The Global Paddling Community

A report from the Kanumesse / Canoe Exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany.

About a month ago, we brought you lots of photos and a detailed wrap up from the Outdoor Retailer 2005 in Salt Lake City. Many of the world's kayaking novelties for 2006 were of course shown in those reports, but the 'Kanumesse' in Germany has some brands and product that were not (yet) in SLC, so we'll present those to you here.

• Artistic
• Camaro
• Dagger Europe
• Drakkar Kayaks
• happy-2b
• HF
• Jackson Kayak
• Ka-y-ak
• Mergner Paddles
• Nookie
• Palm Equipment Europe
• Prijon
• Riot
• River People Stuff
• Robson
• Sandiline
• Shaun Baker's Jet Kayak
• Teva
• Ty Warp

Introduction

The Kanumesse / Canoe Exhibition has grown into the largest European paddling tradeshow within the past few years. It can be compared in size to the paddling part of Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City, the main difference being that it is not open to the general public.

This was the first time ever that Playak had an exhibition stand (together with our friends from Kayak Session). Of course I forgot to take a photo of our own stand, so you'll just have to believe my on this one :-)

Anyway, to the meat:

Artistic

Artistic showed the world's first 'Semi Dry Suit', which is basically as dry as a dry suit, but has double neoprene at the neck, adressing people who don't like (or are allergic to) latex (retail price €499 ~ $610).

Artistic Asco Semidry

Also new is the Orco Pro PFD, a high end vest with a retail price of only €139 (appr. $170). It offer many professional features, one of which is the option to integrate an Artistic throwline in the belt.

Artistic Orco Pro PFD

Camaro

Camaro showed new Thermoguard layering products in sexy black-on-black combinations.

Camaro Thermoguard

Also new are paddling tops out of 3M Scotchlite, a very lightweight and flexible material, breathable and water repellent.

Camaro Tricky Woo

Dagger Europe

Dagger Europe showed the GT Max, a fast downriver kayak for steep and especially big volume creeking. Norway would be its typical terrain. The boat is still a prototype, but should be a available well before spring 2006.

Dagger Europe GT Max, side view

Dagger Europe GT Max, hull

Drakkar Kayaks

Drakkar Kayaks showed their latest models in custom spray painted versions. The kid kayaks found a lot of interest, also they sell for €490 retail, which is a very fair price for a laminated kayak.

Drakkar Kayaks

happy-2b

happy-2b showed a prototype of their new creeking helmet, for which a naming competition is still going on. It will probably be changed quite a bit in the final version, especially around the ears, but we wanted to show you this prototype anyway.

happy-2b creeking helmet

HF

HF showed a couple of new throwlines. The Pro Rescue is a high-end rope that comes in several rope diameters for different purposes - e.g. to rescue a raft you'll probably want to use a thicker rope. The bag has a slight conic shape, which makes it easier for the rope to get in and out :-) Another good feature is the secure push button (see closeup on photo).

HF Pro Rescue throwline

On the other side of the range is the new Weasel throwline, which is probably the smallest one on the market. It still has 18 meters of line (7.5 mm). It is of course made for playboaters.

HF Weasel throwline

Jackson Kayak

Jackson Kayak showed its new models, the Rocker, Hero and Super Hero. As there are already so many photos of those on the net, we'll just show you the new Jackson Kayak Happy Seat, which offers leg support and has an integrated inflatable overthruster.

Jackson Kayak Happy Seat

Ka-y-ak

Ka-y-ak from Germany introduced a very interesting new concept for spraydecks. They are made of neoprene, as usual, but instead of the typical elastic sealing, it uses a thick cord. This makes it very easy to put the skirt over the cockpit rim and once it's tightened with the lever, it's as good as bomb proof. Getting out again is very easy, as you can use your knees to push the cross straps on the deck, which then automatically open the lever. The cord and the straps are adjustable, so the decks fit on a very wide range of kayaks.

Ka-y-ak spraydeck

Ka-y-ak lever

Mergner Paddles

Mergner Paddles from Germany introduces a neutral ergonomic shaft for their high end paddles.

Mergner Paddel - neutral bent shaft

Nookie

Nookie Xtreme Sports Equipment presented a number if improved paddling jackets and PFDs. Shown here are the new Delta and Ltd.

Nookie Delta

Nookie Ltd.

Palm Equipment Europe

Palm Equipment showed a number of new products and since they exhibited them as combinations (which are easy to photograph :-), we'll just show you two of those.

Palm swim pants 'Gradient Short', 3/4 shorts with integrated short neoprene (3mm), ApexIcon cag deck and Fusion PFD.

