Amundson 12'6" TR: Water Review

I finally got my new Amundson out on the water. It was one of those strange spring days we get this time of year in New York. The air was 78 degrees and the water was 44 F. I went back and forth about what wet suit to wear, and finally settled on my light 2.5 MM farmer john. Anything else would have been a portable sauna, and I figured if I fell, I'd be okay. I wore my PFD just to be sure, although I think PFDs are mandatory anyway until May.

My board bag hasn't arrived yet, so I loaded the board on top of my wife's VW Routan. Down to Peekskill waterfront I went. The conditions looked placid, but that was deceiving. This would also be my first time with my new KeNalu xTuf paddle.

As I got on the water, I got hot with about a 10 mph southerly in my face. Not the most fun conditions, but it was a good test for the board. The straight nose punched through the light chop pretty easily with little board slap. I went on my standard loop, which is anywhere from 3-4 miles. Around  my first turn and my back was to the waves. This was when the flat bottom of the board became very obvious. As the tiny waves came from behind, I felt the board try to run with them on the bottom. I buried the nose a bunch of times, but that didn't affect the ride much. I think the extra buoyancy in the front had something to do with that too.

My KeNalu has been cut longer than my older paddles, and wow was I feeling that. There was a lot more load on my upper shoulders near my collarbone. I also realized that I had been crouching a lot with my older paddle to get it buried in the water. Now I could stand more upright! That was very nice! Plus, the paddle itself was a feather. It was weird paddling something so light. A couple other things I noticed was the funny, grippy texture on the shaft. My fingers made a funny sound as I switched the paddle from side to side.

Two things to say about the upwind paddling. The first is that the chop didn't bother the board that much. The second was that I could feel the smaller volume and smaller size of the board in decreased glide. I had to be more on my game than on a fourteen footer, especially since for about half a mile I was getting pushed up against a rocky embankment. Absolutely no relaxing or I'd get knocked up against the rocks. The nose also got knocked from side to side a bit, although I was impressed by the stability of the board when I had to paddle with the chop hitting me at ninety degrees. I figured the flat bottom would increase the chances of the board getting thrown, but it felt stable, even when getting rocked side to side.

I can definitely live with this board. It didn't knock my socks off with anything, but it behaved itself well in lousy conditions. On a rough 3.5 mile stretch I averaged 2.7 mph, getting up to 4.5 mph in the downwind section. I'm looking forwards to testing it out in flat water conditions, which happens rarely to never on the Hudson.

Next time I'm going to use that Gladiator fin. It seems stupid now to have gone out without it, although I wanted a feel of the stock fin.