Rock Creek’s Star Paddler Shares his Top Ten Favorite Features of the Rock Star!

Hunt’s Top 10 Favorite Things about the New Rock Star!!!

I’ve been paddling the new rockstar for almost two months now, and I have completely fallen in love with it.  I’ve been in Uganda on the White Nile and surfed everything from giant waves to tiny holes, and the rockstar has been awesome in everything. Here are my top ten favorite things about it.

10. Colors: The color schemes on the rock stars are better than ever. Whether you

want solid or mixed, the colors of the plastic are turning out awesome! My shiny new rock star is green, white, and black, and I didn’t even put in an order for custom colors, because I knew that whatever I got would look awesome!

9. Outfitting: Like always, the outfitting in the new rock star is super comfortable! There are tons of different options to choose from to outfit your new rock star, foam foot blocks, different sizes of happy feet, different sizes of sweet cheeks, linear seat pads…etc. The rope back band system allows you to adjust your back band to the exact place you want it so you will be sitting in the most comfortable position the whole time you are on the river. Also, I have noticed that the back band rests a little higher on your back, which gives more support, and keeps the back band from slipping down too low. Over all, the new rockstar is the most comfortable playboat that I have ever been in.

8. More Foot Room!!!: One of the most surprising things that I noticed when I first sat in a rockstar is how much more foot room there is than the allstar. While the boat is a little shorter than the allstar, the new design somehow gives quite a bit more foot room. This allows you to sit further forward in your boat

6. Sitting up higher: The rockstar is designed to make you sit higher in the boat. This is probably what will take the most getting used to. When I first got in a rock star, it felt super tippy, and I missed a few rolls. This  was because I was sitting up so much higher in the rockstar than in my allstar. It took a little getting used to, but after a few sessions, it felt perfectly normal. Another thing that sitting higher in your boat does is give you better leverage for all of your tricks. It may take a little getting used to, but trust me; it’s a transition worth making.

5. More balanced: Something that I immediately noticed about the rockstar was that in both flat water, and in a hole or wave, all of the moves are a lot more balanced. Flat-water cartwheels are easier than ever, loops are straighter, and every trick just looks way more smooth and balanced in the rockstar.

4. Looser: The new rocker profile of the rockstar makes it the fastest and most loose boat I have ever paddled. One of the first waves I surfed in my rockstar was an 8 foot, fast, green wave, and I remember getting in about three super clean spins from the top of the wave to the trough. The cool thing is that it is just as loose on the tiniest little waves too. I was clean spinning easily just the other day on a wave that was only about a foot tall!

3.Shorter: The new rockstars are slightly shorter than the star series. There are tons of advantages to this including, easier cartwheels, straighter loops, mcnasties, and phonics monkeys, and it’s way easier to plug for loops. Also, I have heard a lot of people wondering if they will be able to perform as well in a rockstar, because it is bigger and has more volume. I am on the light end for the medium size, around 140 lbs, and honestly, because it’s shorter the rockstar has been way easier to throw around than my allstar, even though it has more volume.

2. Faster and More Agressive: You will notice as soon as you get on your first wave with the rockstar that it is way faster than the star series. It is super fun just to front surf, and carve back and forth on a wave! Even though it’s way faster, it doesn’t get stuck in the trough of a wave or hole, and it is incredibly easy to carve your way back to the top of the feature to set up for your next trick. Along with the rockstar being super fast, it is also more aggressive. My first time surfing in a rockstar, I had trouble keeping up with the boat, and I felt like it was always one move ahead of me… but that just takes a few rides to get used to, and then your tricks will start to go bigger and snappier than ever.

1. More Volume: More volume means that you are going to go way bigger, be more retentive, and improve as a play boater way faster! One of my favorite things about the extra volume in the rockstars is that tricks like loops, mcnasties, phonics monkeys, space godzillas…etc., come around way straighter because of the extra volume in the stern. You are also going to be way more retentive no matter what feature you are on.

The Rock Star is definitely my favorite playboat ever. I feel like I have improved a ton as a playboater just in the last two months. It was awesome river running on huge water in Africa, and on low volume rivers in the Southeast. It was amazing on giant fast waves, and in slow, small holes. Try out one of these boats for yourself! They Rock!!!!!!

-Hunt Jennings

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Photo Credit: Hunt Jennings, Eliot Berz, Errik Hill