Jackson Duo, Double the fun !

After a busy couple months on the road I was super excited to head back home for a few days.My home river ain’t big but I love it. It’s not super challenging or exciting but it’s a good playground and you can paddle any kind of boat. I was initially planning to paddle mostly slalom and my new Karma unlimited but I ended up paddling every single boat I own, and I spent most time paddling the Duo.

I never really paddled Duo and the few past experiences I had weren’t a success. When I was a kid I had one of my worst swim in a Topo Duo and the few other times I went paddling in a Topo Duo I remember having a hard time to keep the boat in line and avoid swimming. Although I was a little nervous I decided to take down a journalist down my home rapids.

Surprisingly paddling the Dynamic Duo was super easy. Even though the journalist was heavier than me I could roll and turn the boat without any problems and we ended up  taking some harder lines, catching some eddies and surfing waves. During the whole river run my partner couln’t stop smilling. It made me very happy to him happy and to be able to share my passion for kayaking with someone who had never done it before. It made me realized that the Duo was without doubt the best way to introduce a beginner to our sport. They get to experience the good parts without swimming. After the Duo experience I offered him to try to paddle in a single kayak. I warned him it would be much harder but he was motivated so I prepared safety and I let him go. He swam pretty much straight away. At the end of the day I though we did a great job show casing kayaking. He experienced the fun parts of the sport as well as realizing that it wasn’t easy and that safety was required.

The next day I was training in slalom with Australian team member, Dan Watkins. We still had the Dynamic Duo on the roof of the car and in the middle of our session we decided to drop our slalom boat and try out the Duo on the top section of Bourg Slalom course.It was pretty challenging because it’s pretty big whitewater and it has consequences if you mess it up. We were pretty nervous at the start but it went good so we went again trying some different lines and upstream gates. I realized that the Duo was not only a great boat to take beginners paddling but also an awesome way to challenge yourself and have a good time with a friend.

I’m now looking forward to paddle it more often with both beginners and experienced paddlers. It’s so much fun !!!