About the reviewer

I kayak down the lehigh a lot and am used to going through class II rapids, mostly in other people boats that are underrated for someone my size about 6 ft and 245-255 depending on the day I picked up a Dagger Animas from a friend for cheap.

Test environment

My Brother and I went down a stretch of creek that normally is about 3 feet deep, this past weekend we had torrential rain in the northeast and as a result the creek flooded from those few inches to about 2 1/2 to 3 feet over. With the rocky bed there were a lot of rough waves easily big enough to surf the Animas on. The rapids are located in three spots through the section of the creek we paddled and each is separated by about a mile of fairly deep flatwater that gave me time to practice rolling the boat and tuning it in a bit more. at the end there is a broken dam that causes a few really large waves.

Review

Since it was my first time in the boat on the water the first set of rapids were a bit touchy since at the first and second set of rapids the creek goes from 20yards across to 10 due to the rock edges of the creek making the waterflow very fast but the boat handled well and I managed to maneuver through without more than a few bumps on the rocks. the outfitting was fairly comfortable although i will need to get a better back band than the one in it. Between the first and second rapids I practiced my rolls and managed to get it on the second try without much effort. One thing I did notice is that the thigh braces are not made to fit someone with slightly larger legs but they managed well enough. The second set of rapids actually extends for about 100 yards and ranges from massive waves to holes and drops behind logs. Going through this section you either zigzag through around a log or loop around a rock Island. Naturally i tried to zigzag through the tight spot and found out that while the animas maneuvers very well it didn't quite make the turn, as a result a large wave threw me up onto and over a log that managed to impress my brother even though i was just trying not to get sucked under. The boat handled beautifully through the rest of the rapids however surfing a bunch of waves and maneuvering in and out of eddies.

Conclusion

The boat handles very well for larger paddlers and is quite fast on flatwater and especially in the rapids not really a trick boat but fun if you just like to cruise through the rapids and surf a few waves overrall a great beginner kayak although i do need to get a better backrest and the braces pinched my legs a bit but these are easy to get used to.