TideRace Xcite

Back in October when I picked up my new boat I promised to  give you my thoughts once I’d become well acquainted with it… a mini-review if you like. So.. as promised here are my thoughts: love it….

OK…. that’s not really very useful so a little more detail might be in order. I’ve had the chance now to use it in a variety of sea conditions, today was especially nice – a solid force 5 northerly with a few feet of choppy swell once clear of the land. Conditions like these are my favourite general paddling conditions – rough enough to have fun crashing over and through the waves, but not so rough as too require too much mental energy manage the conditions – i.e still relaxing. Having said that though it is a very fun boat to paddle in really rough conditions – confidence inspiring without being dull if you see what I mean, and it really does surf very well.

There are plenty of words about the philosophy behind the design of the Xcite over on the TideRace website so I won’t reproduce those here, instead I’ll just articulate my impressions as a user. On the water handling is superb, I think the most maneuverable kayak of it’s size (17ft) I’ve paddled. Turns on the proverbial sixpence and responds really well to edging. Secondary stability is good too, and as for rolling… well, it’s been winter and I like staying warm (wuss…), lol, so we haven’t done a lot of rolling but can’t imagine there’ll be any problems! I feel I’m going to be rather stating the obvious when I say that the retractable skeg really helps with tracking downwind… at points off the wind by varying the skeg extension it’s very easy to ‘balance’ the boat which is especially nice when tired and the wind is fresh. What else… umm, surfs really well… speed is OK, it’s not the fastest kayak I’ve ever paddled but is certainly on a par, and snobbery would like to think maybe a little quicker, than other boats in it’s class…. suffice to say it’s fast enough :o) I’m really happy, I haven’t got any niggles or faults with it … yet. It fits my kayaking ‘profile’ perfectly – i.e I share my leisure time between this and the bike so essentially I’m a weekend paddler – days messing about exploring the coast, messing about in white water, overnight weekenders and if I can tear myself away from the cycling trips the occasional week long adventure  – it’s fine for all of that.

Right, that’s the paddling bit out of the way so what’s it like on dry land…?! Off the water handling is really easy for me when alone – it’s pretty light so shoulder-carrying and getting it on and off the car are no problem at all. Mine is the so-called “hardcore” (yeah!) version which means it has a high proportion of carbon and kevlar in the construction – makes it lighter (and stronger) but looking at the weights I don’t think you’d notice an extra couple of kilos for the standard boat. The build quality on my example is top notch. I did read some rumblings on the web about construction niggles on some early examples but based on my boat those are history I think. Aside from the flawless gelcoat the hull seam is very neatly executed with a glass ‘rubbing strip’. The skeg installation too is very tidy and so far has been working faultlessly. There are two day-hatches, one in the usual location just aft of the cockpit and a smaller one directly in front of the cockpit. This second one I find really handy for a few energy bars, camera, knife etc etc. It does mean there is no room for a compass but as a generally coastal sort of a chap I’m not too bothred and I’m sure I can figure something out…

Instead of conventional footrests there is a foot-plate extending the width of the hull, naturally that is adjustable for position as is the seat (which my backside says is comfortable by the way)… the seat adjustability allows you to vary the trim  – I’ve not yet experimented with different positions in mine beyond finding the location that seems to work best for me most of the time… which happens to be the middle. I imagine at some point I’ll mess around some more with position when the waves are up and see how I get on though being only an intermediate paddler, and relatively light, it’ll be interesting to see how much difference it really makes – with summer on the way we’ll be on the water a lot more.

So, that’s about it I think. Kayaks are a very personal thing so I’m not suggesting you should rush out and spend two and half grand on the strength of my words, I have noticed though that a fair few people come o my site as a result of searches on this kayak so if that’s you and you’re reading this now then hopefully I’ve given you something useful…. oh, almost forgot, and very important… it looks absolutely fab!

Now then, one last little bit of kit… for kayaking day trips my Alpkit Gourdon is brilliant – the 25 litre version I lugged all over Colombia and Ecuador on the back of my bike is now doing wet duty – as a backpack I can carry all my gear down to the beach in one go on my back with my kayak balanced on my shoulder and paddle in my left hand, and once at the water edge as a dry bag it fits easily in one of the main hatches. Recommended.