[img]images/boats/dagger/animas-th.jpg[/img]Boats Database: Dagger Animas

A whitewater kayak built for the broad spectrum of paddlers who want a river running boat with performance features. Emphasis is on comfort, stability and forgiveness, yet has the performance features of our more advanced models.

I bought one of these last month that had never been in the river. I have been out in it 4 times and have had a blast. The only paddling experience I have had is in my pungo rec boats, and some ww rafting on the nulichucky years ago. I have since learned to roll. I had probably a total of 2 hours in the water practicing and about 20 hours on youtube watching and learning. I would say that this is a pretty easy boat to roll, but the only other kayak I have rolled was an RPM that is about 2 inches too short for me. OUCH!!!!! My buddy with the RPM learned in his boat and switched to mine and said it is the equivalent to the RPM to roll. I am just curious if anyone has any experience in a ANIMAS.

I learnt to paddle with a fleet of animas. They are a pretty good boat to learn on I think. They have good speed on the flat. They have plenty of room for expeditions. There's heaps of room behind the seat, and if you have the foot peggs, you can shove a tent or whatever in front of them too.

Because of their length they are what I call a \"point and shoot\" type of kayak. Line up where you want to go at the top of the rapid and then just go straight! If you need to go around a bit of a bend, I start going down the rapid on a bit of an angle toward the turn, so instead of having to go half way down the rapid then turn the massive barge, I just go half way down then paddle forward. They are a pretty easy boat to roll, and due to their length they punch through holes well.

The downside is their outfitting is poor and they are hard to turn. If you're going down a bit of a boulder garden and hit a rock which throws you off course, it's easy to get pinned sideways in the rapid between 2 rocks. Also because your knees are almost straight, you can't control the kayak a lot using your body, you have to rely on paddling strokes. The back rest is pretty crappy. Make sure whenever you paddle you sit up straight and use good posture. Because of the length of the kayak, it generally doesn't matter if you're leaning forward or back when you're punching a hole. Try and get into the habit of using good technique. When going from this kayak to another you will spend a lot of time trying to break bad habits if you pick them up in a long kayak.

Overall though, I think it's a good kayak to learn on, especially if you want to be doing some overnight (or multi day) trips as there is ample room and it is a pretty quick kayak.

Thanks for the reply. The posture remarks really apply to me. My paddling partner has be hounding me about sitting up straight because I have been just sittin back enjoying the ride. This is also due to the somewhat mild rivers we have been paddling. Once again thanks for the reply, Thumbs up!

Pishk Defiantly knows what he's talking about when it comes to the Animas. We started kayaking at the same time about 8 yrs ago and almost exclusively paddled Animas for most of that time. They are great learning boats for while your on the mild rivers but once you move into more technical stuff down the track trade up to something a bit more maneuverable. The Animas is a really long boat, longer than every current model ww kayak i can think of. While it's great for learning to roll and run ww in the expeditionary sense there isn't a lot more it can teach you so once you've developed a strong roll and a fair bit of ww knowledge upgrade to a newer shorter boat. Otherwise you'll risk stunting your learning curve like i believe we did.

Keep up the paddling. There's nothing better!

Thanks for the reply. We paddled another mild river yesterday and we were doing some rolls in current and did fairly well, Just one panic after two failed attempts and had to bail. I did pay alot of attention to my posture and only then did I realize how hard It was to make myself maintain correct posture. I finally moved my footrest up so I was less tempted to just set back and paddle.
(THANKS AGAIN) However I redeemed myself when I flipped halfway through a II+ and managed to maintain my composure and manage to roll perfectly. This was huge for me since it was my first roll in a real paddling situation. I am stoked!!!!!!!!! Even after paddling approx. 4 miles of flatwater between the rapid sections I still find myself sitting here today just dying to get back out and do it some more.

Paddle on My Friends
Thanks
Jeremy

Yes Jeremy, kayaking is a drug. It's extremely addictive.

Congratulations on your first roll in whitewater!!

Good Stuff Jeremy. Your first roll in white water is often a big achievement and gives a massive boost to your confidence which is very important in Kayaking.

It Only gets bigger and better from here so keep it up.