About myself

I have been paddling for almost 3 years now. I paddle as often as I can and paddle all types of rivers. Playboating, river running, overnight trips and creeking.

About the test environment

In the mostly, shallow, rocky rivers of South Africa. Couple of big volume runs too.

Review

+ awesome outfitting and super comfortable. I've got the first block of foam in and paddle with the seat all the way forward. Maybe I've got shorter legs than most.
+ Flat spins pretty well and actually cartwheels really well in a hole. Flat water tricks are super simple and 20 ends with this boat is quite possible for me.
+ Gets air very easily, even on smaller waves.
+ Carving on the ocean is very easy and the boat responds nicely to edge transition.

- Maybe not enough bow rocker. Pearls easily on waves and even on flat water. Maybe I'm a touch heavy. Once all my gear is wet and with extras like split paddles, food, water, throwbag and all the other safety kit, camera.. etc... the boat is probably then too heavily loaded.

- A little edgy once all the gear is in and being back looped while river running is a stronger possiblity on class 4 to 4+. Although this boat shouldn't really run lower volume class 4 in my opinion.

- This boat doesn't have awesome pop for looping but will loop for sure. An over thruster such as a big beach ball between your legs seems to help.

Conclusion

I have had this boat for more than a year now and am still super happy with it. It's still going to serve me as a playboat for a while still. But for river running it's not that great so I bought an EZG60 for the trickier rivers. My Necky Blunt is still my creeker of choice.

* The ZG54 is really good although I have mentioned it's poorer river running characteristics. This is probably because I'm fairly heavy. I have a mate who is about 15 kg less than me and finds it's great on tricky, higher volume runs. *

Adrian Tregoning on the Ash River:
http://adrian.playak.com/images/zoom/XKRFHV/img_5695.jpg

Mike Pennefather on the Umkomaas River, Deepdale Gorge, Long Drop rapid:
http://adrian.playak.com/images/zoom/BJJVFC/img_2907.jpg