Astro 58!

we arrived in montreal on friday, facing temperatures of around 3°C.
thought it would be okay, the snow was melting and it seemed to be getting warmer, but now winter is here! this night it started to snow and no end in sight yet.

good news are that it looks the same on the ottawa. ha!
waterlevels seem to be on the low side for this time of the year.
curious how this will affect the worlds.

and i got my new boat on saturday. shiny limegreen Astro 58! thank you riot!
as i mentioned before: i liked the 54, but it was simply too small for me on a wave.
i haven´t had a ride in my 58 yet, but it looks awesome!
riot has widened the hull a bit, raised the bow rocker and took away some of the stern rocker.
the spin disc is further back, so i guess i´ll be more balanced. they also added some volume, of course. actually, without having had a ride in it yet, it seems as if everything that didn´t work for me in the 54 is fixed in the 58. this won´t take anything away from the 54's possibilities, it's simply not my size though.
you can also find a good comparison by steve fisher here.

what is another big change for me is the riot powerseat.
the powerseat is riot's high performance seat option for their freestyle boats.
it´s quite a bit higher than the unity seat, which is the standard outfitting., thus giving you more leverage on your moves.
there are no movable parts on the powerseat. instead of a backband its back is raised and simply covered with foam, which makes the seat stiff, lightweight and probably more aggressive.

thanks to fabi krummreich here are some shots of the new boat, suppose we were not that busy yesterday. we shot indoor, so the pics might be a bit on the dark side...

as soon as i can i'll post a report about the astro's performance as well.

la scie!

i just got an email from Fabian Krummreich containing those sweet shots of me and the Astro enjoying one awesome wave. thank you!
these are pictures from the same trip and same river as in the last update, but a different wave.

la Scie is another good highwater wave on the doubs in france, running when la malate is too high. it´s big, smooth, fast and fair with a good eddyline access.

we were there the first day of our trip and left to malate when it got too low. unfortunately the best levels were at night, so that we had just a bit too much foam for the wave to be at it´s best.

shortly before the wave greens out it gets super green and steep and we missed that level. nevertheless it was big fun and the hole behind the green shoulder turned out to be a perfect spot for some nice beatdowns as well.