Review: Icon Surf Ski

The Custom Kayaks Icon surf ski is a relative newcomer to the market having been in production since early 2004.

The fundamental characteristics are:

• Length: 6.42m (21ft)
• Construction: glassfibre sandwich or composite carbon/glassfibre
• Weight (glassfibre, average): 15kg

• 2005 Molokai Challenge: 2nd (Nathan Baggeley)
• World Cup (Perth, Australia) 2004: 1st overall (Nathan Baggeley)
• Men’s Health Series 2004, Australia: 1st overall (Nathan Baggeley)
  

A characteristic that lead me to choose this ski over its rivals was the comfort of the cockpit, which is wider than some other skis.  This means easy rotation in the stroke and I also find the shape of the cockpit facilitates remounting.

Stability: 

 

The Icon is a twitchy beast in choppy water, but has good secondary stability.  This means that while the ski feels tippy, it is forgiving and there is definite resistance to turning right over. 

Skis with a comparable stability: 

Fenn Mako Millennium; Red7 Surf 70

Speed: 

Given a competent driver, the Icon is just as likely to win as any of the other top skis.  This is confirmed by recent results both in South Africa and elsewhere in the world.

Skis with comparable speed: 

Fenn Millennium; Red7 Surf 70; Epic V-10

Upwind characteristics: 
The Icon cuts through the waves cleanly with a minimum of slap. 

Downwind characteristics: 
The Icon is an absolute joy to drive downwind seeming to take off down the slightest bump. It also tracks well, allowing the paddler to manoeuvre diagonally down the faces of waves without broaching.

Overall: 
The Icon is a well built, fast ski that performs exceptionally well downwind.  This is a ski for an advanced level paddler however.

Website: 
www.customkayaks.co.za

Review by Rob Mousley, 27 Nov 2005. 

Review of the Reviewer:

Rob is 42, has been paddling since 1999, spent 6 months on a Wedge, 2 1/2 years on a Molokai and bought his first Icon after the World Cup 2004. 

He's a B-Grade paddler in the 2005 Discovery Men's Health Series, did the 2004 World Cup (in the Molokai ski), did the Scottburgh to Brighton 2005 in the Icon.

He considers himself to be a competent,  reasonably experienced paddler and expects to be in the top half of the fleet in most races.

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