New Innovative Stellar 18S Surfski

My initial thoughts on the 18S surf ski is now up on SurfskiRacing.com.

Certainly a very interesting ski , good to see Stellar thinking outside the square, I'd imagine this will go down well with the sea kayak crowd.

It aint a innovative design at all. To be honest its just another disappointing move by Stellar as a VERY similar kayak was designed and made by Epic last year. Check out the link to a race held in Fuyang, China (home of the Epic and Stellar factories) last year on the 16th of September 2011 and a link to the Epic site reporting on the race. Heck there was even 1 at the Dragon Run in 2011 and I was lucky enough to paddle it, although I am not the guy in the YouTube video, he is in Taiwan.



www.chinaraft.com/viewthread.php?action=printable&tid=1751

www.epickayaks.com/news/news/fuyang-race-report




I would post pictures but they wont upload to ss.info.

Hi Flick,
Sounds like you are an Epic guy so no changing that, however I bolded the points in my review that are innovative in particular the useable hatches with bulkheads. While you personally may not find that innovative, many paddlers do. Everyone I have talked to over the past 3 days likes the boat. I sold 6 Stellars in last 2 days. The kayaks shops I have visited and talked to over the past few days have said the response has been very positive.

The fact of the matter is some people like you love Epic, some love Think boats(I still have 2 in my garage), some like Fenn, and over the past three years many love the Stellar boats. Paddlers like choices, and Stellar is another excellent choice just like the above surf skis. In this class alone, the Eze, V8, Oscar, 18S are all great boats for the right paddler and offer great choices. There are differences but that is the whole idea.

I did enjoy the video. You keep paddling your Epics and I will keep paddling and selling the Innovative Stellars!

Wesley,
Great to hear you're getting such solid, positive interest from the surfski community with the Stellar line. The new ski looks like a great crossover ski for beginners, the sea kayaker looking for a bit more of the freedom a surfski bucket provides, or any paddler looking for something with a bit more storage space for longer paddles. Great stuff.
You are 100% correct, paddlers like choices, and having another surfski line and/or model to choose from can only be a good thing. If someone prefers Epic over Stellar, or Stellar over Epic, or perhaps a Think, or a Vajda, or a Nelo, or a Fenn, or whatever... then buy what you like, what suits you best and get out there and enjoy.

I had been toying with the idea of putting in a hatch on my V10 so I could use it for overnight tripping after I got a new ski to replace it.

Either that or get a 18X or similar.

This looks great.
Especially for the warm water we have here on the Gold Coast.

LOL Flick! Oops conspiracy confirmed>>>> just saw the hatch.

At the end of the day there are probably lots of kayak manufacturers that could put a surfski/open type top deck on thier existing designs to cater for the transitional or beginner paddler.

I think you all are being a bit defensive here. Firstly I own a Fenn Millennium Double which I happen to absolutely suck at paddling as I am a Sea Kayak guy (the fenn was selling at really good price and couldnt resit). Its far too unstable and hence why I really liked the V6 when I paddled it. It is like you all say, the idea of a Sea Kayak crossed with a Ski, at least to me, is the best idea since sliced bread. I am happy for people to use whatever brand they like, its all personal choice, hence why I current own 2 different brands of boats. One for the river and one for the sea. My point of my original post was just to counter argue that it aint innovative as its been done before. Thats all. Including the hatches and bulkheads that you are referring to. It looks like you are a Stellar guy and theres no changing that!

My mate who lives in South Africa, just e-mailed me and said Stealth Performance Products has had a boat exactly like this out for more than 5 years. See the link below.

www.stealthpp.co.za/index.php?option=com...icle&id=18&Itemid=18

It seems both Epic and Stellar are way behind.

Now unless someone else can find another manufacturer who made a cross over between a ski and sea kayak before Stealth PP then I would like to give the "Innovative design" on this one to Stealth.

