2007 Rocker review and Costa Rica trip update

By Brad Sutton

The new Rocker has been an ideal creek boat with more rocker in the
hull and an amazing line on the chine which in my opinion keeps the
stern from getting sucked down in awkward situations. The side
profile of the chine also helps when plugging big drops and feels
extremely stable under water when you are taking strokes away from the
hydraulic at the base of the waterfalls. I truly love this kayak
because it performs like no other creeker I have ever paddled in the
past 13 years of my experience in running steep creeks. The one
feature I like the most has to be the nice perfectly round hull, which
helps for rolling past sticky holes. If you have a slab flat rock on
one side of a hole you can power up your speed boof up onto the slab
rock and roll your hull to your chine with out loosing any speed.
Unlike a flat bottom hull where it has more surface area to slow you
down and once you rotate to your chine the boat will lose all momentum
and slide straight down.

The deck on the bow and stern is perfect for plugging because it does
not create drag on the deck making the kayak flatten out and resurface
too quickly. This also prevents injury from big waterfall jumping and
keeps the paddler online away from being sucked back into a drop with
its original deck design of the new Rocker. It boofs so easy and
barely takes any energy to catch eddies while boat scouting. This is
key for me because I do not have to get out of my boat to scout
because I can catch that last micro eddy to boat scout.

The bulkhead system is a new design in creek boating outfitting
history the bulkhead flips up for multi-day trips to stow away any
gear. This is a must for the true core creeker looking for a new
design to up there level of ability or compliment there already good
skills in running steep technical whitewater.

Costa Rica has been amazing the first day of paddling Ben
Stookesberry, Boyd Ruppelt, and myself went up to the canyon section
of the Rio Pozo Azul for a little warm up. We came up to some tight
lines in the canyon and had two good-sized drops to practice our
plugging techniques for bigger waterfall jumping. Ben’s friend Lizzy
was a little bit sick for two days and then I became sick too which we
guess is the same flu she might have brought with her from Colombia.
I feel much better now after two days of rest and will try to make a
descent on the Rio Patria in the next few days. The Patria has a
canyon section near the beginning and the trip I was on back in 1998
was the first descent and the first to paddle the canyon and still to
my knowledge the only group that has ever paddled the canyon since. I
hope too get a successful second descent of the canyon, with breaking
it down into two or three days in the jungle.

I have never felt so alive in all my life walking through the jungle
watching every step for venomous snakes, spiders, and plants. Also
being stalked by Jaguars every two square miles while hiking in Costa
Rica’s national parks. You must be prepared all the time for the
weather to change dramatically from a nice sunny blue-sky day to
torrential down pours with in minutes that can make for flashfloods at
any time with the steepest gorges and canyons a kayaker has ever
scene. This is the real jungle with all aspects of its environment
being truly dangerous I love this country.

Brad Sutton

Hotel Charley Section

Boyd running through some tight boulder chunks, with absolute ease in
the 2007 Rocker!

Ben Stookesberry filming Boyd Ruppelt running some tight lines in Costa Rica