Service excellence

Last week Tuesday the 17th of Jan i finally made up my mind to order a new Custom Kayak's Focus. after settling on a colour the order was place with Mark well after 5pm. Well you can imagine my suprise on Sunday night when i got the call to say that Mark had gone down to his shop so that the boat could be loaded and delivered on Monday!

well done to Mark and the team at Custom Kayaks

That is about the Norm there, I had a similar experience with Mark. Enjoy the new boat.

Great news - but what I wanted to know is what made you choose the focus? which other skis did you try?

Hi Rookie

OK so a bit more detail! Firstly I am not a mid-packer but rather a back packet paddling a XT at the moment. I have been looking at updating the XT for a while and was really excited when the Swordfish came out as i knew that the Mako6 Elite were out of my league. so Apart from the Focus I also paddled the SF which I also really liked, very similar to the XT but a bit quicker. So why the Focus?

Firstly I am 1.92m tall and about 97kg so I felt a better fit in the Focus and in fact could get my legs lower helping with balance.

Having a bit more volume in front of me means the nose doesn't bury as much on either the XT or SF

Nice being able to get a boat that is not white!

Finally based North of Durban it is easier for me to get the boat back to Mark for repairs if needed.

Now i just have to paddle the damn boat. Flu sucks

Gee sorry about the flu - blast!!
Thanks for your thoughts on the focus, I find myself in a similar position 93kg and 1.92m tall. Definitly NOT a serious racer but love being on the water I am really looking for a ski that i can take anywhere. I now live in cape town and the a big on the downwind races but I am reluctent to use my current ski as it scares the hell out of me that I may not be able to get back in to it.
Thanks a million - got to dash to a meeting

philcox, I have been interested in the focus as I had a Synergy 2, Just found the deep bucket a tight fit. I am a little shorter than you at 183 but quite a lot heavier. Have you been able to compare the focus to a Synergy 2? If so your thoughts. I am up in Jhb so don't get into the rough water much. I plan on doing the King of the Bay this year. If my doubles partner drops me I may have to get another single.

I have been looking out for a V10 sport or Zeplin as they are for larger paddlers but would prefer doing business with Mark if possible as he was brilliant with my last 2 boats.

HI, i can help on this one, paddled a Synergy2 for most of the season and paddled Mark Lewin's Focus straight after a race in Fish Hoek Cape Town. For me personally I battled with the stability of the boat for the beginning of the season until i stopped my asthma medication and lengthened the foot peddles not sure which helped more! Having said that the S2 is simply fantastic on the downwinds. The focus seems to have a very similar hull design to the synergy so i would expect similar speed but where it comes in to its own is the lower seat and sidewalls giving me a better sense of confidence and dramatically improving the stability. This allowed me to paddle hard going across the 20kt wind something I cannot do in the synergy2.It is narrower around the feet area allowing one to bring your paddle in closer - nice straight paddle from the start. Marks ski is the hybrid so it really was easy to get on to any runs that day.
I would like to keep the synergy2 and get a focus for the longer races but i am not sure my btter half is going to undertand(I hear the trick is to keep all your ski white )

Bwhahahaha thanks Rookie, that was the deal when I changed from the Horizon to Synergy 2. The wife said your boat looks different? I just said yip cleaned sponsor stickers and changed position of the numbers.

Brilliant, simply brilliant!!

And I bet that she has only one pair of black shoes too.

No RAB she has a whole cupboard full, not to mention enough clothes to start a Mall.
In fact if I didn't have 5 boats I would say something

Just got back from a FANTASTIC down wind paddle to log on a cry with laughter - O bring on the weekend thanks

But it did make me realise relative boat speed is useless unless you are stable - looks like I will have to keep saving for my next pair of shoes te hee

i hope those new shoes are black!

Finally managed to take the new boat for a gentle spin last night!

Now for some serious paddling!

Rookie wrote: Just got back from a FANTASTIC down wind paddle to log on a cry with laughter - O bring on the weekend thanks

But it did make me realise relative boat speed is useless unless you are stable - looks like I will have to keep saving for my next pair of shoes te hee

mmmmm Not sure how to respond to that post, was in meetings from hell at 07h30 already and about 500km's from the sea

mmmmm Not sure how to respond to that post, was in meetings from hell at 07h30 already and about 500km's from the sea

Sorry Moll only 6.93km from office to boat rack. Sea temp 24 degrees, bugger the rest of the afternoons work!

AND...... You are the reason we started this!! we are all waiting to hear what you think of the ski?

I will hopefully get in a decent paddle this weekend and respond on Monday!

And ... we cannot hold our breath much longer.. :

OK so the flu finally left me and i was able to take the Focus for a decent spin. Firstly the cockpit is cosier than the XT but also much longer allowing me to get my legs lower and so improve stability. Jumping in the primary stability is a bit more challenging but once under way it was no issue. I was fortunate enough to have a gentle 2ft wave to play in and found that the ski was able to catch runs far easier but more importantly to stay on them. i had one swim , my fault, i tried to catch a wave in the bombing zone and really was not fair to the ski! this was good in that i then had to remount which will take a bit of practice but wasn't too bad if a tad slow! so overall i was really happy with the secondary stability as well as the speed, i could actually maintain 10km plus at the end of the paddle on flat water. the boat is a dream on the waves and really surfs well as long as the pilot isnt too stupid . I do know that I'll have a bit of a learning curve in more choppy conditions but so far so good!

Cant wait for home time today so i can go and test it again!