Waka has the Most comfortable outfitting of any boat I’ve owned. (Drago Rossi). I prefer how they mold the thigh hooks into the cockpit rim. And the tray fits a dry box, and rope perfectly. I found an IR band, and Pyranha stout 2 strap hip pads worked the best. Had to cut some slots for the straps to go through. But never had to adjust them.
Thanks for the review! I just picked up a Stout and was surprised at the bulkhead and the possibility of foot entrapment with it pulled way back for my shorter legs. No foam supplied? It looks bomber for adjustability, but some foam would have been nice. I had a Rewind and thought that their system was over engineered and a PITA so set up. Stonger grab handles would have been nice, but I think they are serviceable.
@@AlexBarham Damned shame - there's a guy selling a nice shape OG here for a decent price, and I'm sure it'd be a fun boat on the big water I live on. I'll stick with my plan for the RMX ;-)
Great video Alex! Is there enough room to get your legs out between the thigh hooks? And could you retro fit some aluminium grab handles in place of the plastic ones?
Slipping your legs out of the thigh hooks between rapids is difficult and not particularly comfortable. That said they are comfy enough that I didn't want my legs out often
Weird question, have you tried the "hooker thigh grips" that you can put into pyranha boats? I have them in my ripper and love them to pieces. I think they could have been a response to these thigh grips?
I have. Actually, the Hookers have been done by a few people (for FREE!) including BlissStick. So the fact that these guys chose to leave them behind when they started Waka says something. That could be the result of a complicated performance debate, or as simple as cost-engineering and easy assembly.
Is it the same ladder strap? Cause I re-ran them the other way and they still pulled out. This doubled- over on itself knot is the only way it was reliable.
I've seriously considered grabbing a Waka Steeze - a sort of handy "two-in-one" solution to my boating problems... I also don't enjoy the metal bars, I honestly think the Pyranha ones are where it's at - less discomfort to lift and a solid anchor point... The far bow and stern points should definitely be stitched, with metal anchors at the point to the bow and stern of the cockpit... They should all be 100% stress tested, the full boat should be... 🤔
Very interesting couple of vids on the OG. I have a question on comfort. As you allude it`s a wide boat forward & I wondered if this means your legs are splayed apart to the point of being uncomfortable, or that in fact the contact point is such that your knees are not that far apart, as it looks like the braces do protrude some way into the cockpit.....if you understand my meaning?! I think your opinion on the safety grabs is valid to the point where Waka should indeed take a look at that contact area which is very small. I would imagine Waka would be keen to have these quibbles brought to their attention since it`s these small issues that can get overlooked the easiest. Great boat, just wish my abilities were up to it!!
I think I understand your question. Although the boat is quite puffed up in front of the paddler, the ergonomics are top shelf. You have a ton of contact with the boat both on the inside and outside of the thighs, and the seat is quite narrow, giving a lot of contact with the seat pad and hip pads. I absolutely loved the feel of the boat.
I have a Steeze with same foot block. What would you suggest that I could do to secure it from pinning my foot? I was thinking I could bring it all the way back then build foam blocks on to the footblock
That would be the simple solution. You'll have to notch the bottom for the pillar, and make indents for the little protrusions on the top near your big toes. Best best is to pull everything out and take your time.
I just fitted a couple of good quality airbags in the nose and filled up all the dead space. Job done. Also you can get the Waka boats without the foot block system and instead Waka supply a foam cone the you adjust. I think Zet were the first to done this. (Based in Europe so might be slightly different here).
It's pretty darn simple. Remove the seat bolt and slide the seat back to yank the front pillar out. Slide the seat forward and out. As for the crack, you'll want to do some research on plastic welding.
personally I don't want to strap a $1000 worth of boat to my car with those hard points. plus an all plastic makes me worry about the cold, plastic is much more brittle when it freezes. Still if someone wants to give me a free boat, I'm sure I can put it to good use, but that would make me choose a jackson or dagger over a Waka.
