Roger Houston wrote:

I persuaded my friend to buy a used Dagger Animas as a first boat. I had
read reviews that it was a great first boat. The guy at the counter of the
store whose owner put it in stock for sale said that it was not for
whitewater, and not for sea kayaking, but great for everything in between.

The guy at the store doesn't quite know what he's talking about. The
Dagger Piedra is the Animas scaled down for smaller people; everything
I shall say about the Piedra with my 150# & 120# friends applies to the
Animas with a heavier paddler. My friends Jon and Karen love the
Piedra for (up to) Class IV/V whitewater in both the Rockies and the
Appalachians. The Piedras were not their first boats, nor are they
their only whitewater boats (they have Micro-235s for steep creekin')
but if they had to keep just one boat each I believe they would keep
the Piedras because the Piedras are so stable and predictable in
turbulent whitewater yet versatile enough for all but the gnarliest
creeks -- which is why the reviews called the Animas a good first boat.
[Don't don't seize upon the weight/size issue; at yer friend's level
of boating it is NOT an issue; at her experience level, on flat moving
water, the Animas and the Piedra might as well be interchangable.]

We took it out today where a river feeds into a lake, still a bit of
current, and some wind. The boat just spins on its center of rotation and
is very difficult to control as to direction of travel. She'd be paddling
(an experienced canoeist new to kayaks), and it would yaw right and left,
and when she finally got going it would suddenly switch ends, doing an
uncommanded 180 degree turn. It caused her no end of frustration, and in
the end, I had to tow her back to where we put in. The boat at the end of a
toe line was as undisciplined as had been the case when paddled freely,
yawing and yanking at the tow line.

Though the salesman was not right about the Animas being unsuitable for
whitewater, and though he should have broadened the "sea-kayaking"
category to "touring" (to include lake and flat-river paddling) He was
right about it being a good boat for swif****er paddling, and if he is
a young hot-dog whitewater boater he probably included everything up to
Class III whitewater in the "in between" category.

If she is experienced in tripping canoes, the Animas would
understandably have been a problem for her. If she had been
experienced in whitewater canoes she should have had no trouble (I have
to consciously keep my whitewater canoe on track when I'm on flat
stretches, and my canoe will spin out just like her kayak if I stop
paddling and don't keep the blade in the water for control). Jon &
Karen have no trouble paddling their Piedras across the lakes we
encounter at the bottoms of some whitewater runs, because J&K have
cleared the learning curve.

I must say I am disappointed, and the beginner is discouraged. I've got to
find her another used boat.

Absolutely, if she is looking for a fla****er touring boat. Absolutely
not if she wants to become a whitewater boater; if she wants to become
a whitewater boater she needs to learn how to make it go straight when
she needs to go straight, and how to take advantage of its high
maneuverability when she needs to maneuver in variable currents. But
you would know all this if you were a whitewater boater, and I am
guessing she wants to learn the kind of boating you do, so you are
probably right: you probably need to find her another boat. A Dagger
Blackwater, perhaps: 10.5' long (if I remember correctly) with a slight
keel or skeg to help it track.

For what purpose is the Animas actually designed. Or was it designed at
all, vs being put together to look cool?

Please don't insult the boat because you received less than perfect
advice from the salesman. The Animas and the Piedra were never cool;
they were always workhorse kayaks for the less-extreme whitewater
boater, but Jon & Karen lovvvvvvvve the predictable performance of the
Animas' little-brother boat.


-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
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