A review of the Big Dog Flux, a whitewater kayak, from Rapid magazine.
Honda Racing fairing kits, a Guinness record setting English Channel kayak crossing, motorcycle land speed record attempts and benchmark- setting whitewater, sea, surf and squirt kayak designs. What do these things have in common? For the players behind British upstart Big Dog Kayaks, it’s the seeming contradictions that are the strengths of this emerging brand. Big Dog’s line-up of eye-catching kayaks benefits from the diverse pedigrees of its designers. Popping up on English boating forums as “3wisemonkeys,” co-owners Peter Orton and Jason Buxton and sales manager Andy Whiting are all former members of the British freestyle kayak team. Orton and Buxton are also ex R&D department heads at P&H and Pyranha, respectively, while Whiting was involved with Riot and Peak UK.
The company’s stealthy launch into a severely depressed market in the spring of 2009 surprised many industry pundits, but Orton stated he was excited by his fledgling brand’s fresh, if inauspicious, start: “It will live or die entirely on the strength of what we do.”
Playful riverrunner
Three seasons on, the Big Dog website bills the brand “Britain’s fastest growing whitewater kayak company.” Cheeky. Although the boats are still scarce in North America, Big Dogs are creeping across the pond with containers of Orton and Buxton’s popular Valley sea kayak brand.
So what are Big Dogs like? Former Riot frontman Corran Addison says they look like Dagger bred with Fluid (actually, being Corran, he writes on a U.K. forum, “Dagger had sex with a Fluid!”). The functional, no frills outfitting in our test boat used a twin ratchet backrest, aggressive thigh grips and a full plate footrest to adjust for a positive fit.
The Flux is Big Dog’s offering in the one-boat does- it-all “playful river runner” category. The combination of full volume and a planing hull is reminiscent of popular river runners like the Diesel, Mamba or Remix, but the Flux’s highly rockered hull has a feel all its own. Forgiving rails make for effortless crosscurrent charging, spinning on a wave and rolling, but less-than snappy eddy turns. Keeping your weight forward and driving aggressively from the bow avoids washing out on eddy lines.
An ancient Chinese proverb states: A dog in a kennel barks at its fleas; a hunting dog does not feel them. Raised on lean times, Big Dog isn’t whimpering at its biggest hurdle—getting butts in the boats. As Orton, Buxton and Whiting doggedly attack the North American market, expect to see more of these puppies in the future.
BIG DOG FLUX M / L SPECS
LENGTH: 7’3” / 7’7”
WIDTH: 24.5” / 25.5”
WEIGHT: 34 / 36 lbs
PADDLER: 100–190 / 150–240 lbs
MSRP: $1,049 US
This article originally appeared in Rapid, Summer/Fall 2011. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
