Jason took the new Burn out a couple times last week. He was pretty surprised for such subtle differences how different of a boat it is. Of course that is also probably due to the fact he has been paddling the old Burn so long. What he noticed right off the start is how nimble it is but at the same time it tracks really well and mentioned it was probably the best tracking creek boat he has paddled.
He mentioned that the boat flies well and boofs like a dream! When asked about the rolling potential of the boat, he really did not want to test the rolling ability but got to do so anyway and found out it rolls lightning fast.
He can't wait to get it out on the West Prong and some of the other boulder garden creeks to see how it performs.
Wayner was confined to tamer water on the Nantahala and enjoyed paddling the boat just as much. This is going to be the novice and intermediate kayakers dream boat. The hull is the perfect blend of forgiveness and performance. Even with the raised edges (compared with the previous version of the Burn) the boat still carves well and helps give the paddler confidence through great secondary stability when the boat is on edge.
The boat front surfs easily and spins well if you’re into that. As Jason mentioned, it climbs over rocks so well that you might think it has an auto-boof button built in. With just a paddling jacket on, I couldn’t convince myself to do roll practice in the Nantahala, aka. icy river of the noonday sun, so had to take Chuck Spornick’s word for it. He said it was the easiest boat he had ever tried to roll…and he’s tried a few!
I may be able to add more about my thoughts on the rolling attributes of the boat after a pool session with the gang from Davidson College on Thursday evening. One thing I can say for sure is that the new Burn will max out the Big Boomin’ Fun scale on anybody’s fun meter.
Better try one now before they are all gone. Come on over and take an NOC demo for a spin!
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