I couldn’t post our first rough water comparison video because I did not have releases from people paddling the non-Epic kayaks, and I did not want to show them in a bad light without their permission. We pulled the second version from our site after complaints by the manufacturer of the boat we used for comparison.

 

We wanted to do these videos because of the misperception, perpetuated by some, that “our sea kayaks are only made for speed on flat water”. The misunderstanding was delivered home when Brian Houston, our sales manager, was at a local paddling session on the ocean with his Epic kayak, while leaving an old British-style boat on his roof racks. One misinformed fellow paddler commented, “Why are you leaving your sea kayak on the car?” Brian had to explain that he was purposely taking the Epic boat because he found that it performed far better in ocean conditions.

 

People who have paddled and raced our V10 series surf skis know that we design boats that are superior to anything else on the market for both upwind and downwind ocean conditions. However, traditional sea kayakers think that if it doesn’t look like a traditional Aleut, Greenland or British kayak, it can’t perform well in open water.

 

Thus we had to set the record straight by showing a real life comparison. You can find the discussion and links on the pages here or here. Or here are the direct links to the video and here with larger wave conditions. Realize that these clips are not staged – we just had the two kayaks paddle side by side so you can see for yourself the differences in how they handle the waves.

 

I had to throw out the best footage from one session when Brian rolled his conventional kayak just as a wave approached. Brian replied “ I was tired of getting slammed in the chest by the waves in my British style boat”. Meanwhile the paddler in the Epic kayak was handling the waves with ease. The real test will be to paddle them. We welcome anybody with another sea kayak to come paddle with us and see the difference first hand!

 

Finally no session is complete without a few bloopers. The first is of John who surfed an Epic in too far – the bow of his 16X hit the sand and John pitchpoled over the top! The second is of Brian getting broached and rolled repeatedly in his British-style boat – nearly crashing into the pier where I was filming!

 

Enjoy!