By David Arnaud, June 2010
Here's a short video of a session in the Composite Element on the Goncelin wave. This is a static wave on the Isere river, in the French Alps, not too far from Grenoble. The wave is pretty small and shallow but very wide and fun to paddle. This is in no way big wave style surfing. In fact it's just the opposite. The wave is quite flushy and every stroke, every move has to be delicate and you have to be very light on the paddle shaft.
Some moves are possible, blunts, backblunts, flipturns and so on. But sitting in the Element on such a wide and glassy wave, it's all about feeling the boat carve, accelerate, spin and glide effortlessly... It's not aerial nor impressive, it's not in your face, but jeeeez, these sensations are pretty unique!
I used to go there quite often a few years back, when freestyle boats were still around 2m40 or more. Since then our freestyle boats have become too slow to even surf that wave when it's green and glassy as it is shown here. And even if you manage to catch it thanks to a rope, at this level you'll flush in no time. The Element is as short as many modern freestyle boats, but in terms of speed it's just in another league.
To put it simply, the Element allows you to sidesurf, blunt and cleanspin where others can't even catch the wave... all this is a short, reactive, manoeuverable design and not a long clumsy surf kayak.
Now take a great design and build it in Composite, and you get the ultimate surf-carve-grin machine. Lighter + stiffer = faster, more reactive, less strain on your body. To top it off, the Element is pretty easy to paddle - it'll take you no more than a few moments to feel at ease and start ripping!
Thanks to Mathieu Coldebella for shooting these pictures.
More info:
fluidkayaks.com
Forums
SUPzero Forums
Market
- Small Pyranha Loki for sale » Hi Charles, Unfortunately this post is over 4 years old so I would imagine the boat has been sold... (FS - North America - US)
- Necky Blunt for sale » Is your boat still For sale... (FS - Africa)
- WTB Jackson Funrunner 60 » Looking for a Funrunner 60... (FS - North America - US)
[please login to make this ad block disappear]
Composite Element - small wave, big fun!
1499 views
Uploaded by:
David
•
Category:
Whitewater
•
Added on:
01 July 2010
Description
By David Arnaud, June 2010
Here's a short video of a session in the Composite Element on the Goncelin wave. This is a static wave on the Isere river, in the French Alps, not too far from Grenoble. The wave is pretty small and shallow but very wide and fun to paddle. This is in no way big wave...
Here's a short video of a session in the Composite Element on the Goncelin wave. This is a static wave on the Isere river, in the French Alps, not too far from Grenoble. The wave is pretty small and shallow but very wide and fun to paddle. This is in no way big wave...
See the AUP for our Acceptable Use Policy and a Privacy Statement. Verein Playak is responsible for all editorial content on this site (including all graphics). No part of this site may be duplicated in any way without explicit permission from Verein Playak. Verein Playak takes great care to only publish original content, but since part of the content is user generated, we cannot always guarantee this 100%. If you notice any copyright violations, please let the editors know through the contact form and they will take appropriate action immediately. As a news and information platform, we republish small text snippets and thumbnail images, but always link to original content on other sites, and thus aim to adhere to a 'Fair Use' policy. If you believe we violate this policy in any particular case, please contact us directly and we'll take appropriate action immediately.