Thoughts on the Wave Sport Habitat 74

It was a dark and dreary night........OK so no melodrama,  I thought I would jot down some thoughts about the WaveSport Habitat 74. Don't know why, I just felt like writing something about boats. Hopefully my comments will help others make a decision about what boat will be good for them.  I am male, 165 lbs, six feet tall, and very good looking. All comments are my own perspective and independent of the huge amounts of money I receive for paddling boats.

I paddled a Perception Phat for several years and wore out two of them. Didn't break them, just wore them thin. Toward the end of the last one's useful life I began to wonder about the eventuality that I would have to buy a different boat because the Phat had been discontinued.  YIKES, Change boats!!!!!!! Give up ol Betsy? What am I thinking? Now I'm not the best paddler, nor do I paddle the Gnar, but all things are relative to our own experience. Let's say that I'm very comfortable on the Russell Fork, Green (with a couple exceptions), Upper Gauley, Little River Canyon,Tallulah, and assorted small creeks around the Southeast. Didn't say I paddled them well, just comfortable. Maybe I just don't recognize when I should be scared shi...less, but so far I've been OK. I have been actively paddling since 1990 which don't mean anything much but I thought it was something to say.

Now for the Beta,  (that's the word the young set use nowadays. I always thought a Beta was a small fish that couldn't get along with other small fish.), first thing I noticed was it is a very even tempered boat, no surprises, goes where I intend it to go without much of a fuss, and stable. My style of boating is to lean back a bit to use the edges on the stern, (back part), of the boat for some assistance in direction. Some boats I have paddled require the paddler to be much more intentional and active when moving the boat in the direction they want. I tried out one of those boats and when I really needed to turn I leaned back, and nothing happened, I went straight into a real pile of crap. Now this does not make THAT boat a bad boat, it has many fine qualities and excels in the hands of  many other boaters, it just didn't jive with  my style of boating and once I lost confidence in it I knew it would become a planter out in front of my house. I paddled it well in low flow water but higher flow caught up with me and I caused me a problem, (not he boat's fault), but that's another story. I just could not get that boat to go where I wanted, so I sold it and paddled the Habitat 74. Liked it immediately. The Habitat has the ability to spin (much like the Phat, which resembles a Guppy), AND the ability to carve a turn. That, to me is the best of both worlds. I can change directions immediately when needed and use the back edges to access the flow of the water to turn. You know, I find I make directional changes a lot by just edging the boat to initiate the stern edges much like a ski or surfboard.

Rolling Ease : well if your roll is not proficient, nothing rolls easy, but let's say you have a reliable roll most days, the Habitat will not hinder a roll in anyway. That is to say, if you have a Bombproof roll, it is easy to roll, but if you are hit and miss with your roll, this boat will not hinder your efforts.

The Habitat 74 Resurfaces very well off drops, it boofs easily (much better than I can), and I should mention speed be cause it seems that everyone talks about speed. Now I came from a Phat. Riding a snail uphill against the wind would seem faster, but I have the firm belief that no matter what you do, when you have a boat that is 25 inches wide, and 74 gallons of volume, and 8 feet long, it ain't gonna set a speed record. I'm thinking all these creek creatures are fairly slow. They are designed to be stable, stay on top of the water, go where you intend to go, and protect the boater. OK, so maybe I wish I had more speed while trying to ferry so I didn't get washed over into the depths of hell, but then again, maybe if I had planned a little better I wouldn't be on the edge of the earth anyway. Maybe I don't need a faster boat, I need to be a better boater? Granted, there are times we put these boats in high flow water and I will say the Habitat does a very good job of getting to where you hope to go, but boat speed alone is not going to  replace sound judgment, good decisions, experience, and skill.

Comfort: Now let's be serious, I have had two back surgeries for slipped discs. My opinion is a bit skewed because there is not a kayak that will stay afloat and carry all that is needed to keep me comfortable on a long run.. The Phat had a pillar style backrest and the Habitat uses the more traditional back band. I've personally never found a back band that I thought was all that comfortable and I'd say the same for this one. After a while they all seem to dig in to my sides and my back starts aching and my legs hurt, tears start falling down my cheeks, and then I have to push the boat into the water. Actually it has  pretty good foot room for a guy who wears a size 11.5 shoe. I use the old Patagonia Paddling shoes and recently tried a pair of NRS Descent Water shoes and the combination of my big feet and the very wide heel of the NRS shoe prevented me from getting them in the boat other than to simply cram them in and hold one position and hope I don't ever have to move them again. Much like the tiny little play boats that deform feet all over America to anyone who is big enough to drive to the river. No offense intended to my smaller brothers (thought I should say that "brother" stuff so some little guy doesn't sneak up on me with a ball bat, Hear that Damon?). All in all it is a fairly comfortable boat and I have heard others say it is very comfortable, plus if your feet aren't huge, it is very accommodating to larger platform footwear. My guess is over a size ten you will have to choose footwear more carefully. I am overlooking that if you are shorter than 6 feet, you will have moved the bulkhead more toward the back (Stern), of the boat and will have more room anyway. As always, it an individual thing.

Carrying the boat is a little discussed topic, for good reason, but I will expound anyway. I picked this boat up and hiked about five thousand miles......, okay, about three miles up above the parking lot on Big Creek in Tenn. Now at 57 years old and in great shape I found it so easy to carry about fifty pounds uphill, on a hot day, in paddling gear, an easy warm up for scaling Mt. Everest. Well that's a crock of crap, after about a mile and a half everything was heavy, my breath, my mood, my heart. So it was with heavy heart I trudged up this hill , boat in hand. Big Creek is a jewel of a creek, and sitting here a few months later I think it was worth the effort,  but I gotta tell you, at the time,  the carry up got old real quick, thankfully the boat has a handy dandy hand hole in the bulkhead divider thingy that makes the chore less painful than some boats I have carried. The boat was comfortable to carry, but all things have limits.

I'll wrap up this babble with this. In my opinion the Habitat 74 is a very good creek boat. It does everything I think a creek boat should do and in better hands than mine it will excel. I really loved the Phat and the Phat allowed me to move up several steps in my paddling. The highest compliment I can give the Habitat 74 is I feel it is a perfect replacement in every category and exceeds the Phat in many areas. We all wonder if the next boat we buy will be a boat we can paddle with confidence and be worth the bucks we shell out to enjoy our chosen sport.  The Habitat 74 is that boat for me, but in the end, it is an individual thing. But alas, wondering is what life is about, and I am wondering what a few extra gallons of volume will do for me, so I bought a Habitat 80 and justified the purchase with the thought.......I wonder if more volume will help in the really big, steep, stuff?????  I'll send along a report after I have paddled it a few times and let you know how it turns out.

For those of you who are wondering; who is this guy and why does he think he can write a Boat Review? Well, Bernie asked me too, I think Bernie is a great guy, so I wrote this.

Dave Allnutt

Lexington, KY