Shaneslogic

Whitney and I went to Rock Island Tuesday and Wednesday for a couple reasons. The sun was out and the temperatures were headed for 70 degrees and I hadn’t paddled my Vision since Africa because we have had so much good water on the Green until recently. These boats were some of the first production Visions out of the mold and that is always exciting. Its nice to get out in the boat that will be sent to all the paddlers and feel confident and good about the boat that you are putting out there.
Whitney had hurt her shoulder recently so she was a little tentative and nervous about getting in a new boat but she loves surfing waves so much that it overcame any nerves that she had. She wasn’t into going in to the hole but she was ready to surf some waves. She hadn’t paddled the Vision much in prototype form because she travels alot with the World Class Kayak Academy and wasn’t around during much of the prototyping. The first things that I noticed was that the boat looked like it was easy for her to throw around, roll, and just handle. When she got out on the waves she took a couple surfs and then found the edges and all of the sudden she was carving sweet little turns, spinning, and starting to throw some moves, but had to back off a little so she wouldn’t hurt her shoulder. Here is some footage from Rock Island. Its some of the first footage that we have had available of the Vision 44.
Visions at Rock Island

Yeah I know that isn’t a photo of Pat on the Nile its yours truly on the Nile.

Thanks Tanya Shuman for the Photo.

While I was down in Africa I was able to spend a couple days on the river with Pat. We paddled the upper stretch down to a beautiful glassy wave in a rapid called the Ugly Sisters and then we went down to Nile Special and spent a couple days there. The rapids were super fun and you can’t beat paddling in a rash guard all the time.

The craziest thing about paddling with Pat is that you get decensitized to air. I mean he is getting 3 and 4 feet of air on a regular basis so you sort start to think ho hum but its unreal. Pretty much every ride he takes he does a move that makes you go, oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh! You know what I mean. I think he has an extra butt bouncing gene or something.

Here is some of the video that I shot of him while we were down in Africa.

Pat On The Nile

One of the coolest days on my trip was a day where I was paddling with Marlow and Pat. It was so cool to see the completely different styles of the two different paddlers. Marlow is the groove master. He throws lots of clean moves and changes up the variety and throws in alot of little carves or jibs as I call them. While Pat is powerful. You can see the move coming from a mile away as Pat gets his body moving into a trick. He gets a huge bounce and really knows how to throw his body to get everything he can out of a move. Together these guys really are doing their part to change the sport. For the past year they have been really pushing the combo move thing. Pat won the IR Big Gun Show with what he calls the “Bread and Butter”, which is a Pan Am (Silly Flip) into a Back Stab or Back Pan Am. Hell I’ll put that link in here also. Watch the last couple shots of this move and you will see he pretty much misses both ends of the boat on both moves. This is really one of the coolest things I have ever seen done in a playboat.

” The Bread and Butter”

Marlow has been doing some other combos and he pulled his “Toast and Jam” while I was there several times. Its in this video from the last article. Its a low Clean Roundhouse or Blunt into a Helix. Its a really cool and complex move. Very fun to watch though.

Marlow On The Nile

Anyway just a few good clips that I thought you all might enjoy.

Shane