It won’t surprise you that the Waimak kayak has been specifically designed for the iconic Waimakariri river, with the intermediate to advanced Coast to Coast paddler in mind. The Barracuda Beachcomber sea kayak has been hugely popular as a beginner kayak in the race, with the next step up to the Enigma, a faster plastic sea kayak. But then there was nothing to step up to after that. To address this the team at Barracuda developed the Waimak to fill that gap in the range. It is good stable intermediate kayak and is designed to be comfortable as the Coast to Coast isn’t the shortest paddling stage.A typical Waimak paddler will have been paddling rivers for at least 1 year, or perhaps this is their second or third Coast to Coast.“First and foremost, the huge advantage of the Waimak is that it is lightweight plastic, so there won’t be any fibreglass repair bills. It’ll bounce off those inevitable accidental bumps with rocks, and the river rash in the shallow braids won’t bother it at all. In fact the proprietary Barracuda plastic is slipperier over braided rocks that fibreglass” Says Gurney. The Waimak is a racing kayak so it has none of the hatches, bungee holders and fittings of our sea kayaks, which makes it even lighter. So the weight of the vacuum plastic Waimak, is about the same 15 to 16 kgs as a typical intermediate fibreglass boat. There’s a lot of innovation gone into the Waimak. And it’s obvious from it’s eye-catching radical curves that we’ve been thinking outside the square. Knowing the river so intimately and the challenges that the river presents to paddlers, I’ve made sure the boat is extra-responsive for the bluff rapids, and that it runs fast in the shallow braids. The icing on the cake is that it had to be extremely comfortable for the hours that we spend seated in it for the race, so of course it comes standard with a Bumfortable seat. Steve Gurney and Gordon Robinson, along with “Think Kayaks Global” (their joint venture partner) have spent more than a year carefully combining their collective experience to bring this innovative kayak to market. Specifications Length: 5.6 meters (not counting the rudder) Width: 56cm meters at the seat and 58cm across the back deck Kayak weight: 16.5kg Material: Vacuum Thermo-formed plastic – (heat resistant to over 160 degrees Celsius) Features Bumfortable seat as standard New rudder design especially for the new kayak – spring loaded New slim line flush grab bar handles Drain aide channels pooling water for easy removal Side anti crush reinforcing to create cage surrounding for the paddler (we want you to be safe!)
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