Composite Element - small wave, big fun!

By David Arnaud, June 2010

Here's a short video of a session in the Composite Element on the Goncelin wave. This is a static wave on the Isere river, in the French Alps, not too far from Grenoble. The wave is pretty small and shallow but very wide and fun to paddle. This is in no way "big wave" style surfing. In fact it's just the opposite. The wave is quite flushy and every stroke, every move has to be "delicate" and you have to be very light on the paddle shaft.
Some moves are possible, blunts, backblunts, flipturns and so on. But sitting in the Element on such a wide and glassy wave, it's all about feeling the boat carve, accelerate, spin and glide effortlessly... It's not aerial nor impressive, it's not "in your face", but jeeeez, these sensations are pretty unique!

I used to go there quite often a few years back, when freestyle boats were still around 2m40 or more. Since then our freestyle boats have become too slow to even surf that wave when it's green and glassy as it is shown here. And even if you manage to catch it thanks to a rope, at this level you'll flush in no time. The Element is as short as many modern freestyle boats, but in terms of speed it's just in another league.

To put it simply, the Element allows you to sidesurf, blunt and cleanspin where others can't even catch the wave... all this is a short, reactive, manoeuverable design and not a long clumsy surf kayak.

Now take a great design and build it in Composite, and you get the ultimate surf-carve-grin machine. Lighter + stiffer = faster, more reactive, less strain on your body. To top it off, the Element is pretty easy to paddle - it'll take you no more than a few moments to feel at ease and start ripping!

Thanks to Mathieu Coldebella for shooting these pictures.
Shot on a Canon 550D with 24-105 f4.

More info:
fluidkayaks.com

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• david
• arnaud
• fluid
• element
• wave
• kayak
• surf
• goncelin
• grenoble
• spin
• carving
• speed

[McNastySP]

woops, forget...

thnx ;p

[Maxandtheletter7]

@McNastySP 'This is a static wave on the Isere river, in the French Alps, not too far from Grenoble. ' Read the describtion before you comment ;)

[aria230]

@codyaku  yes :)

[McNastySP]

where is that wwave??

~Greets from Belgium

[Camcanoe]

Great vid!!! What ediding software did you use to get everything monochrome except his helmet and cag???

[codyaku]

can u eski roll in that??

[13boarding]

I want that boat now.

[EPICichiban]

Truly Dig Your Work.. Epic.