Hey, I know this is not the right video, but I could not find the video that you did this in. Is there any chance you could go a little more in depth about how you safely cut the front pillar of a rpm so your heels can touch?
You're missing something when it comes to a piton hit in this boat. I was concerned at first about the bulkhead in this boat but then I took a savage hit and not only were my legs uninjured there was no foot entrapment. The reason for this is all of the extensive bow rocker. The Nirvana is somewhat the same. When these boats take a hit to the nose it folds up. It sucks that the boat will fold at this spot but it saves your legs. Other boats deliver all of the hit into your body. With that said I'm not positive that a foot entrapment is not possible but it's something that you won't know by paddling the boat one time and then doing a review.
Okay my bad you paddled it more than once I should not have assumed. I'm just pointing out that the design of his boat is more likely to fold resulting in less of a hit to your body and possible entrapment. I've experienced this more than once unfortunately so your assumption is also wrong. I've seen this on several other people as well. I think what you're pointing out in regards to the bulkhead is good advice. I'm not trying to take away from that just adding some opinion. Thanks
No worries man. I think that this is just something that big water paddlers would never worry about, but those who deal with pins and sieves more often are very conscious of
Waka are a new company, and are trying to do new things. Unfortunately, there is a reason the rest of the industry havnt already been using those things.
To be sure we are all rooting for them. They have the attention of the whole paddling industry and I want them to succeed. However, paddler safety comes first in my world.
rated hardpoints? yes pls! and when you're at it with sacrificing new boats for testing, start measuring a lot more things with it: - hardpoint ratings for different directions of force. - compression test to see how strong the hull+foamblock is - punching wholes (e.g. beneath the seat?) with a 5 centimeter radius and measure the force needed. - plastic thickness around the whole boat everywhere (mostly for prodcution optimization) - abrasion test with e.g. 50, 100, 200 and 400 grid paper. measured at a certain pressure (50 kg?). the final number would then be given in meters of belt run till breaking. repeated at several points after exiting the mold, being stored for a week, then a month and maybe 3 months. - pressure test of the footrest (does it bend, break,...) - maybe an impact test for hitting the water flat. fixed impact speed, measured spike of force at the moment of impact. measured on the seat.
I hear what you're saying, but you're asking for more data than we really need and creating an undue burden to the industry. Some of these things are already done behind the scenes like thickness testing, some are done qualitatively like footblock testing through the factory teams and warranty tracking. However, basic things like working with ACA to determine an average amount of force put on a boat during a Z-drag to free a boat and thereby finding an acceptable minimum strength threshold and testing method would be excellent. I think back to the origins of paintball entering the mainstream. They had to raise money to pay for a study by ANSI to determine those standards for goggle lenses and designs. Some still take the prototype out back and shoot it with bird shot just to be sure, but a real quantitative measurement is important.
@@AlexBarham i think i didnt want to go there as to have all of these be mandatory. the thought was more like: well, if they already sacrifice 4 to X number of boats per model in order to test these hardpoints they could also do all these other tests on the then already broken boats. and if they do have more of this data behind the scenes, i sure would love to have it, as do you
Waka has the Most comfortable outfitting of any boat I’ve owned. (Drago Rossi). I prefer how they mold the thigh hooks into the cockpit rim. And the tray fits a dry box, and rope perfectly. I found an IR band, and Pyranha stout 2 strap hip pads worked the best. Had to cut some slots for the straps to go through. But never had to adjust them.
I'm confused. The Draggo and Waka seat and thigh hooks are the same. So you're comparing apples to apples
Really useful review. I didn't even notice the handles on mine are plastic.. will be replacing asap
Thanks Alex!
Exactly what I wanted to try and do
There you go!
Thanks for the review! I just picked up a Stout and was surprised at the bulkhead and the possibility of foot entrapment with it pulled way back for my shorter legs. No foam supplied? It looks bomber for adjustability, but some foam would have been nice. I had a Rewind and thought that their system was over engineered and a PITA so set up. Stonger grab handles would have been nice, but I think they are serviceable.
