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Independent Playak Review: Riot Astro 54.

Hype

From the Riot website: "Cruise up to your favorite playspot and you'll realize what the Astro 54's subtle release edges and cleverly flared sidewalls are designed for... straightup sickness! Steve Fisher's exacting specs insured that the flat hull and step rocker profile of the Astro 54 were matched with just the right amount of volume. Big water buseater or low water Hurley the Astro is designed to snap, crackle, pop."

Specs

Length: 188 cms / 6'2"
Width: 63.5 cms / 25"
Height: 33 cms / 13"
Volume: 204 ltr / 54 gall.
Weight: 15 kgs / 33 lbs.
Cockpit:
Length: 84 cms / 33.1"
Width: 46 cms / 18.1

See also the Playak boat database.

First Impressions

The Astro, based on my initial look at it, left me with the impression that this was to be Riot's new ‘friendly' playboat - its shape shows large central volume, small slicy ends with a wide-scoop top profile, medium-long flat hull segment, and some balanced kick rocker on either end. In terms of shape, it looked like another spud boat, without much to distinguish it from all the prior offerings.

…only there's some differences: a look at the hull reveals Riot's spin disc, but a look up the chines reveals a completely different transition from hull to sidewall - instead of a flat hull with hard rails as with the Flair and Air, there's a flat center-disc with a transition to the chines, which also sport a second release channel all the way around the boat. The effect is that we trade away the 'crisp' carve of the Air/Flair for a loose, poppy boat that is fast on the steep wave, and only takes a bit of activation to get it to 'load up' and lunge off the face of the wave. This is a big-trick boat with a forgiving temperament.

According to the Riot guys, the softer chine and more forgiving chine profile is designed to make landing those big tricks more reliable ...and they've got something here - it's just not what I expected. I was expecting a bland 'forgiving' boat that sacrificed performance for forgiveness, but got a boat with some character and some interesting potential. I learned a bunch while paddling this boat.

On the Wave

In my earnest desire to provide the best possible review (and because I don't need much of an excuse, to be honest), I selected the Skook wave as my testing grounds. The wave is variable in speed, height, and there's also the tour - big honkin' crashing waves, whirlpools, eddylines as weird as weird can be ...and the wave - it's just plain goodness.

On the wave, the Astro has a loose, wandery feeling and a tendency at lower speeds to auto-blast and bounce. At times (when I wanted to carve with speed, for example), this wasn't what I wanted. To experience anything resembling a real carve, I had to heel the boat over quite a bit - this worked best when the boat was already at planing speed.

My first impression on the wave was that it would be difficult to get this boat set up for a good airblunt - without the carve, how is it possible to go big? What I discovered is that this boat is just plain hoppy, and that with only limited setup you could get this boat airborne. I initiated a bouncing carve and the boat lunged into the air, surprising me - who needs a big aggressive setup?

This meant I just threw big tricks wherever I could, and threw bigger tricks than I've ever thrown - and yes, I had a lot of fun.

On steeper waves and in planing mode, the boat is loose and fast, with nothing but the spin disc engaged. In between, there's a whole world of dynamic behavior that the boat does almost automatically. Where this boat becomes interesting is that it's got two complete release edges- one at the edge of the flat hull section and one at the edge of the chine. Sit forward, and nothing's touching the water but the flat section of the hull- the boat is at its fastest here - clean spins and grinds become the order of the day. Rocker back a bit, the speed of the hull changes instantly as the stern vacuums in, and if you've got enough wave to work with, the boat will launch into the air all on its own.

In displacement mode, this boat is remarkably slow, but reasonably easy to paddle in all other ways - you can paddle this boat downriver, drive it up over boils, carve it against oncoming current, and it's pretty neutral in terms of handling. In other words, it's a confidence-inspiring driver's boat, unless you need to be somewhere in a hurry. Catching fast waves that don't have a pile is a challenge. On the Tour at Skook, I found it to be a good combat boat, as well - when getting hammered by big crashing waves or in the hole, this boat is easy to boss around, and is stable and predictable. The outfitting here is a real triumph, as far as I'm concerned - I felt well-connected to the boat, even when going over the lip on the big crasher out in the middle on a 14.5 knot tide.

In the Hole

The Astro is a great hole boat. With enough central volume to be retentive, there's a lot you can do in the hole and still stay in. It is short and rockered enough to have a tendency to auto-blast against the pile, keeping your upstream end clear of the water. In vertical mode, the generous volume keeps the boat high in the pile, giving you plenty of space to link up moves, and with the seat situated up off the hull, I felt like I had plenty of leverage to throw my weight around.

On the Flats

It's also easy to boss around in flat water. I found it simpler to just smash on one end and clean the other than I found regular flatwheels - trying to get a stroke in for each cartwheel end was redundant.

The volume is concentrated around the cockpit, with ends that plug through smoothly and with symmetrical balance - cartwheeling is easy, and the boat is stable on end. On the flats, it's what you might expect - a short boat with slicy ends and a steady bob rate, it'll do whatever you tell it to do.

As one might expect of any short boat with a raised seat, it requires some finesse to park the astro in a stall, or to be precise about elevation angle when playing vertically.

Outfitting

Riot's outfitting has improved substantially from last year's model, in the form of simpler thigh braces, comfy padding and modular hip pads that are quick to adjust, and a much-improved backband system that wraps around the low back.

The boat comes with a fit kit, with generous amounts of foam to settle you in the feet.

The 'unity' seat puts you (or at least, it feels like it does) pretty high up in the boat, which may feel at first a little unnerving. However, given the primary stability of this boat, I quickly became used to it and forgot about it.

Construction: the boat sports bow and stern pillars, with a seat on rails to support the hull. This is a light boat, with most of the weight in the center, which makes it easy to swing in midair.

Summary

Pro

• This boat is FUN
• Easy to throw big tricks - the combination of lightness and having all that bouncy 'character' made this boat easy to huck.
• Good hole boat - the combination of central volume, slicy ends, and solid outfitting made this boat particularly good at settling into a hole and tumbling any which way.
• Comfortable, solid outfitting. Being well-connected to the boat is just confidence-inspiring.

Con

• This boat is slow in displacement mode, even among six-foot boats.
• 'Mooshy', skidding feel when attempting to carve.

All told, and judged in terms of what it is, this is a great fun boat. It is not a fast carving surf boat. It excels in getting up and off the wave - in most other ways I thought it was just another spud boat, if a particularly slow one. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's a confidence-inspiring platform for taking on the next big trick, whatever that is for you - cartwheels, looping, or an aerial inverted cluster-kick-flang-dang-whatnot.

For Playak

-- Chris Joosse

Links

Riot Kayaks product sheet
Riot Astro in the Playak boats database (here you can write your own review of the Astro as well)

PS. About the reviewer

I'm 6'1”, 185lbs, with 32” inseam and size 9 feet. I am used to cramming myself into little boats. I came late to the spud boat revolution- I was off squirt boating and creeking at the time, and figured the spuds were just for folks who couldn't throw down longer boats. I've since seen the error of my ways, but as a consequence I'm a relative beginner when it comes to aerial moves.