Firstly I both paddle rivers and enjoy playinboating. On the rivers I usually paddle grade 3/4 and have pushed my boundaries to grade 5. I am not the most freestyle minded paddler but do enjoy surfing and playing in holes and I would say my best move would be a helix.

Never mind me though! As for the boat, I usually paddle my Kingpin 6.3 which I have owned from new for about 10 months and all I can say is I didn't need to keep the receipt as this baby wasn't going back! Whatever you throw at this boat it copes, without a problem. This boat is a world class playboat, which to me is definetly true, yet can also cope with your grade 4 river. This boat is intended to be thumped about in holes, and riping up waves, which is its job. On the waves this boat carves, really well, and spins on a 't'. In the holes mind this boat excels, cartwheels are not a problem, nor are forwad flips.

However when in holes, and cartwheeling this boat is not 100% stable, and on the waves the hull is not quit as quick as some playboats, mainly due too its 'stumpiness'.

The comfort of this boat is like an armchair. Many paddlers I know who paddle short boats suffer from cramps and aches, but I at 6'2" with size 11 feet don't suffer from such effects. Also in this boat I find a great feature which Dagger use is the 'D-Bone' structure, which alows the paddler to easily remove the centre pillar creating more foot space. The seat is great and very comfy. However with the backband i find it slips a little, but not a lot to make a great difference. I have also removed the air-core hip pads as they slowly leaked air, know though I have applied a pair of normal hip pads.

In the back of this boat I can store a pair of three way splits 9with a squeeze) throw line and a bottle of water and small drybag, which i think is great even though this boat is not designed to take a medium sized load.

Overall though this boat is great, it surfs, palys in holes, runs waves, and is comfy too. If you're looking for a playboat or even an allround river play boat you should definetly consider a Kingpin. What more could anyone want? I'm just finding a place for a small fridge, who knows you might see me living in it one day!

cheers