The Global Paddling Community

So Ian Thomson when did you start paddling and has it always been C1 paddling?

I started paddling in high school in 1984. My Calculus teacher, Brian Rafflaub, wanted to get into kayaking, so he started a slalom team. We all made our own boats in the school shop, (see the influence that had!) and then took them out on the river to get our asses kicked by Trinity College School. I continued to paddle kayak recreationally throughout University, dabbling here and there into open canoe, (a homemade Kevlar 14' Prospector style thingy which I still have). I am one of the very rare individuals who made the switch from kayak to C1. I've always liked trying out different boats. It wasn't until quite late that I found my niche in C1. I was on the Canadian Rodeo team for the Augsburg worlds in '94 and I paddled Kayak. At that point I split my time equally between kayak and open boat, (the Departure and Air). When I returned from Germany I all but retired my kayaks and adopted a single blade. Frustrated with emptying my boat after every ride and disappointed with all the decked designs (C1 and kayak) out there I set to work designing the Groove. Most of it was hammered out during a 22 hour drive to Florida with Paul Danks. Once the Groove was born, I truly discovered my own paddling abilities and the potential of C1. The advantages over kayak are enormous- and this is coming from a kayaker!

I still love kayaking, however, and I will return to it shortly to save my rapidly deteriorating knees (hence the Y2K). In the meantime, C1 continues to serve me well. I just won the Eastern Canada Team Trials in C1 and I will be going to New Zealand.

So it was you and Paul Danks who thought up the Groove?

That's correct, we both had ideas and brainstormed them on a 22 hour drive down to Florida.

What was the inspiration for such a radical idea at the time?

I was disappointed with the boats that were available at the time. I wanted a boat that would spin and side slide, (green grind) like a kneeboard does behind a skiboat. Hence the defined plaining disk with no rocker and clean release points. In addition, I wanted the same kind of lift out the hull that a tunnel hulled power boat gets. Hence, the concavity on the underside of the hull. I used to do a lot of water-skiing and powerboat racing as a kid, so I applied some of these principles into the Groove. Meantime, Paul visualized a lot of new vertical moves and wanted a boat that would be extremely slicy and could get easy flat water ends. Being a pilot, he employed his knowledge of aerodynamics into the development of the foil deck.

Were you the first people to design the spinning hull and was it even before Corran Addison?

As I am aware, we were the first to develop a whitewater hull with a distinct planing surface possessing no rocker and clean release points. Corran and I have a bit of a disagreement on this. The Groove was developed in 1995. Corran claims the Rage was developed around the same time. Either way, we came about the concepts independently. I believe that the Groove, with it's volumetric distribution, shorter planing surface, foil deck, and hull concavity was further along in evolution than was the Rage.

Of course then there's this guy who claims to have developed the concept first in Australia having duct taped a body board to the bottom of his surf kayak. Interesting argument- does this sort of modification constitute a new design? The Groove was also the first boat to employ hull concavity.

Date of original publication on PLAYAK.COM: September 29 2000