I thought I would share my initial thoughts on changing from my Cruze to a Revo R3. My account maybe of interest to others relatively new to Surfski as I started out in Surfskis with the Cruze just over a year ago. I am 52 6ft tall and weigh 12.5 stone and have kayaked for the last couple of years mainly on sit ons fishing. I also did kayaking many years ago with the scouts.
I bought my Cruze in hybrid lay up back in August last year and immediately got on well with it using it in the sea and river and over the year have gained confidence to a point where I will look for a forecast of wave height up to around 0.8 metre for a little downwinding/wave running to give an indication of my ability.
I started to think earlier in the year I could maybe move to another slightly more demanding Surfski to try and continue my learning and improve my ability and the Revo R3 came about after being taken with the concept and liason with Alan Hunter who is now the UK agent.
For my initial outing after taking delivery of the much more pointy R3 I went to the river to make sure there were no mishaps first time out. I went to my local slipway and floated her and hopped in side saddle. (This was the first quite major difference I noticed with the seat being both narrower and more importantly significantly deeper than the Cruze and it felt slightly uncomfortable sitting side saddle)Anyway I swung my legs inboard as I have become accustomed to in the Cruze and immediately rolled out the other side of the R3 into the river to my shock but amusement of others.
After chatting with a Guy who was watching and was a Surfskier I nervously got back in side saddle got one leg in and then started to paddle with my other leg trailing for a couple of strokes and I was off. To me the R3 felt so twitchy not wanting to sit even upright without tipping off centre and I paddled nervously toward the lock. On the plus side it looks so racy and pointy from the cockpit and got a few admiring glances I think because I didn't dare look anything but straight ahead.
I got a little more confident with some forward momentum appearing to balance her out a little and made it to the pontoon at the lock. I then remembered a review where the tester said the Revo does feel a little nervous on centre but then with a little lean the secondary stability kicks in so I put the paddle on the side and let her lean over slightly to feel that secondary stability however I must have passed that stage quickly as I found myself swimming next to the boat before I knew what was happening.
My first trip to the sea was after another river trip and in very calm conditions but with that slight wallowing motion as I paddled parallel to the beach (close enough to swim to shore if needed) had me in probably 10 plus times in a 2 hour period.
At this stage my Cruze felt like an old cuddly mate and the R3 a giant swan vesta match and I wondered if I had made a mistake.
At this point I had a bit of fortune as I enquired about a cover for the R3 with Robin of Durban Surfski and had a conversation about my difficulties. Robin gave me some great tips like pivoting on my hips to aid balancing as I seemed to be trying to use my whole top half in one movement. He also suggested sitting in the ski without a paddle to quicken the balance learning.
These two things plus others have definitely helped and also shown me that some of this is in the mind as I could not look behind me even on the river as my brain knew I would fall out. However last time out in the river I went with a drysuit on so I was warm and had a play around after deliberately falling in I was amazed there was more balance than I thought. After we paddled off from that training exercise I could look behind me on the river so that was clearly just a mental block and nervousness.
As a result of the deeper seat it is also harder to get back in from a deep water remount but I find if done to a sequence it does work every time and on the plus side the deeper and narrower seat (34 inch waist) feels snugger and more comfortable to paddle in than the Cruze.
I have now used the R3 5 times on the river and 3 in the sea and have made some progression and last time out in the sea I can paddle a calm sea without falling in and once it chops up a little an occasional spill but as the wind increased to create a confused chop I was struggling and called it a day.
I have carried out some basic comparison between the Cruze and the R3 using mapmyride Gps and have found on the river where I can paddle the R3 at my full power it is roughly 8 % faster in a sprint and the same over a 2km timed run.
I have found with its bigger Surf rudder the R3 turns positively and am hoping my improvement continues so I can see if she goes downwind as well as she looks. I will be keeping the Cruze however for the foreseeable future.
