from the spot so we knew it would be good but we didn't realize how good it would be.
Yep its that good
But first lets get some good old fashioned Canadian culture under our belts. We were traveling in the middle of no where and this kayak drew us in. We didn't really know what it said but we did see the sign for Poutine. If you don't know what it is then you need to go to Canada just for a paddling trip and check it out because just like the paddling it is decadent, rich, basic, carnal, and heavenly all in one fell swoop. First you take french fries which we all know so well, then you throw on top some cheese curds (the white stuff in the photos), and then, why not, toss some gravey over the whole thing. In fact I am embarrassed that someone in the south didn't come up with this one first. Poutine, yes, is grits, biscuits, sausage, fries, moonpies, rc cola, and humidity all rolled into one. Its the bomb.
Parle Francais?
See if you understand the menu
Mmmmmm so much goodness in one place
Yonton in a state of lovin' it
It looks like heaven to me
Oh yeah back to the High Tension Wave on the Gatineau River. Lets just say 6 feet high, smooth and glassy, eddie service if you are on it, and it you aren't there is an eddie with a 60 second portage back to the wave just behind the next rock. Theres a pile to land all your tricks in if you can't land them clean. The good folks can stay on this wave to seemingly forever, the front surfers can stay on this wave to eternity and yep the Remix XP can surf it as well.
Marlow cleaning it up
Mar trying out another color
backwards, fakie, switch, whatever... clean
ollie off the rib
So obviously this was an amazing place to test the big wave ability of the Biscuit. We are maybe half way through the process of testing this boat out and things are looking really good. The first proto showed that the boat needed a trim in volume to balance the boats out. While I was in Colorado I was able to paddle in several awesome spots during the high water season but most notably was the Glenwood wave all the way from about 12 grand up to nearly 21 thousand. We also paddled it on big water on the Arkansas River. The Salida hole was working, and the Numbers were high but there were tons of different spots to play. These later protos were more balanced volume wise and I tried to increase the loosness. At the High Tension wave the looseness showed and all types of moves were working well. On the next round I am going to work on the edges a little. They are a little too dominant right now, especially near the ends of the boat. So the next transition will be perfecting the edges so that they are positive on a wave and easy to use otherwise as well as increasing the bounce and speed from the point where we are now. Hopefully I will have the next round of protos at the Gauley. In the mean time check out lots of photos from the trip up to the Gatineau River. There are also a bunch of other photos from the trip to Canada.
Enjoy it
Shane
