Carbonology Cruze to Revo R3.

I thought I would share my initial thoughts on changing from my Cruze to a Revo R3. My account maybe of interest to others relatively new to Surfski as I started out in Surfskis with the Cruze just over a year ago. I am 52 6ft tall and weigh 12.5 stone and have kayaked for the last couple of years mainly on sit ons fishing. I also did kayaking many years ago with the scouts.

I bought my Cruze in hybrid lay up back in August last year and immediately got on well with it using it in the sea and river and over the year have gained confidence to a point where I will look for a forecast of wave height up to around 0.8 metre for a little downwinding/wave running to give an indication of my ability.

I started to think earlier in the year I could maybe move to another slightly more demanding Surfski to try and continue my learning and improve my ability and the Revo R3 came about after being taken with the concept and liason with Alan Hunter who is now the UK agent.

For my initial outing after taking delivery of the much more pointy R3 I went to the river to make sure there were no mishaps first time out. I went to my local slipway and floated her and hopped in side saddle. (This was the first quite major difference I noticed with the seat being both narrower and more importantly significantly deeper than the Cruze and it felt slightly uncomfortable sitting side saddle)Anyway I swung my legs inboard as I have become accustomed to in the Cruze and immediately rolled out the other side of the R3 into the river to my shock but amusement of others.

After chatting with a Guy who was watching and was a Surfskier I nervously got back in side saddle got one leg in and then started to paddle with my other leg trailing for a couple of strokes and I was off. To me the R3 felt so twitchy not wanting to sit even upright without tipping off centre and I paddled nervously toward the lock. On the plus side it looks so racy and pointy from the cockpit and got a few admiring glances I think because I didn't dare look anything but straight ahead.

I got a little more confident with some forward momentum appearing to balance her out a little and made it to the pontoon at the lock. I then remembered a review where the tester said the Revo does feel a little nervous on centre but then with a little lean the secondary stability kicks in so I put the paddle on the side and let her lean over slightly to feel that secondary stability however I must have passed that stage quickly as I found myself swimming next to the boat before I knew what was happening.

My first trip to the sea was after another river trip and in very calm conditions but with that slight wallowing motion as I paddled parallel to the beach (close enough to swim to shore if needed) had me in probably 10 plus times in a 2 hour period.

At this stage my Cruze felt like an old cuddly mate and the R3 a giant swan vesta match and I wondered if I had made a mistake.

At this point I had a bit of fortune as I enquired about a cover for the R3 with Robin of Durban Surfski and had a conversation about my difficulties. Robin gave me some great tips like pivoting on my hips to aid balancing as I seemed to be trying to use my whole top half in one movement. He also suggested sitting in the ski without a paddle to quicken the balance learning.

These two things plus others have definitely helped and also shown me that some of this is in the mind as I could not look behind me even on the river as my brain knew I would fall out. However last time out in the river I went with a drysuit on so I was warm and had a play around after deliberately falling in I was amazed there was more balance than I thought. After we paddled off from that training exercise I could look behind me on the river so that was clearly just a mental block and nervousness.

As a result of the deeper seat it is also harder to get back in from a deep water remount but I find if done to a sequence it does work every time and on the plus side the deeper and narrower seat (34 inch waist) feels snugger and more comfortable to paddle in than the Cruze.

I have now used the R3 5 times on the river and 3 in the sea and have made some progression and last time out in the sea I can paddle a calm sea without falling in and once it chops up a little an occasional spill but as the wind increased to create a confused chop I was struggling and called it a day.

I have carried out some basic comparison between the Cruze and the R3 using mapmyride Gps and have found on the river where I can paddle the R3 at my full power it is roughly 8 % faster in a sprint and the same over a 2km timed run.

I have found with its bigger Surf rudder the R3 turns positively and am hoping my improvement continues so I can see if she goes downwind as well as she looks. I will be keeping the Cruze however for the foreseeable future.

