Epic V10L Ultra First Paddle by Wesley Echols

I took today off from work in anticipation of my Epic New V10L Ultra being delivered which it was at 2:30 pm. I quickly unwrapped it, surveyed it for any shipping damage which there was none and signed for it. Then I proceeded to outfit it. I have outfitted so many boats over the years, I now have a very efficient system as follows.

1. Rinse the boat off, towel dry, put an initial coat of wax on it.

2. Adjust rudder, footplate, toe pedals by sitting in the boat stands.

3. Put extra cover over foot strap.

4. Add lanyard to the leash attachment.

5. Glue the weed guard on.

6. Add protective tape to prevent paddle scuffs.

7. Add clear tape to protect gunwales(later).

8. Add hydropack attachments in footwell.

9. Take a few pics.

10. Get ready to paddle making sure I have my camera, and gps.

11. Take it for a spin.

12. Call Chris to give him my initial findings on the boat.

13. Add any padding to the cockpit for the next paddle.

14.Add SurfskiRacing.com decals if I decide to keep it.

Outfitting Done

Loaded up for my first paddle

For months since I ordered my V10L from Chris Laughlin of North Coast Kayaks, I have bored Betsy, my wife, on how I imagined the V10L will perform and to some extent Chris Chappell. Nothing like anticpating how a new surfski will perform. My conversation often would include the following : It will have excellent seating since I have already owned the V12, V14, V10; narrow catch since I read this online, more initial stabilty than my SES’s? probably. The big question mark will be how stable will it be in conditions? Will my weight at 177 be a factor? What rudder will I try first since they come shipped with the weedless but I got the universal and the surfing rudders also. Lastly how fast will it be? Faster than my SES’s, um? If it is faster than my SES than that means it will be faster than the V12 since the V12 and Ses are virtually identical in speed.

Well today I paddled it for 6 miles on the Sakonnet in 12 mph winds from the east. The wind is rarely from the East so I was unable to put it through some of my time trial courses to get a real indication of how fast it is. I did paddle it mostly in beam, quarter beam, some short downwind, some upwind and in some small refractory stuff. Since I already had a V10 and for those already owning a V10, the V10L feels like a very trimmed down version of the V10. You might say that is obvious, but until you put your butt in the bucket and paddle it, you never know. I was very pleased with the stability in these conditions. Being a very low volume ski, the wind had minimum effect on the bow, you are able to easily put your legs over the sides of the gunwales and remounting, though I did not try it today, will be a piece of cake. The bucket is super comfortable with a very low hump to accomodate the short inseam paddlers like myself(29.5 inches). I have enough space in the footwell for my 70 ounce hydropack and my 100 oz for those long 3 hour padddles. I chose the universal rudder today knowing I would be paddling in beam conditions.

My initial impression is that it has very good speed. I was very tired today having raced on Saturday, paddled Sunday through today while running this morning. Having said that, I did not feel that instant feedback of speed like on the V14 nor did I expect too. It is faster than the V10 and the design specifications would indicate this. I have not paddled a V12 in few years but I it does not appear to have the glide of the V12. My V12 and my SES ultra was almost identical in speed so over the next few weeks I will be able to parse the speed differences. I am on the heavy side at 177 lbs, according to the web site that states the boat was optimized for paddlers 165lbs and under. So I would imagine the lighter folks(under 165) will have a slightly different perspective then mine. I hope to be down to 170 by September so I will be closer to the optimum weight.

My experience with the SEL, another low volume version of a bigger ski, was that paddlers up to 205 could paddled it with no loss in performance despite being optimized for the 180 lb paddler. As with my SES’s I am a few pounds over the optimum weight but I have had great success with my SES’s between 169 and 178 in any conditions. Hopefully I will have a similar experience with the V10L. Today went fine. The test will be in 2-3ft downwind conditions to see how much I bury the bow.

So today was a very enjoyable first paddle. I may have to wait until Saturday when the wind changes back to the Southwest to time trial it, but so far so good! More to come when I do my full review the Epic V10L Ultra!