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Pyranha Everest Review
To think I can only use the new Pyranha Everest on multi day expeditions, or paddling it down the Dudh Kosi does not equate to me. I think it’s the best creeking boat pyranha have ever made.
It’s a big boat and I guess being a strong 14 and a half stone paddler made it easy to boof and throw around quickly. The fact it’s a large boat is one of it’s finest qualities. Its quick and when steep creeking on the River Erme, it flew, quite literally over drops, down the slides and off pour overs as clean as a whistle. The Everest’s big rocker and sheer volume allowed it to be buoyant when it hit the bottom of drops, bouncing nicely in the direction I intended it to go – superb!!
Yet the Everest still has edges; another feature I really liked!. It allows you to carve turns with speed and use the river’s features to change direction with ease. Unlike rounded boats without edges, it tracks a line and doesn’t skid across eddies, this makes it feel very responsive. The edges are subtle though, higher up the sidewall, making the Everest more forgiving than its Pyranha relative the Burn, which allowed myself to get the boat back online with relatively little effort. When on the steeps, sliding down rocks and off drops these subtle edges did not catch or trip the boat up.
From what I’ve said already you can probably tell I loved it, however I do need to perceiver with it a bit. On larger water it tended to pogo through the waves and if it was a haystack wave or a breaking wave the boat bobbed around, and if the water surged this often meant the boat would be pushed off course. I feel if the Everest was weighted with kit in the more than ample room it has in the stern and behind the footrest it would have been less of an issue, and let’s face it that’s what it’s designed for!!
For this reason it would make the Everest an ideal boat for instructors with lots of kit, it makes a great platform to rescue from and because of it’s speed and tracking finesse makes demonstrations obvious.
Lastly, when I first got in the Everest it’s thigh braces were more like knees braces, set miles away, and even with my large arse, I still felt like a pea in a bucket. So expect to spend a while adjusting the fittings, and don’t take how it feels sat on a piece of carpet in a shop has your first and last impressions, because you will be missing out on a truly awesome boat.
Follow the link for the Everest at pyranha.com.