Hi!
I’m very interested on the Revo 3. I’m 53 years old , 94Kgrs and have been paddling Surfskis for two years. My present Ski is a Fenn Swordfish. I’m confident on it on flat and small waves, but when waves get high and during downwind, I have to brace and become slow. I’m thinks no of buying a second Ski, more stable, for downwinds and hard conditions days. Options are: Carbonology Boost, Epic V8 Pro ,Think Zen and Nelo 520. My question is:
Would you consider the Revo 3 a Transition boat as stable as the boats mentioned before or an intermediate boat more comparable, in terms of stability, to Fenn Swordfish an Epiv V10 Sport? Reading your comments it seems to me that the Revo 3 is closer to be an intermediate boat more than a Transition one.
Thank you!

Hi,

I cannot really answer your question as I have only paddled the two skis above. I put the pictures up as it certainly shows why they feel so different as there is clearly a lot less volume front and back on the R3 than the Cruze and my brain as much as anything needs to recalibrate which it is definitely doing but maybe not as quick as I thought. However I know someone who has paddled the Epic pro and a Carbonology Zest before the R3 and his opinion is the R3 is definitely easier to get on with than the Zest and quite similar to the pro which I have to admit surprises me looking at the pictures of both as the pro appears to have more volume and certainly has a little more width. Listening to other more experienced reviewers than me on the R3 it certainly gets the thumbs up for being stable in the sea and my guess would be that you would find it easier than the swordfish but I wouldn't like to say by how much only a test run would decide that I guess.
Again my opinion but I certainly wouldn't put the R3 as a beginners boat more an improver to intermediate at least.
Hope that is of some help.

That seat pad is probably making the R3 more comfortable but less stable feeling for sure.

I'm watching this thread cause I recently saw an R1 and R2 in the states but they sold pretty quick. Really cool/fast looking ski.

Thank you Mike!
Si it seems to me that the Revo 3 is not the boat I’m looking for. I will have to wait for the Revo 4 or make up my mind among Boost and Zen, as the Epic V8 Pro is very expensive for me .
Thank you very much!
Matias

hi Kwolfe, That is an interesting one re the seat pad and something I would have agreed with in theory. However my second trip out in the sea I decided to try it with and without. The conditions stayed the same and over a few sorties out and back from the beach I tried it initially without then added it and then took it out again and I fell in more times without it than with so I am not sure. I heard a theory that once the padding is wet it might let you transfer weight more quickly by having less friction than the boat itself on your bottom.. I am not sure but I certainly prefer it for paddling as with it positioned up the back of the bucket slightly it puts me in what feels like a more aggressive paddling position that seems to allow a more powerful stroke.

Hi Canario
Im the UK importer for Revo but I’ve purposely paddled or indeed owned some of the skis that you've mentioned.
The Revo is a bit less stable than most of your control group but very close to at least one of the skis you mention .
First and foremost the Revo is definitely in the improver to intermediate category.
It isn't an entry level ski.
( it would seem that this term entry level is being stretched considerably with the introduction of ever widening craft but prior to that phenomenon I would have placed entry firmly at the door of at the Epic V8)
Although the Revo R3 has what could be termed intermediate dimensions.
It's far longer ( more of a full size ski) than the others in your control group. The Revo is 6.1m and its width is 48cm.
The width would ordinarily lead you to believe that this ski is firmly in intermediate territory along with skis like the V10s and Carbonology zest and perhaps the Think Evo 2 ( 47cm) but you wouldn't be correct.
The hull design on the Revo R3 provides a stability level which is more akin to a ski measuring around 50 to 51cm.
Happily the stability doesn't appear to come with any real speed degradation as the Revo is very fast over the water and surfs a wave beautifully.
When paddling it's actually visually like paddling an elite level ski as it's so sleek going forward.
It has great manners and maneuvers very well in all conditions that I've encountered.
I'd say you're missing a trick if you don't at least give one a thorough test in the conditions you wish to paddle.

Good luck with the hunt
Cheers
Alan

Revo seem to have made a different version of the R3 for Australia. The dimensions of the R3 here are length 5.75m and beam width 48cm, as listed on the Revo Gold Coast page.

I actually think the web information may be incorrect , I think I recall those numbers as initial stated dimensions so perhaps it's not been updated on the Gold Coast site.
Certainly worth asking but to my knowledge all R3s are 6.1m long.