Personally I would probably drop another bulkhead in. The Dagger system is a bit tricky, but once you get it figured out it works well.
14:00 - is removing/moving this bolt (on both sides) all that needs to be done to move the seat? Or are there other bits to undo to do so?
That's it. Pretty simple
Be interesting to know if the Dragorossi handles would fit - might be straight replacement options...
The problem appears to be them all being different lengths between the bolts. So any ridged handle would be problematic
@@AlexBarham True - just figured maybe since they're made in the same shop they would have some shared specs that might have made it possible. ;-)
Yeah I figured, but no
@@AlexBarham Damned shame - there's a guy selling a nice shape OG here for a decent price, and I'm sure it'd be a fun boat on the big water I live on. I'll stick with my plan for the RMX ;-)
Either would be good!
Great video Alex!
Is there enough room to get your legs out between the thigh hooks?
And could you retro fit some aluminium grab handles in place of the plastic ones?
Slipping your legs out of the thigh hooks between rapids is difficult and not particularly comfortable. That said they are comfy enough that I didn't want my legs out often
Yes, you could easily make your own bars or have some made for you out of aluminum
Weird question, have you tried the "hooker thigh grips" that you can put into pyranha boats? I have them in my ripper and love them to pieces.
I think they could have been a response to these thigh grips?
I have. Actually, the Hookers have been done by a few people (for FREE!) including BlissStick. So the fact that these guys chose to leave them behind when they started Waka says something. That could be the result of a complicated performance debate, or as simple as cost-engineering and easy assembly.
Spot on about the ratchet straps coming loose very annoying same in Tuna!!
The later OG’s have a slightly different back band design whereby the strap doubles back making it more reliable
Is it the same ladder strap? Cause I re-ran them the other way and they still pulled out. This doubled- over on itself knot is the only way it was reliable.
I've seriously considered grabbing a Waka Steeze - a sort of handy "two-in-one" solution to my boating problems...
I also don't enjoy the metal bars, I honestly think the Pyranha ones are where it's at - less discomfort to lift and a solid anchor point...
The far bow and stern points should definitely be stitched, with metal anchors at the point to the bow and stern of the cockpit...
They should all be 100% stress tested, the full boat should be... 🤔
Well if you feel that way get a good look at the pod. It is very thin.
Very interesting couple of vids on the OG. I have a question on comfort. As you allude it`s a wide boat forward & I wondered if this means your legs are splayed apart to the point of being uncomfortable, or that in fact the contact point is such that your knees are not that far apart, as it looks like the braces do protrude some way into the cockpit.....if you understand my meaning?!
I think your opinion on the safety grabs is valid to the point where Waka should indeed take a look at that contact area which is very small. I would imagine Waka would be keen to have these quibbles brought to their attention since it`s these small issues that can get overlooked the easiest. Great boat, just wish my abilities were up to it!!
I think I understand your question. Although the boat is quite puffed up in front of the paddler, the ergonomics are top shelf. You have a ton of contact with the boat both on the inside and outside of the thighs, and the seat is quite narrow, giving a lot of contact with the seat pad and hip pads. I absolutely loved the feel of the boat.
I have a Steeze with same foot block. What would you suggest that I could do to secure it from pinning my foot? I was thinking I could bring it all the way back then build foam blocks on to the footblock
That would be the simple solution. You'll have to notch the bottom for the pillar, and make indents for the little protrusions on the top near your big toes. Best best is to pull everything out and take your time.
I just fitted a couple of good quality airbags in the nose and filled up all the dead space. Job done.
Also you can get the Waka boats without the foot block system and instead Waka supply a foam cone the you adjust. I think Zet were the first to done this. (Based in Europe so might be slightly different here).
can you do a video how to take off the things inside? and how to repair a crack in the cockpit?
