Friday 25 February 2011

Getting to know the Epic V12

I've spent the last two months getting my head around the Epic V12 ski, a boat that I never really had any intention of graduating to when I started paddling the intermediate V10S last January.
I'd read that it is a reasonably stable boat for bigger guys like me, but not so for lighter paddlers. So far so good, the initial & secondary stability feels very much like the V10S did when I first started paddling it, but boy does it fly in comparison. It shows you how quickly you can become accustomed to lower stability if you have a bit of a go. These tiny little waves are at Dolls Pt in Sydney, perfect runners for getting a feel for the boat at speed. 
I shot this short video using my new toy, an Oregon Scientific ATC9K Point of View HD camera. I was wanting a GoPro, but the results I saw around from a kayak-eye perspective with the GoPro weren't so impressive. The wide angle lens tended to flatten things out & not really represent the action as it happened live. This camera was recommended as having a less wide lens, & I think the video bears that out. I'm pretty happy with the way it looks in comparison to how it really looked. As you can see it wasn't exactly Waimea Bay, although I swear one of those waves was at least 8ft - the camera must have switched to 'flatten out' mode at just the wrong time! Yeah sure....
It's an excellent compact waterproof unit & it has a remote control, allowing you to turn it on & off at sea without any fiddling. It's like the manufacturers have put all the features of the current genre of these types of cameras together & come up with the perfect package. Time will tell how durable it is, but I was pretty happy with the first run.

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