Beginner with line on used Big EZ or Juice 7.1. I'm 5'11", 180 lbs, size 10 feet. It will be my only boat and I'll use it to run a variety of water. I've paddled the Big EZ but only sat in the Juice. Any opinions?

depending on if you want to do more running or playboating i think the Juice would be a better runner because of slightly more volume, and i have a friend who has one and he weighs around 200 but he really likes the boat and it floats his weight well, if you are looking for playboating and running, i think you should consider a different boat alltogether because both these have a rather large volume for your weight if intent on playboating, you could look at the jackson fun series, wave sport ez, riot nitro 58, or a pyranha s7 2 are a few suggestions of boats that could play better for your weight but still run rivers.

If it is just between the juice or big ez i would lean towards a Big ez because it would give you a little more play ability for your weight.

But i think your height shouldnt be a problem getting into either of them, although i am 6'1" and 207 pounds and thought the juice was a little too roomy and i didnt have total control on the boat with my legs, i havnt tried the ez but i know the juice is incredably easy to roll because the outfitting sits really low in the boat and the edges slant a lot, i think the edges on the ez also slant a lot so rolling shouldnt be a factor in either boat.

Deffinatly demo if you can get a chance to though and consider more what type of paddling you want to do before purchasing one, but pretty much which ever one you can get a better deal on would be what determines it for me, because it can cost quite a bit to get all the proper gear if you want to buy quailty equiptment.

I've never tried the Juice but paddled a Big EZ (well, 3 of them - 2 broke) for over a year. I think it was bad luck that 2 of them cracked at the seat bolts next to the cockpit rim. Both were replaced with brand new boats without any hassles though... Apart from that, it was an excellent boat for it's time. In fact, it's still an excellent boat! It has a high parting line which means you can run rapids without being as edgy as a full blown playboat and of course the extra length translates into speed. I found it comfortable and good a compromise between playability and river running capability. It is getting old already, but nothing wrong with it and will go down in history as a legend I'm sure.

If you're going to paddle mainly big volume rivers that are not too technical you can consider even a full on play boat, otherwise a river runner will probably help you out a bit more in general and be kinder to you. I'm not sure on your skill level but I assume beginner. I bought my Big EZ as my second boat after about 3 months of paddling - the bug bit hard! I loved the boat.

I'm not sure if you're limited to only these two, or if your budget is very tight, but check out several other boats, from different manufacturers. See what you like, and try to demo as many as possible, if possible. Good luck!

I'm 6' and about 187 lbs with size a US10 foot in Salomon. Fitted nicely, although I have short legs it seems because people shorter than me can't fit into my boats.

Here's an old video of me in the boat on flat water:

playak.tv/view_video.php?viewkey=7f89ddbebc2ac9128303

(I see it's under Jeroen's name and that's because it was brought across to the new system (Playak.tv) a while back... )

I haven´t tried the Juice either but I owned a BigEZ for some years. It´s a great all a round boat and very forgiving. I found it a bit uncomfortable, but maybe that was because of the way I fitted it.

I did mainly river running on this boat, from low to big volume, without any problems. It´s definetely not the fastest one on the water but fast enough