News

We ran the Rouge river at about 220m3/s yesterday, and while the rest of the crew opted for creek boats, I decided to take the Gonzo because I knew there would be some fantastic surfing waves to hit. And indeed there were. This giant overhead wave is right above a crunchy hole, so you're surfing with trepidation. If the water was 10 degrees warmer I wouldn't have minded really going for it on the wave and taking the chunder at the bottom like a man... but I really didnt feel like getting ice water rammed into my ears, so it...

The Chambly wave in Montreal is just coming in. It's still very small, meaning that it's not offering much up in the way of "cool moves", and the water is ice cold, but I want to take the Gonzo out onto this iconic wave for a spin. The one thing that was immediately apparent was its amazing speed. I was able to surf way out of the main wave, and carry speed through the carve back into the "pit". Loose as a goose, it was able to spin and carve to my hearts delight, really enjoying the soul surf. I...

Today was the opening day of paddling in Quebec for 2016. There is a lot of ice coming down the river, and jutting out into the current, so you have to be smart. The banks are covered in knee to waist deep snow, and most importantly, the water is high. It was the perfect day to take the production District 11 out for a spin. As much as you try, production boats are never exactly like the prototypes. Years of experience tells you how to design the boat so that the final boat is as close to what you wanted...

The Main Squeeze continues to develop as we do volume and flow tests to check how easy the boat will be to cartwheel, loop and get airs on waves. The results of these computer simulations is some pretty radical adjustments to volume and volume placement, as well as the rocker breaks and a radical adjustment of the "pressure edges" on the hull to help with wave separation (airs). This is of course all theoretical, and nothing beats paddling a prototype, but the technology allows us to eliminate both the time it takes and cost to do months of prototyping work....

 We thought you'd be interested in a comparison between the CAD file of the Gonzo, and photos of the final plastic boat. What do you think of the two? Is it what you expected it to look like, or very different?