Palm Sidewider Torrent dry suit, RT Whitewater PFD with kevlar reinforced deck.

Prijon

Prijon will introduces a new big volume creeker in 2006, called the 'Hercules'. This is prototype number 4 (one more prototype expected).

Prijon Hercules

Prijon Hercules specs

Riot

We showed the new Riot products in our OR 2005 report already, but here are some small details about the new outfitting that were not in that article:

The new thighbraces in the Riot Astro. Our first impression: 'very simple, effective and stable'.

The improved Riot backband. In our recent review of the Riot Inferno, we found the backband its weakest point, as it flexed a lot and didn't offer much support. The new system has some changes that address this problem. Although the changes are small, the system feels totally different (for the better). More on this to come in our reviews of the new Riot boats later this year.

River People Stuff

Roc Roi from Spain started a new brand for whitewater gear and accessories in 2002 and quickly took the largest part of the Spanish market over the past years. They are now aiming to expand their market to the rest of Europe. As the whole brand will be new to most of our readers and I only wanted to show a couple of images per brand, I decided to publish a couple of impression photos only.

Some of the many neoprene products from River People Stuff.

River People Stuff owner Lluís Rabaneda (middle) having a chat with Riot chief Jeff Rivest (right).

Robson

Robson from Germany showed 2 new prototypes. The Roadster, a river running boat with play-ability, is expected December 2005. The wave playboat called Quarks, will probably be available in spring 2006.

Roadster side view.

Roadster top view.

Roadster cockpit.

Roadster hull.

Quarks top view

Quarks hull.

Mind the new round fins, which are supposed to be more durable than traditional fins. The following picture shows them in close-up.

Quark fins.

And of course we wanted to show you a profile photo as well. I apologize for the poor quality of the photo, but as this poor quality only relates to the photo-technical aspects, I'm sure you'll excuse me...

Robson Quarks profile.

Another innovation, which comes standard with all Robson bent shafts, is 'Rubber Paint', a very thin layer of paint that improves grip on the shaft.

Sandiline

Sandiline is a relatively new paddle gear company (closely related to Galasport) by Kanu-Sport-Stahl from Germany. They are currently sponsoring the German slalom team and are slowly expanding to the rest of the world with good looking and functional designs in refreshing color combinations.

Refreshing colors.

Functional designs (e.g. wide velcro seal with buckle lock backup and elastic pieces of fabric at the shoulders).

Shaun Baker

Shaun Baker is well know for many crazy kayaking activities: extreme snowboating, waterfall world records and more. My first reaction to his latest project however was: 'this is not crazy, it's probably a joke'. But after some chatting with Shaun and also realizing how far April 1st is away, I actually started to believe him.

The idea is to build a water jet motor into a PE kayak and perform 'moves' that can only be done at speeds of 50 mph. Imagine jumping over waves at such speeds... Let's just hope Shaun will be able to remain in some sort of control over the boat at such flying speeds.

The boat will have two pedals, one for gas and one for steering. The engine can get quite warm, so Shaun will wear a water-cooled suit to avoid burning his behind.

We plan to have an exclusive Playak article about the project next month, when it will also hit the big media (radio, TV, papers, magazines). For now, I'll just leave you with some teaser photos.

What do you think? Is this completely crazy? Cool? Suicidal? I started a discussion about this in the Playak forums. Feel free to share your thoughts here.

Teva

Teva showed a range of new (white)water shoes for 2006.

The Teva Dozer Women, P-2 and Philter Women.

Ty Warp

Ty Warp paddles from Germany launches a new line with an interesting concept. The new paddles consist of one piece only. Well not really of course, otherwise it would be virtually impossible to produce, but you will not find any seams on the paddles. They also use a thin layer of grip spray on the shafts in their new models.

Ty Warp Beam 8 (800 gr.)

Conclusion

Well, that's it for today. I know that this was quite a long article and I considered breaking it into 3 or 4 parts, but I think this is more convenient in the end, even if you have to wait a bit before it will load completely.

As said, there were a couple of brands that were at the Kanumesse who are not shown in this report. That's because we already showed them in our OR Wrapup. Some of these brands are: Astral, Dagger, DragoRossi, Eskimo, Esquif, Fluid, H2O Paddles, Liquid Logic, NRS, Pyranha, Riot, Shred Ready and Sweet.

For Playak,
Jeroen

PS. Big thanks go to Horst 'HF' Fürsattel for the perfect organization. See you next year Horst!

Our host Horst 'HF' Fürsattel

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