The evolving crossover kayak category is whitewater’s newest boat category for whitewater’s oldest category. We’ve seen half-a-dozen new models emerge over the last few years—from Dagger’s Katana, Pyranha’s Fusion sit-on-top to Jackson’s Traverse. This growing breed of kayaks is our rotomolded polyethylene DeLorean time machine back to the future.
Last spring we took a handful of our favorite crossovers and headed downriver. To compare this burgeoning category we gathered a motley crew of paddlers that ranged in experience level from a never-successfully-rolled fisherman to a former pro freestyle athlete. Why such a range of paddlers? Because that’s who we think should be buying.
All the boats were about nine or 10 feet long with some configuration of deck rigging, skeg and stern compartment with bulkhead and hatch. The similarities ended there. One could pass for a creek boat, another charged across lakewater sections like nobody’s business. Another did a little of both, like a crossover of crossovers.
Over the years we’ve tried shorter, flatter, rounder, slicier and bouncier, and lately bouncy with a little more slice. It seems there are no limits to the mash-ups blending what have become traditional categories. Essentially, we’ve been giving whitewater paddlers newer and better options.
In 2008, the Liquidlogic Remix XP invited thousands more to the party. Originally crossover meant crossing over from recreational kayaking to whitewater. You may be surprised by how many people take department store kayaks on class II-III river trips. Now they too have newer and better options.
While I’m excited to see whitewater growing in new ways (or again in old ways), not everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. A few Rapid readers have commented disparagingly something along the lines of: “The kind of boat I want my buddy to paddle so he can carry my beer.” Read: Not a kayak for real boaters. Think: They don’t get it.
Attending the Gull River Festival a number of years ago I watched as a crew of young athletes—sent by their sponsors—arrived late Saturday morning to teach the clinics that were already on the water. There were hundreds of weekend paddlers working the different sections and dozens more in the lake below working on skills, drills and rolls. I overheard one of the pros ask the rest, “Who are all these losers? I don’t recognize anybody.” They didn’t get it either.
These losers watch live streaming freestyle events on their lunch hours. These losers get together every weekend at different put-ins. These losers are real boaters. And someday they may just want to do self-supported, class III-IV, multi-day river trips. Why? Because around a blazing campfire at a takeout on Sunday afternoon one of them will pull out a map, and on that map will be an unknown thin blue line longer than they can paddle in one day.
With so much innovation, marketing and hype surrounding hucking downright frighteningly high waterfalls and the leading edge of freestyle, crossovers offer something a little different. Newbie to expert, creeker to freestyle phenom—we can all get behind crossovers, can’t we?
Crossovers are our ticket back to before double fist pumps below 80-footers and before waiting in line for 45-second rides. Crossovers take us down rivers to a simpler time, a time when paddling was about exploration and freedom and adventure. And who couldn’t use a little more exploration, freedom and adventure? Not to mention a waterproof compartment for food and a sleeping bag.
Scott MacGregor is the founder and publisher of Rapid Media.
This article originally appeared in the 2016 Paddling Buyer’s Guide issue.
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