Mentor, Xt or Horizon for beginners ?

Hi all,
I am new to surf ski. I have been trying the mentor for about 10 hours now and I am about to quit or break my paddle against a coconut tree every time I go out (my performance being 5 minutes witout falling in no wave condition, I do have clean sinuses now though).
Until now I paddled a Paddleyak solo tourer for 2 years. I am 1m86 and 110 kg.

I have a decision to make. I can buy a fenn XT (I have tried it and felt stable but heavy), buy a Horizon (can't try it because I am in the carribean) or lower my mentor seat (cheapest solution).

What do you think ?

Have you considered the Honcho Guru? This is also a nice beginner's ski.

Just blame the bad teacher.

I will be lowering the seat on 2 school Mentors this weekend. Maybe borrow the XT for tomorrow and Saturday and then we can see how you get on with the lowered Mentor. The other poster was right - look at other options. Read all other reviews on the site - we can bring any of the South African Boats in January and their prices are all more or less the same.

If you are learning on your own, a suggestion would be for you to spend $25 for a DVD made by Dawid Mocke and sold on this site. It will probably save a lot of frustration.
Jim

I paddled a C-Kayak double sit on with my wife (super stable) and have just got into the surf ski sport. My balance is terrible. I test paddled the Fenn XT and Honcho Guru and found the Guru a bit more stable and for me a bit more comfortable. After the second time out I was able to paddle in small chop without falling over to often. I stay inland (only get to the coast every 2nd-3rd month) and paddle at the local dam and am able to keep up with half of the guys in their K1's in my Guru. I am 1.86m tall and weigh 98kg's

I've been spending time in both the Horizon and the Guru over the last two weeks and confirm that both skis are quite a bit more stable than the Mentor.

Both have pretty good hull speed, both have pretty comfortable seats (for me Horizon wins on this one).

Horizon goes downwind very nicely without any propensity to broach. I haven't tried the guru in downwind conditions yet.

Both have nice adjustable footplate assemblies.

The Horizon is a bit lighter than the Guru.

I'll be doing more in depth reviews of both boats over the next couple of weeks. (I'm also looking at the venerable Fenn XT and the new V10 Sport with the narrow seat.)

One worry that Personne has - is that if he buys a "beginner's" ski, he will be locked into that and won't progress to a more competitive ski. Any comments on that from personal experience?

StuartXpat wrote:

One worry that Personne has - is that if he buys a "beginner's" ski, he will be locked into that and won't progress to a more competitive ski. Any comments on that from personal experience?

You just read my mind

In my view:

- An easier ski makes the introduction to the sport much more fun and less frustrating.
- There are so many people coming into the sport that a beginner's ski ought to be easy to re-sell.

That was certainly my experience 8 years ago when I started and the sport wasn't booming to the same extent back then!

I started on an old second-hand wedge and passed it on after 6 months for almost the same as I paid for it.

I agree with Rob. I started into skis about 12 months ago with a new Epic V10 Sport and have just moved into an Epic V10. I have found the transition a reasonable challenge but am picking it up quickly. At this stage I'm hanging on to the Sport as I transit but have already had offers for it.

Moving into the V10 has been a real buzz with the extra speed and increased responsivness. On reflection I'm really pleased to have started in the Sport.

Cheers
John

Upgraded from a XT to a Mako6... I kept my XT, still like it when we got some real big surf. It's only slower upwind and in the flat.

Buy the xt. It will be easier to learn on and easier to sell when you want to upgrade. If you want to go faster put on a small rudder and you will surprised how fast an xt is in flatter water.

Personne, at 110kg you are WAY too big for a Mentor!!

I started with a Mentor and I did a fair bit of falling out of it on the ocean at first. But I thought I was in a stable 'beginners boat' so I just kept working at it and within six months I was absolutely fine on downwinds in 2m seas and 15-20 knot winds.

Then I fell in love with a Mako6 - I expected it would feel unstable as it's a more advanced ski, but it felt much more STABLE than my Mentor. So does the V10L that I paddle now. I put this down to my time in the unstable Mentor, and if I had the chance to do it again, I'd still go with the Mentor as my first boat just for what it's done for my balance in the more advanced skis.

Another benefit to the Mentor is that the high seat makes it very easy to remount!

Thanks for your answers.
I have finally opted for lowering the Mentor seat with succes, it makes it a very stable yet fast ski, but I am still thinking of purchasing a Horizon. Is there any Horizon owner who can tell us more about this ski. We have established that it is stable but will it be faster than my low seat Mentor ?

Hi Personne

How much did you lower the seat by?

Thanks

I lowered his by 4cm. I have done another at 2.5cm and it seems to be very stable too. I plan to do another at 2cm.

Hi Stuart.

Thanks for the quick response.
Is there a downside of lowering the seat too much?
If 4cm works well, why do a 2.5cm and 2cm?

I'm thinking of this option as well.

There are a few things to bear in mind.

On the standard setup, the footwell is 2cm deeper than the seat, so at 2cm drop, you end up sitting level with your heels, at 4cm you are 3cm below them.

The way I did it, I only dropped the bucket, so the hump under the knees gets relatively higher. At 4cm drop this can be a bit high for short legged people.

Then there is the leverage aspect - the reason the seat was placed so high in the forst place.

Of course you can always pad teh bucket up at a later date.

Yep now I will add a pad to get more leverage, it will also spare my coccys.

Hi Guys.

Its been a few months of paddling the 'deep seat' Mentor.

How is it going?

Is there an optimum seat lowering height?

Thanks.