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Review Detail
Overall rating
3.3
Design
4.0
Perfomance
4.0
Quality
3.0
Value / Money
2.0
Soul kayaks, like the entire legacy of Corran Addison's designs, are a wild mix of undeniable brilliance, combined with unadulterated gimmickry, often both executed in a rather slapdash manner, and the Hammer is in the eye of the storm of this reality. The Hammer is not a bad boat. But it is unrefined. Other companies would have perhaps spent an extra few months on refining the design to have something with legacy to sit in the catalogue for the next decade. After all, a good boat is a good boat, and as we are all told, the cost of the mold is the big expense that needs to be recouped in kayak manufacturing.
This logic goes out the window with Corran, who seems with the Hammer to have abandoned the design in the Alpha stage, quickly moving on to other designs.
That doesn't make this a bad boat. I think with the years of experience Corran has, he could fart out a half-way good boat in his sleep. But the Hammer is not a great boat, and it could have been, with just a little more effort and refinement. Its concept is for sure good. I enjoy paddling mine, (with an entirely different outfitting in it) and I will continue to enjoy it. But I strongly recommend taking one for a test drive at the very least before committing to getting one yourself.
Review
Affiliated
No
About Me
I have been paddling whitewater since 1997. I have been Paddling the Hammer for the past year.
Pros / The Good
In today's world where creekers are in my personal view far too long for my tastes, and seem to essentially paddle themselves down the river for you, the Hammer's short length and "playboaty" feel can indeed be fresh and fun. Its hull is very flat, and very wide, and as such this boat sits high on the water. Its rocker is near constant, making it pig-slow, but very suited to steeper water in that you can easily lift the nose to controlled boof angles. If you drive this boat aggressively, keeping a proactive blade in the water at all times, it is plenty of fun. The lower volume tail can and does allow you to slice it through pivots, deliberate or otherwise, that would see its bubble-tailed competitors trip and dump you onto your brace.
The plastic in this and the other boats in soul's line-up has so far proven to be stiff and robust, and also slightly lighter than some other options.
The plastic in this and the other boats in soul's line-up has so far proven to be stiff and robust, and also slightly lighter than some other options.
Cons / The Bad
The Hammer is a box. It has a flat hull, and then sides which come up at nearly ninety degrees from that hull, making the thing look and feel essentially like a box. This gives a very good initial stability, but makes it slow to go edge to edge, and makes it vastly less forgiving to edge mistakes than other boats. Having a slightly more narrow hull which then flares out as you progress up the sidewalls makes a boat which feels a little more tippy initially, but makes edge changes quicker and easier to hold, and this can be felt in the other boats released by Soul at this time, such as the booster. Of course a more narrow hull makes the boat sit lower in the water, and generally feels less responsive. This is the "playboat" feel in action for the Hammer, and is not for everyone.
The outfitting is often criticised, and for good reason. The foot pedals in my view suck, and I just made my own foam block bulkhead. The seat tray/foam seat thing isn't in my view a winner at all, and in other boats in Soul outfitting we have had seats come unstuck during swims for people. The roofrack strap adjustment system for the back-band as a concept is good, but the 2mm thick straps supplied from the factory slip, so we replaced all of ours with 1mm thick strap, and that holds solidly. Of course it will wear out sooner, so keep we will keep an eye on it.
The grab handles do not comfortably accept regular sized carabiners, and one boat rescue ended up overly extended because I failed to get the carabiner attached in a timely fashion. The carabiner hoop thing in front of the cockpit supposedly to allow a carabiner to be attached for rescue purposes does not allow any carabiner to attach to it. Basically rescue features to this boat are an after-thought. Not something you would want to see on an actual dedicated creeker as they could for sure put your life at risk and retard rescue efforts upon the boat.
The top deck has Corran's golf-ball dimple thing going on because they totally do something meaningful to waterflow, but the hull has the company logo extruded from the flat hull because apparently that doesn't have any effect whatsoever to the waterflow.
The outfitting is often criticised, and for good reason. The foot pedals in my view suck, and I just made my own foam block bulkhead. The seat tray/foam seat thing isn't in my view a winner at all, and in other boats in Soul outfitting we have had seats come unstuck during swims for people. The roofrack strap adjustment system for the back-band as a concept is good, but the 2mm thick straps supplied from the factory slip, so we replaced all of ours with 1mm thick strap, and that holds solidly. Of course it will wear out sooner, so keep we will keep an eye on it.
The grab handles do not comfortably accept regular sized carabiners, and one boat rescue ended up overly extended because I failed to get the carabiner attached in a timely fashion. The carabiner hoop thing in front of the cockpit supposedly to allow a carabiner to be attached for rescue purposes does not allow any carabiner to attach to it. Basically rescue features to this boat are an after-thought. Not something you would want to see on an actual dedicated creeker as they could for sure put your life at risk and retard rescue efforts upon the boat.
The top deck has Corran's golf-ball dimple thing going on because they totally do something meaningful to waterflow, but the hull has the company logo extruded from the flat hull because apparently that doesn't have any effect whatsoever to the waterflow.
Recommend
No
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