Jackson Kayak

August 1, 2004

I wanted to wait until I got some quality time in my new All-Star to write an appropriate review. Well, the Ottawa has big waves, flatwater, small, and large holes, and just about everything in between. It even has some short creek runs that come in at high water.

Performance Goals for All-Star:

1.	Be the ultimate playboating machine
	a.	Flatwater: Super Fast, easily initiated ends, easy to bow and stern stall, easy to flatwater loop and go big on the loop.
	b.	Waves:
		i. Be as fast as possible where you don’t have to defend the bow or stern all of the time from pearling
		ii. Super loose
		iii. Go HUGE on edge to edge or straight on bounces
		iv. Do lightning quick turns for moves such as the Helix, flip turn, etc.
		v. Carve across the face with speed
		vi. Make small waves really easy to blunt, spin, helix, donkey flip, etc.
	c.	Holes
		i. Huge, easy loops
		ii. Super fast, easy to initiate cartwheel moves
		iii. Easy to pirouette and change edges for splits, tricky woo, phonix monkey, etc.
		iv. Easy to initiate with low edge dropped for moves like the McNasty, Lunar orbit, super clean cartwheels, etc.
	d.	Comfort
		i. Fit the appropriate range of paddlers with maximum comfort and control
		ii. Weigh less for quick moves and ease of moves

Results:

Overall- Five Stars+ , Yes, I am evaluating a design by David Knight and myself, so yes, you could say I am biased, but it is easy enough to test yourself.

Noteable points:

The boat initiates so easy like a low volume boat, and flatwaters incredibly easy and fast. The lean cleans are like ‘butter’.
The easiest flatwater loop I have ever known. Want to learn to flatwater loop (and transfer to holes this spring too?) then the All-Star is perfect. You can get into a bow stall SUPER EASY, it stalls really easy, and it loops like no boat before it!
It is really fast, but still bounces like a high rockered boat on waves. It took me a day to get the timing down to really go big in it on small waves and three days to get it down on big waves from the Fun. The edge to edge lift you get is crazy, where you can lift the bow way over your head before throwing blunts.
Cleaning the stern is so easy that it is a joke. I don’t know if I will ever use a stern initiation stroke again! It is so fast and smooth that I found it as easy to do a clean cartwheel as a normal one.
The boat goes huge on the loops! It has a small slicey boat feel on the ends with a big boat feel on the loops, front or back.
The top end size person to paddle the All-Star is about the same as the Fun (34, 12)

Summary:

Oh yea: Just in time for US Team Trials this year on the Black River in NY. This boat is the ticket to ride. The Star and Super Star will be coming out late summer also, so a size for everybody.

I will do a boat recommendation article by body size and paddling style soon.

Side view