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The first thing I noticed on the Sniper was the rounded, displacement style hull, because Riot has never ever produced one before (to my knowledge, and excepting the Kewl which was not designed in house, according to rumor). Even their early creekboats, the Kix and the Sick, had planing style hulls. So there must be a very compelling reason for them to choose this rather archaic hull style. The two main benefits of a rounded, displacement style hull are that it resists shooting the boat off in unintended directions when a rock, hole or lateral wave is hit, and it lands much more softly from long drops. These advantages have given a 20+ year market life to the Eskimo Topolino - the original creek/spud boat - and created a creekboat empire for Pyranha and the Micro. On the downside, rounded hulls don't carve like planing hulls, and carving has become an integral part of river-running technique, especially since the publication and dissemination of Eric Jackson's "Whitewater Paddling: Stroke and Concepts" teachings. While most manufacturers have moved away from purely rounded hulls on creekboats nowadays, Riot seems to be resisting market conformity again.

I'm 6'0", 33" inseam, size 9, 162#. I took the Sniper down my standard technical creek run and down a solid class IV with a 15' drop and a 20' drop. It behaved well and only got disobedient on me once when I forgot to stay forward punching a hole.

THE GOOD

Almost everything, but there are some things which are outstandingly good. The new grab-loops and bow and stern attachment points are excellent - let's hope more manufacturers follow Riot's (Pyranha's?) lead on these. The sealed bulkhead and hatch are quite convenient - I don't think I would have bought the boat based on the hatch alone, but it's a very nice value-add.

On the river, the Sniper is surprisingly fast for its length (another advantage of displacement) while at the same time it turns effortlessly and nimbly. The release edges on the stern of the hull make for an incredibly smooth feeling ride - the hull just does not get swamped or caught. One of the true joys of any creekboat is having a high volume stern, and the Sniper stern is exceptionally good.

The Sniper ignores small rocks and holes - just cruises right over them without flinching.

While I don't have a wide spectrum of drops and boats to place the Sniper in, the landings struck me as very soft compared to boats like the Disco. Because there is very little stern to get caught on the lip, getting that last stroke in to adjust the angle of your landing is quite easy whether you want to meltdown or boof it. In the landings I made, the Sniper resurfaced very well with good, controllable forward momentum.

THE BAD

Though Riot has added some grooves to the hull to make the boat feel like a planing hulled boat, they only improve things marginally - it still feels like a displacement hull when you compare it to a playboat. I took the boat into several holes to see if I could drop an edge and work my way out, but never felt the chines engage or pressure build on the bottom of the hull. Likewise, carving into eddies was a much harder task and I found myself breaking out the old-school Duffek to get the boat stopped. Once you get used to cranking that paddle completely around, it gets much easier to paddle.

Because this is a short boat, and to some extent perhaps because it is a Riot, sitting in an aggressive forward position is always preferred. As soon as you start driving from the back seat, you run the risk of getting stern squirted.

I've hammered on this many times recently, but I'm not a fan of Riot's outfitting. Creekboat outfitting in my opinion should be bare minimum so it won't interfere with egress. The thigh straps don't belong in there, but there's a big qualifier - with 5 minutes of tweaking, the thigh straps are gone and the standard, bare minimum cockpit is designed to work without them - problem solved. Still, the backband is a pain and ideally I like my creekboats without center pilars if at all possible.

SUMMARY

An old-school displacement hull gets fully updated and shortened for tight, technical creeks. For the rivers I do most frequently, the manner in which a boat responds to hitting rocks is the most important factor, and the Sniper does very well in this regard. As long as you remember to Duffek instead of carve or charc your way across eddylines, you'll find the maneuverability to be very good. The hull grooves don't provide an comparable replacement to a hard-chined hull in terms of carving or engaging in a hole, and tracking is what you'd expect from a boat this short. But on the whole, this is an excellent little creekboat with very few real drawbacks for anyone that paddles tight and rocky creeks. If you are looking for a big water river-runner, this isn't it. But if you want to pinball your way down a drainage ditch or a mountain stream, you can't beat it with a beating machine.