EXO XT

How often do you hear manufacturers plugging their latest creek designs as 'giving soft landings off big drops' or 'resurfacing under complete control' or 'punching through big holes with ease'. Well that's all great news if you're off on some dream tour to lands of big volume and big waterfalls but what about the other 49 weeks every year, if you're lucky? I know we spend all our time watching the weather forecasts and praying for the Glens/Flesk/Glenmac to come up but realistically the majority of our time on the water is spent pissing about on rivers like the Castleconnel and the Annamoe, getting that fix any way we can.

Now I'm on work experience at the moment for eight months, and at the end of that I'll be going into what's meant to be an extremily tough semester of college so realistically I'll have an entire year of making do with whatever water the Rain Gods send our way here in Ireland. So I decided to have a look around and see what boats might be a bit more suited to the paddling that I'll be doing for the next year than the Habitat. The Habitat was the perfect boat for what I did last summer, big and forgiving with a bit of rail there for when it's needed. It's tough too, it took some pretty good abuse day in day out for 3 months with no problems at all except for a broken backrest strap, which can be forgiven considering what I was doing with it at the time! But take it out on the Castleconnel and you're left looking for something that'll just carve that bit tighter, and be a bit more responsive, and surf a bit nicer.

From that it sounds like what I need is a river runner like a Dagger GTX or Pyranha Inazone but I still plan to be on the Glens every time it works and the Flesk as often as possible, and I've taken a GT down the Glens before and lets just say it's not ideal! So over the last few weeks I've been paddling a few different boats, getting an idea of what's out there. Over in Italy last year I saw all the local lads paddling Exo XTs and they looked odd, but functional. So a few weeks ago I got a demo off Saor Uisce to see what it was like for myself. Up close it looks interesting. Completly flat hull, hard rails the full length of the boat, vertical sidewalls, and big volume (300l, same volume as the Habitat 80.) Out on the river, it instantly made Castleconnel infinitly more fun! You can feel the boat grip every time you cross a small eddyline, which makes it possible to enjoy so many more features on the river than in a displacement hulled creeker. The faster and more defined the eddyline the better it feels, it feels like you're sitting on a wire guided missile going over some of the better eddylines on Castleconnel! And the first time I went for one of the more difficult s-moves on the river I burst out laughing because of how good it felt when caving through the turn! It's keeping me on my toes too, edge into a turn too late out of lazyness and the edge will catch. Not enough to turn you over but enough to remind you to cop on and paddle properly! Do the same thing in the Habitat and you wouldn't even notice you had done anything wrong. Great when the mistake would mean getting a beating in a massive hole but it does make smaller rivers a bit boring, and lets you drop the ball with your paddling technique. The Exo also feels nice and quick, I havn't got a chance to do a direct comparison with the Habitat yet but over a 2.5 minute course it went 3 seconds faster than a medium Mamba.

Everything isn't perfect with the XT. Somehow, when you go to empty water out it all flows either side of the cockpit and doesn't actually fall out, meaning that x-rescues are a bit of a pain in the arse and you pretty much have to use the bung every time you want to get a small bit of water out. The grab loops run longtitudinally which isn't ideal, especially when pulling the boat up steep hills and stuff like that. And the rachets seem to consist of more parts than neccessary, and feel a bit more flimsy than some other systems so they're not the most confidence inspiring out there. They do work perfectly tho. I also don't really know how it's going to go on bigger stuff like the Glens, the flat hull and hard rails will probably affect flares and freewheels, and might make it a bit twitchy when punching through stuff. There's only one way to know for sure tho, and those minor issues and question marks weren't enough to turn me off it. It's got enough volume and hull speed to get it though most obstacles anyway, and I had so much fun in the short time that I had the demo boat that I decided I had to get my own one. So the next time you see me on a river I'll be paddling a sharp looking red and black Exo XT! All going well I'll have a few words to say on how it handles in bigger water soon. As always, pray for rain!