New Epic V10 - generation 4

Hi Rob
I am interested in the inside dimensions of the seat rather than the outside dimensions of the ski.
Have fun tomorrow
glider

Glider wrote:

Hi Rob
I am interested in the inside dimensions of the seat rather than the outside dimensions of the ski.
Have fun tomorrow
glider

I don't have access to a V11, but I can tell you that the V10 4g seat is about 40cm wide at the deck. The same, incidentally, as my Fenn Swordfish S.

Ok, so I've had two paddles in the V10 4gen so far...

The first was on Thursday evening. Conditions: horrific. Cold, dark, sheeting offshore squalls, rain. What the hell was I doing out there? I just had to try the boat, that's what!

Impressions (aside from focusing on survival!): Man, what a stable boat. Even more stable, I think, than the Fenn Swordfish that I've been paddling for the last couple of years. Man, what a COMFORTABLE boat. My beloved Swordie has a horrific incompatibility with my (slightly weird, to be fair) coccyx, to the point where if I don't use a bumpad, I get horrible raw patches on my backside.

So:
- Stable
- Comfortable. Not just comfortable, but the seat feels higher than your heels - which I'll confirm - so that you're in a really nice posture.
- The cutaways in front of the cockpit ensure that it doesn't feel like a fat boat - I seldom touch the hull with my paddle.
- It's VERY responsive to the rudder.

Second paddle - last night. I was amped for this one because it's our regular Friday evening "Wreck 'n Back" dice and I was keen to see how the boat would go relative to my usual markers...

Hmm... First thing was that quite a big shore break was running... Hmm...

So, we started, I punched through a couple of waves and then... I punched through a bigger one, but got sucked backwards, lost my balance and was in the water. Some wild moments trying keep hold of the boat, and to avoid the other paddlers still coming out... No-one hit me, thank goodness.

Hop back on, attack another - much bigger - wave... and I got blasted, smashed backwards out of the cockpit, bam!

Oh man. Floundering around, remount, (briefly note to myself that this boat is a doddle to remount) and sit side-saddle as another wave hits.... Manage to stay on, swing my legs in and finally get out the back.

...to find myself completely on my own. By now it's four minutes since the start and the entire field is nearly a km away already!

I briefly considered just giving the whole thing a miss, but then thought, what the hell, I'm here now... and started to paddle. I realised that I'd lost my hat - and paused again to group behind me. Fortunately it was on the end of its string and I was able to gather it back and put it on.

I paused again when I realised my new neoprene pants were half off my backside, courtesy of the waves, and tried to pull them back up.

Finally I ground my way back into a rhythm and set off after the back-markers... I caught a couple of them before the wreck.

I cut close around the wreck and, almost overdoing it, cleared the barnacles by mere cm, giving myself another fright...

I overtook another couple of paddlers on the way home and had just a taste of accelerating onto a wave at the finish...

Impressions?

- Thank goodness the boat's not damaged!
- It's easy to remount
- In spite of my exhausting start and pauses to readjust myself, my time was pretty similar to the last couple of races so I'm fairly sure that the boat speed isn't noticeably different to the Swordfish.

I'm not THAT interested in the flat water speed in any case - I'm all about downwind paddling.

Tomorrow, we have a 22km downwind paddle in an ideal forecast (20kt, NNW)... Fish Hoek to Buffels Bay... I am absolutely frothing for it...

Bated breath, Rob…….!

Hmm... so, instead of the forecast 22-25kt, we had about 10-15kt, not at all the same thing!

www.strava.com/activities/9245052474

Highlights were that I found that I could take off on a run much later than on the Swordie; I'd be at the point where I would have been too late to catch the run on the SF, but found that I was boosted onto it on the V10. Also I found that I could sometimes ramp the next wave and keep going where I'd have given up on the SF.

Also the handling is very good - given the responsiveness to the rudder at low speeds, I was worried it might be twitchy on the runs, but the sensitivity to the rudder seems to tone down and it holds its line very well. At the same time, if you want to change direction to chase something to one side, you just touch the rudder pedal and you're there. It also tracks well down a wave at a diagonal.

Still finding the seat an absolute joy.

