Visual boat comparison

Kiwi Dave wrote:
Wanted to keep it agnostic in case it ends up having sea kayaks or some such on it but then I guess I could also point some additional domains at it say.

Like your thinking, yes this would appeal to a much larger audience if expanded to many boat types, kayaks, spec skis, sea kayaks etc.

Kiwi Dave wrote: @Hulk: Cheers, have updated the Vault.

Added all of the Stellar lineup now also ... had a bit of a look around last night for Nelo, Fenn and Think images but will be harder to get large ones it seems. Think's website images are 'ok' but would be nice to have something a bit larger. Maybe will have to take an old school approach and reach out to their respective marketing people.

@Impala: If my brain didn't hurt from leaning web stuff, it does now Also I think the word you were looking for is 'gooch' hah

Just let me know what images you'd like from the Think range and I can sort you out.


Cheers,


Stew.

I will try and let you have pictures of Nelo 520 & 550.

Hi guys, great to see that you`ve really got the bit between your teeth on this one!

Just in case you haven`t got them yet, here`s the link to Nordic Kayaks. Once you click on each ski it will give you the side and above shots.

One thing I noticed though, some manufacturers use the images on their websites as "representations" of their skis, ie the image they`re using may not be of the boat they are talking about! For example, the image you have for the Stellar SEI 2G. It has the seat handles that were put on it late last year, but the deck directly in front of the cockpit has the raised area that was on the 1st G. Looks like they used and old 1G photo and CGed the handles on. Satisfactory for their website, but not so helpful when trying to compare ski shapes. I suspect other makers may well do the same sometimes.

Best of luck with the project Dave!

Owen

@Stew: That would be awesome, just need some standard side and top views of all the Think ski's at a reasonable resolution. Above 1000px wide would be great ... more the merrier.

@Hacker Mike: That would be good, Watto has provided some but if you have access to some at a reasonable size / quality that would be super.

@owenfromwales: Will try and get to the bottom of this with Stellar perhaps. I'd hope most pics are a true representation of the real items but perhaps not in all cases.

Will get the Nordic skis up later today and have registered surfskicomparison.com as well as kayakcomparison.com

Have updated the page with the Nordic models as well as Fenn (horrid images !) and Ozean.

Have written to Nelo and they should be sorting me out some good quality images. Also written to Revo as their web site images are all the same ski in different colours ! Hopefully they have something good also.

@Stew: Any luck with the Think pics ? Would be great to have these. Will press ahead with the best I can find on the net over the weekend and switch them out later.

surfskicomparison.com

Hi Dave,

Just took another look at your efforts - excellent mate, it`s looking better all the time, and so user friendly too!

Thanks!

Cheers Owen, its been a fun learning curve !

Have just added the Nelo range now

Really enjoying the ability to compare boats. A few things that stand out for me are (1) seeing the profiles and amount of windage (turned off by the high prows of Epic boats) (2) relative width at catch (3) how far the cockpits are pushed forward. Keep up the great work!

You are gathering fans.... on this facebook post about the site these comments from paddling royalty.

www.facebook.com/marathon.canoeist?hc_re...3I6KjbwvA_1s&fref=nf

Ivan Lawler - Amazing work from someone there!!
Dawid Mocke - Incredible website!!!

Keep up the good work!

Crackajack KiwiDave, Hulk and all, well done.

Thats very cool !! Glad people are using it and finding it useful Will have to get stuck back into my v3 revamp work while waiting on some better images to fill out the range a little more.

Boy, I'm impressed both with the website and your ability
Kiwi. I still have to ask my grownup children for help with my computer tasks.
Great job from, "Mr Analog"

Great website. I love the ability to compare rocker. I would really like to see a spec ski or two since they supposedly have more rocker. Fenn has the LS and recently discontinued the Tarpon, so pics should be accessible just like XT or bluefin you have. Btw, both XT and bluefin appear to have more rocker than I would have thought-much more than V8, for instance. Setting the back of seat on same vertical line will be fantastic, much easier to compare. This will allow me to see if specs really have forward rudder and seat location vs 19’ ocean skis. What about Huki? Can you access their pics? I would bet that owners would gladly send in any pics you ask for. Thanks.

Epic SLS10! That is a spec ski picture that is accessible. I just heard about it, which is why I only mentioned Fenn LS. Very excited epic is entering this super fun ski discipline. Any word on how stable it will be? High end specs can be nearly impossible for intermediate paddlers in rough surf (where they are mainly used). Hopefully it will be comparable in stability to Fenn Tarpon.

@mickeyA: Have added the Epic SLS10 and Fenn LS for your viewing pleasure

Added the Think lineup also now.

Hi Dave, As others have said great work making something very useful for others, thank you. Something I have noticed is I use Microsoft Edge as my browser and I cannot get any of the boats to display on the comparison page. I realised today that changing to another browser 'chrome' suddenly made them all appear correctly not sure if that is a setting issue my end or Microsoft edge itself.

Thanks for the feedback mike ... I knew that issue existed in IE but didn't think it would also affect Edge. Will try and resolve this in my 'v3' rewrite. Until then will see if I can at least detect this and recommend to use user trying Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Edit: Mike, have fixed the Edge compatibility and IE kinda works. Also added some opacity to the boat dragging functionality so you can do a rough overlay when dragging.