New Stellar SR by Tim H

My thoughts on the New Stellar SR 2015

2015 has been a good year for me to build strength and continue improving my stroke technique on flat water. As I bumped up the speed work in April I started to see the fruits in May at the Essex River race. Things got very hectic for me off the water in May, and so I was not able to get to Portsmouth and Jamestown for moderate and rough water training, which brings us to the second week of June. I knew there was no way I’d be able to handle the Ride the Bull waters on June 20 in my Epic V10L (as I’m a sophomore paddler, in my second full year of racing), and my good fortune was that Wesley was there to help. He suggested I paddle with him on the Bull course June 13^th using his 2015 Stellar SR Excel (26 lbs.). I accepted and paddled some pretty rough waters that day without swimming and with good to very good leg drive, a more than moderate success for me for the 10 miles we covered. As well, I was extremely happy with the bucket fit using one piece of half inch closed cell foam to sit on. This foam was purposely 2 feet wide (seat pad with wings) so that it wrapped up each side of the bucket, giving me a perfect side-to-side fit at the hips (I’m 5’ 9”, 165 lbs with a 32” waist). It was surprising to me that after a 2 hour paddle I was not raw at the base of my sacrum (top of butt crack, to be blunt) like I always am in my V10L. Also, it seemed positive to me that I felt a different type of fatigue, like I was using my core muscles more in the SR than in the V10L, perhaps due to the increased stability allowing for more rotation, more relaxed rotation, and a more powerful catch.

Start of Ride the Bull, Tim H in the yellow SR Excel. Wesley in SEI Excel

As I continued to rest my way back from work stress, I decided that I might be able to take on the Bull, and Wesley again offered his SR. I took 60 seconds to do a simple modification of his single foot strap to make it work like a double (sold with double, Wesley had converted it to single), warmed up and lined up for the race start. The combination of boat weight and stiffness and powerful leg drive allowed for a good start, and I was in the pack. For the race I did not sit on any padding, and Wesley had taped in half inch foam on each side of the bucket for an ideal hip fit. Surprisingly, I finished the race with minimal discomfort from sitting on my bony arse without padding and with minimal irritation at sacral base. This is to say that the SR bucket may be the most comfortable I’ve experienced to date, and I’ve paddled about 8 different boats over three years (Epic, Stellar, Think), but have yet to paddle a Fenn or Huki boat.

Ride the Bull Pre Race

Tim H on maiden voyage in SR last week.

Also surprisingly, I finished the nine mile race without swimming and with decent power and respectable average speed (even with my no-leg-drive paddling through the roughest sections). Considering my lack of rough water training this year, it is reasonable for me to predict that the 2015 Stellar SR will be highly competitive with all other intermediate surf skis with respect to speed and stability, and it is on my very short list as I hope to purchase an intermediate boat this year or next. In summary the SR is an excellent rough water surf ski for me (a lifelong runner and bicyclist turned paddler a few years ago), and maybe the best one for me primarily because of bucket comfort.