Clearly this boat has different characteristics than I'm used to - I'm looking forward to learning how to make the most of it.

Next up: Reverse Miller's tomorrow, on Friday and on Sunday(!)

any more updates on your experience with the gen4?

ericwallace wrote:

any more updates on your experience with the gen4?

Hey Eric,

Yeah, so I've had it for about six weeks now and have done 22 paddles on it, including:

• 11 downwind ranging from mellow to wild
• A couple of informal races
• A number of squad paddles comprising interval training on flat water and some on choppy water out and backs into wind and waves.

I'm busy writing a full review, but some thoughts:

The boat is similar in stability to the Fenn Swordfish; I feel pretty much bullet-proof in any sea conditions.

For me, it's a very comfortable seat - much more comfortable than the Swordie, where I have to have a butt pad or it rubs my coccyx raw.

The seat has a great cutaway at the back, which makes it comfortable to lean back when you're going down steep runs and you want to keep the nose up.

The seat is shallower than the Swordfish, and remounts are very easy. The seat feels slightly higher in the boat, which gives a very comfortable feeling of having your heels a little lower than your butt, but I still need to measure the heights to see whether I'm correct in this. The cutaways are quite radical, allowing the paddle close to the centreline at the start of the stroke.

I'm finding that in really choppy, conditions, I'm slipping from side to side in the seat, and I'm going to try paddlng with a butt pad to anchor my backside.

It holds its line well, I can ride the runs at a diagonal without losing control. At the same time it is very responsive to the rudder (or to leaning the boat).

I'm still getting used to the way it catches runs; it seems to accelerate a second or two later than other boats I've paddled. But it almost needs less effort to catch the runs if you wait for that brief moment to accelerate; it seems to release and surge forward.

It seems to cut through the waves and to be able to bounce the next wave more than I've been able to on my recent boats.

On flat water, it picks up tiny bumps. Last night we were training on flat water and while I was maintaining 11.3-11.6kph, every now and then a small bump would arrive and I'd feel the boat accelerate and I could hold 12.2-12.4kph while on the wave. I dropped my training partners for the first time in ages, man it felt good.

For me this is a really interesting boat. On the one hand it's an "easy-to-use", comfortable, stable boat, but I feel that it has something more - if you really get to know it and know when to put the hammer down on the waves, it really comes alive. It's the most "characterful" boat I've played with for a while - in a good way.

I haven't fully got to grips with it downwind, especially in confused, choppy conditions, but I'm really enjoying it.

So it's an intriguing boat - and I'm loving it.

Just a note on people mentioning that the V10 seat is higher. That is incorrect, seat height is fundamental to stability, you raise the seat 10mm it makes a huge difference, obviously within similar width skis.

What is the real difference? The seat rail height is lower, cut away to make remounting easier, this is on all but a few Epics. They can afford to do this because they have a fast draining bailer so a bit of water extra is not an issue.

It's odd that most skis don't have bailers, the science is clear on drag. But I suppose it is just as clear on making a cheaper ski, but not cheaper on selling?

Ranga wrote:

Just a note on people mentioning that the V10 seat is higher. That is incorrect, seat height is fundamental to stability, you raise the seat 10mm it makes a huge difference, obviously within similar width skis.
What is the real difference? The seat rail height is lower, cut away to make remounting easier, this is on all but a few Epics. They can afford to do this because they have a fast draining bailer so a bit of water extra is not an issue.
It's odd that most skis don't have bailers, the science is clear on drag. But I suppose it is just as clear on making a cheaper ski, but not cheaper on selling?

Thanks for that Ranga!

Fascinating stuff - I can confirm though that it's a very comfortable cockpit...!

Hello Rob,

I have not been able to demo the gen 4 yet but hope to very soon. Is it living up to your expectations?
Cheers

Short answer - yes, I'm loving it. Long answer - in the review that I've already written... I just need to take some photos and post it!

(Just been off paddling for two weeks with a bout of covid - not serious, just irritating! Will be back on the water tonight.)

It's taken me a long time, but here it is... my review on the V10 4G
surfski.info/latest-news/story/1729/epic...mediate-surfski.html