It's pretty darn simple. Remove the seat bolt and slide the seat back to yank the front pillar out. Slide the seat forward and out. As for the crack, you'll want to do some research on plastic welding.
personally I don't want to strap a $1000 worth of boat to my car with those hard points. plus an all plastic makes me worry about the cold, plastic is much more brittle when it freezes. Still if someone wants to give me a free boat, I'm sure I can put it to good use, but that would make me choose a jackson or dagger over a Waka.
It would be quite simple and cheap to swap all the handles to tubular webbing or make 7.5 inch aluminum bars
Hey, I know this is not the right video, but I could not find the video that you did this in. Is there any chance you could go a little more in depth about how you safely cut the front pillar of a rpm so your heels can touch?
No problem! It is all in here
th-cam.com/video/b1BuR19uIyg/w-d-xo.html
@@AlexBarham thanks man!
@@fletcherlibre2422 sure thing!
You're missing something when it comes to a piton hit in this boat. I was concerned at first about the bulkhead in this boat but then I took a savage hit and not only were my legs uninjured there was no foot entrapment. The reason for this is all of the extensive bow rocker. The Nirvana is somewhat the same. When these boats take a hit to the nose it folds up. It sucks that the boat will fold at this spot but it saves your legs. Other boats deliver all of the hit into your body. With that said I'm not positive that a foot entrapment is not possible but it's something that you won't know by paddling the boat one time and then doing a review.
I paddled this boat for a month lol. Just because you got away with it once doesn't mean it is not an issue
Okay my bad you paddled it more than once I should not have assumed. I'm just pointing out that the design of his boat is more likely to fold resulting in less of a hit to your body and possible entrapment. I've experienced this more than once unfortunately so your assumption is also wrong. I've seen this on several other people as well. I think what you're pointing out in regards to the bulkhead is good advice. I'm not trying to take away from that just adding some opinion. Thanks
No worries man. I think that this is just something that big water paddlers would never worry about, but those who deal with pins and sieves more often are very conscious of
Waka are a new company, and are trying to do new things. Unfortunately, there is a reason the rest of the industry havnt already been using those things.
To be sure we are all rooting for them. They have the attention of the whole paddling industry and I want them to succeed. However, paddler safety comes first in my world.
rated hardpoints? yes pls!
and when you're at it with sacrificing new boats for testing, start measuring a lot more things with it:
- hardpoint ratings for different directions of force.
- compression test to see how strong the hull+foamblock is
- punching wholes (e.g. beneath the seat?) with a 5 centimeter radius and measure the force needed.
- plastic thickness around the whole boat everywhere (mostly for prodcution optimization)
- abrasion test with e.g. 50, 100, 200 and 400 grid paper. measured at a certain pressure (50 kg?). the final number would then be given in meters of belt run till breaking. repeated at several points after exiting the mold, being stored for a week, then a month and maybe 3 months.
- pressure test of the footrest (does it bend, break,...)
- maybe an impact test for hitting the water flat. fixed impact speed, measured spike of force at the moment of impact. measured on the seat.
I hear what you're saying, but you're asking for more data than we really need and creating an undue burden to the industry. Some of these things are already done behind the scenes like thickness testing, some are done qualitatively like footblock testing through the factory teams and warranty tracking.
However, basic things like working with ACA to determine an average amount of force put on a boat during a Z-drag to free a boat and thereby finding an acceptable minimum strength threshold and testing method would be excellent. I think back to the origins of paintball entering the mainstream. They had to raise money to pay for a study by ANSI to determine those standards for goggle lenses and designs. Some still take the prototype out back and shoot it with bird shot just to be sure, but a real quantitative measurement is important.
@@AlexBarham i think i didnt want to go there as to have all of these be mandatory.
the thought was more like:
well, if they already sacrifice 4 to X number of boats per model in order to test these hardpoints they could also do all these other tests on the then already broken boats.
and if they do have more of this data behind the scenes, i sure would love to have it, as do you
First
lol