About myself

I've been kayaking for about 9 years now and have paddled numerous places in B.C. as well as a little in California and New Zealeand.

About the test environment

I've been paddling the Fluid Solo Expedition for about 5 months now and after the intial 20 minutes or so it took to get used to it (different than my last creek boat - the Blunt, which I also liked) it has become my new best friend on the river. I've paddled it on the very large volume Fraser river through Hell's Gate and went through no problem. I've paddled it on medium volume rivers like the Upper Fraser section which is a world class stretch of class 3 - 5 whitewater .... and I've tried on very low volume creeks with back to back waterfalls.

Review

The Fluid Solo Expedition is an incredible kayak that has so far proven to be a great performer in all types of whitewater - small volume and big volume. It's stable in boils and whirlpools, large waves and seam lines. It also excels, as would be expected of a great creek boat, on the steeps. It's incredibly easy to boof, it accelerates quickly when you want it to and seems to just hop over holes without effort. This boat also turns on a dime!! (you almost have to be careful to not overcorrect). One thing about this boat is that it's a bit heavy .... but word has it that they are planning to trim the weight down. The outfitting in this boat is great in the fact that it fits a large range of people and leaves ample room for gear, both in front of the bulk heads as well as in the rear hatch (which ia a really nice feature). One last thing about the Solo's .... a great feature they have in their cockpit ..... a Rib like support that is placed across the hull for two reasons. The 1st is to add incredible strength (ridgidity) to the hull, and 2nd as act as a "Step" in the off chance you get vertically pinned in a drop. Amazingly enough, about 3 weeks after I got my boat and a friend got hers, I watched her get vetically pinned at some completely random spot between two rocks and climb out of her boat with no problem thanks to the "Step"!!! (If you check out the Fluid Kayak website, it shows pictures of the "step" as well as the rest of their outfitting. I understand that they are making some slight modifications to improve their outfitting so it will be interesting to see how they much better they can make things. I hear they are also coming out with a med Solo next year too!!

Conclusion

Overall, I give this kayak two thumbs up. It performs well and is designed well. Like I said, I'm curious to see the improvements they are going to make since the boat has little to improve on.