Can only see one defensive post here (which is trying to undo the false innuendo they created in the first place).

No defensive posts here, just man enough to admit a mistake when its made. But it does seems that still no one else will admit the "new 18S" aint innovative to the market!

flick wrote: just man enough to admit a mistake when its made

What was the mistake that you are admitting too?

flick wrote: My mate who lives in South Africa, just e-mailed me and said Stealth Performance Products has had a boat exactly like this out for more than 5 years. See the link below.

www.stealthpp.co.za/index.php?option=com...icle&id=18&Itemid=18

It seems both Epic and Stellar are way behind.

I guess Epic and Stellar should give up now and the market will wait for Stealth to export so we can feel innovated.

flick wrote:
Now unless someone else can find another manufacturer who made a cross over between a ski and sea kayak before Stealth PP then I would like to give the "Innovative design" on this one to Stealth.

Can't see I've seen or heard of these guys in Australia.

As they say, imitation is the greatest form of flattery, pity these guys didn't establish themselves in the international market, Epic and Stellar have just taken the concept to the masses using their international distribution network and marketing.

One things for sure, this thread has given them all some good exposure

I paddle past a couple of those Stealth Touras on the Brissie River every time I head downstream. They have been there for years. This surfski/kayak has been around awhile here in Oz as well globalsurfski.com/2010/03/10/extasea-sea-kayak/

I have often wondered why we haven't seen more of this type of thing as I believe our climate here in Qld is perfect for this type of boat. Good to see more models becoming available.

As hard as it is for me to admit this (mostly a Non-Stellar kinda guy), that stellar is a good looking lil' boat. Nice hull lines. The SES and SEL are Ok lookin' too. (Did I just write that?!? OMG!)

South Africa has been producing ski/kayak hybrids for quite some time now. Many years before the V8. In fact, the ski decked kayaks first evolved for kayak fishing as opposed to racing or sea kayak touring.

Kaskazi kayaks in Cape Town started the trend with the development of their true Kayak based hull designs with boats like the Skua model, a stout 17'3" by 23" boat. Stealth soon followed, but with a truer ski like hull design...

The problem has always been getting them here in the U.S., or getting U.S. manufacturers to get on board and realize the huge potential of the ski-decked type of boat market.

Bruce Gibson of Venturesport has been inporting the Kaskazi line into Florida for many years.

www.southafricankayaks.com is a site that I put together a while back to try to promote this type of concept and draw attention to these little know hybrid designs.

There are literately millions of new paddlers that have brought into the sport the past ten years because of the rotomold "barge" types of boats that litter the water ways. The problem is, once these people get hooked on paddling and want to move to real boat, their only options have been either sit in kayaks, or attempting to learn how to use a surfski.

As everyone knows, once you get used to sitting on top of a boat, most paddlers never really want to get "into " a sea kayak boat all that often.

As far as learning the surfski skill set goes...

It's not the easiest thing in the world to just go out and do. The skill takes time; often many years. Being that the average age of paddlers lies between 40 and 70 with most paddlers being close to 60, many of us could be worm food before we really learn how to paddle a ski...

That's why these novice boats are important. They give people such as myself the opportunity to learn and more importantly help develop the paddling skills needed to in the future jump to the next level of ski paddling if we wish to... In my case they also help us middle-aged, pot bellied couch potatoes to lose 30 pounds so we can actually fit in a ski's bucket!

The more boats put on the water like this new Stellar, as well as the Epic V8, the better. Here in the Northeast, U.S.A. these kind of boats really shine.

Even though I have a V8, I may in the future pick up an S18 also and I really appreciate the fact that Stellar and Epic took the initiative to design and build these boats.

Think Kayak have had a ski/kayak hybrid for years now, called the Fit. This design is over 4 years old at this stage.

www.thinkkayak.com.au/think-fit-2/

We've added to our range and created a new stable ski called the Eze.

www.thinkkayak.com.au/eze/