Last winter I picked up a Riot Air 60.
I was really excited when I hit the waves and it had a blast all season carving and ripping up the waves. I also had a good time with it in smaller creeks (seems to vave lots of volume, except in the stern).
Later in the season I started trying to play a bit more. (I am rally comfortable on big greeen waves but thought it was time to start learning to play more). I can get the boat to spin fairly well as long as I don't hang around too long backwards. I can not get this boat to back surf well at all. Am I missing something or is the lack of rocker and volume in the back going to always cause me trouble.
Any suggestions?
Can anyone recomend a alternate boat?

I have an air 60 and its been the best play boat ive ever owned..All you need to do is lean foward more when your in the back surf..the air 60 has fairly low rocker on both stern and bow which helps give it more hull speed which means you spend more time in the trough where you bow tends to pearl.also it helps to carve the boat aggressivly because that is what the boat was designed for..the air 55 has super low stern rocker and its way worse to back surf than the air 60..anyway hope that helps

Been paddling an Air 60 since January and absolutely love it. I've noticed it too, on any kind of feature it takes a real lean forward to backsurf the 60 for any real length of time. It's stable once you get used to it though and spins very easily back round to a front surf. Dunno about running creeks in it though, the plastic seems very soft!

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Good to hear from others.
I will get used to the back surf. And I'll work hard on that forward lean to keep the stern up.
The plastic is definately soft. Takes deep gouges pretty easily. Luckilly the small spring creeks around my home are mostly full of rounded boulders that are not sharp.
If anyone has any more tips on handling the boat I would appreciate the pointers.
Intend to get some pool time in this winter to work on the flatwater moves.

i have an air 45, do you think the backsurfing problem would extend to the forty five as well?

From what I have heard (from paddlers in my area) it seems to be a soft spot with the AIR series. I was in Ottawa not long ago and I heard that Riot has worked this out with the flair series.
Still planning on sticking with my AIR60 but I might try a Flair 57 next season.
Does anyone have problems with the backband breaking. I really like to be tight in my boat and as a result I have broke the back band where the ratchet strpat scresw on to the plastic strap of the back band. I plan on working on my rigging (hip and thigh pads) this winter to try and reduce the stress on the back band.
Any suggestions?

[quote:fbb8bdfacc="RobertZ"]Does anyone have problems with the backband breaking. I really like to be tight in my boat and as a result I have broke the back band where the ratchet strpat scresw on to the plastic strap of the back band. [/quote:fbb8bdfacc]

I broke a ratchet connection in my air60. It was fairly easy to fix "good as new" with the use of a rivet gun. The rivet gun cost me about $5 including a bunch of rivets, and it has come in handy since then to work on all sorts of outfitting. So I recommend trying to redo the backband attachment exactly how it was (assuming you have the 2004 outiftting with teh 2 ratchets at the cockpit rim, and not the 2005 outfitting with the ratchet at the front of the seat).

Regarding backsurfing the boat, it isn't as easy as frontsurfing, but an aggresive forward lean helps a ton. I think that the overall performance of the boat far outweigh the difficulty backsurfing.

Cheers,
Mike

Yep, the left ratchet in my Air worked itself loose just this weekend, have to fix it now. Rivet gun sounds like a good plan, I've got the 2004 boat, so shouldn't be too difficult! Definitely agree that the overall performance outweighs the backsurf problem, it's more about a change of style than a deficit, it's my 1st really short boat!

Haven't paddled a flair, or even seen one over here in Ireland, but have heard that it's not as well designed as the Air, does anyone have actual experience of this or is it just rumour?

[color=green:03cb79520d]Páraic[/color:03cb79520d]

To fix the straps I have done the following: I picked up some stainless steel box anchor nuts (they sit flush on the strap and dont chaffe the inside of the boat as long as you get the right length screws). and installed them on the long plastic strap that goes through the back band. using a countersunk washer and snowboard binding screws I screw on the strap. It does a better job at holding the strap tight and if the strap breaks again it can be eremoved with a multi-tool that I keep in the boat. Also keep 2 spare snowboard ratchet straps in the boat. They are tougher than the original straps..
I can change a broken strap on the river in about 5 minutes.
I broke the original strap while running a river and it kinda screwed up the rest of the descent. (I had to fix it at the time with a piece of rope).
This should no longer be problem I am working on fine tunning the rigging this winter.
Any suggestions would be welcome to improve the rigging.

i would suggest ordering a power seat..its all one peice and u dont have to mess with racheting back bands and such..my old outfitting wasnt working out for me it kept breaking..so switched and i have never looked back.

[quote:d5e102b1eb="robmeister"]i have an air 45, do you think the backsurfing problem would extend to the forty five as well?[/quote:d5e102b1eb]

Yup most definatley. Like the 60 the 45 has little or no tail rocker worth talking about but that said you can usually get away with it by leaning foward aggressivly. That or get used to backlooping reguarly