Day 3 of ICAST presented me with the opportunity to cruise the show largely unencumbered of meetings. I swung by the showcase and eyed up the Skanu again. It is a poling canoe co-designed with legend Flip Pallot. It is comprised of high-tech carbon laminate and it weighs 50lbs with a retail price of $7000.
My only appointment was Newport motors. These electric motors have been the talk of ICAST. The battery box shaped like a suitcase is legit and looks perfectly designed for kayaks. You can see it in the stern of the micro-skiff.
Expect to see some of these in the shop soon. Their best seller is the NK18GPRO a 600W, and retails for $999. The next step up is the 3HP - NK300 which retails for $1199.
After the meeting looking at the full line -up of Newport motors, I was free to roam the show at my own pace. Roaming ICAST is a load of fun, in which you are guaranteed to run into friends and see some cool stuff. Here is a brief rundown of the things that caught my eye:
I stopped back to the Hobie eyewear booth to write and order for a sunglasses refill order. It gave me the chance to snap a pic of the Hobie electric bike and trailer with a Lynx on it. This would be quite the cool little shuttle rig.
Later I visited the TurtleBox booth. I've heard a great deal of good about these little speakers and am thinking they'd make a good addition to the shop as well.
Next was the Grunden apparel booth. These guys are killing it. They won multiple awards at ICAST and had the buffest mannikins I've ever seen. Their Tough Sun Masked Hoodie is a very good looking piece to keep you safe from the sun.
I also stopped at the HUK booth to check out the latest there and revisit some favorites, like the Icon series.
While on my ramblings, I ran into friend and Chief of Fisheries at Virginia Dept. of Wildlife Resources, Mike Bednarski. It was great to see him!
I also ran into HoodFishing on the show floor. He was shot four times earlier this year, but has made a comeback and was looking good.
Near the back of the show I ran into one of our partners in e-comm, Locally. We had a great discussion over our analytics discussed ways to increase traffic to our website.
I stopped by the Fly Shop over in the fly fishing section. It was a very cool set-up. Outside the shop was a women's Simms outfit that I sent a picture of to my wife. She thought it'd be a good river trip outfit.
There was also a 300lb Drift boat from East Cape that is made of carbon as well. It looked sharp!
One of the craziest things I saw, the Bajio sunglasses booth had a barbers chair and a tattoo chair in the booth. Told my wife I was next in line, and she called me three times immediately after.
And last but not least, I ran into my friend Brendan Mark, the CEO of the media company Heliconia. They've got a host of great paddling shows that they produce, including a partnership with Bad Ash Outdoors for a pilot episode called Hook, Line and History. It was great seeing them!
Today I made my way to the Bonafide / Native Watercraft booth to get a good look at the new Bonafide XTR130 kayak. It has a 730lb capacity, is 40.5" wide, 12'7" long, and weights 150-155lbs. Fully rigged weight is 170 lbs. This is the PWR kayak cranked up to 11! You can run it solo, fully rigged up, or slap an extra seat in it and take the kids out for the day. In truth, that's the version with the most allure for me.
The solo set up is ready to be outfitted to the max.
The tandem does away with the bow hatch plate and adds another swivel seat the set up.
Bonafide has a series of motorization packages for the XTR due to come out in September.
In the similar vein I got another look at the Wilderness Systems Tactical Pro 128 which stands as competition for the XTR. Now Bonafide did not enter the New Product Showcase, but Wildy did. Tonight, the Tactical Pro 128 won Best in Category and will be up for Best in Show tomorrow night. That comes with some trepidation. Bonafide didn't enter the race on purpose. Winning Best in Show at ICAST has been a bit of a paddlesports curse. But Wildy is looking to break that bad mojo with their 158lbs. beast.
I snuck another look at the YakAttack SandRig Surf Cart. I believe it will retail for $1060, and comes with BlackPak, ShortStak, and TracPak.
My pleasure cruise booth visit was to the Everglades Fishing Company. I'd spied some of their apparel in the New Product Showcase and thought it had the right bit of technical capability and edgy style.
That shirt comes with a bottle opener on the pocket flap.
EFC even has some sweet no-bananas socks.
The Suspenz Yellowfin Rigging Stations are pretty darn sweet and will get ordered for the shop. I may even try to convince Big Al in our repair shop that these would be an improvement over his old sawhorses.
Last year I missed ICAST for the first time in 10 years after a large oak tree crushed my truck. It did not buff out.
So, it felt good to get wrapped in a warm sweaty hug from the Florida humidity today in Orlando. ICAST began with the On the Water demo and I had the chance to see a few options for the shop. I'll give a relatively quick overview of what I saw that piqued my interest at the demo and then later at the New Product Showcase. Tomorrow I'll dive into some of these products a little deeper in the show hall.
The new Bonafide XTR130 was not at the demo (suspect I'll see it in the booth tomorrow), but Wildy had an offering in the same vein.
The Wilderness Systems Tactical Pro 128 will retail for $2299 and comes in at 158lbs. It is a load! It comes with a 360 swivel seat and a bow motor mount.
The Newport NS130 Inflatable Skiff caught my eye. In fact the two models that caught my eye were both inflatable skiffs. This is an interesting market. The Newport is a great pairing with the Newport electric motors. More on those to come. In the meantime, this thing only weighs 61lbs. and has a capacity to carry 800lbs. It retails for $2199.
The next inflatable skiff that looked very cool was the Isle 12'6" Flywater Inflatable Kayak + Micro-Skiff Hybrid. I loved the flexibility of this offering from Isle. Complete package weight is 55lbs. This thing looks very fun! And it can adapt to your adventure. It should retail around $1495.
Our hometown crew from YakAttack was in the house with a big assortment of new, cool products. The phone holder is coming! A new beach/surf fishing cart rig is here! A pile of kayak fishing rigging solutions from a command console to drybags. It was good to see them represented in the new product showcase as well.
One of my favorite random finds was this "Game-Changing" cooler that was already marked down with $100 off the original price! Aww, such is the hard fought life of a gamechanger.
Hobie was at the demo with some kayaks, but nothing new. They did however have a giant duck in the pond promoting their new floating sunglasses.
Below you'll find some of the entertaining or interesting finds from the New Product Showcase in the exhibit hall.
The East Cape Boats Skanu which is a "polling canoe in a skiff package." It is 49lbs.
This Create a Lure package would be right up my youngest daughter's alley.
Bill Dance inspired shades from Kast Kings.
And a waterproof drone for fishing.....
Last Sunday we met some friends, currently from Roanoke, that we knew back in our WV days and hit the river. The Balcony Falls run was chosen for the meet up and paddle. This was our first river trip of the summer as a family. Our friends were bringing whitewater boats, so I decided to take some inflatables for me and the girls. Harriet, my wife, took a Jackson Antix 2.0 that she'd never paddled before.
The Balcony Falls run on the James River is often referred to as the Glasgow to Snowdon paddle. It is 4.8mi. with Class II+ (III) rapids. It's a great, fun run for beginner to intermediate paddlers and a fantastic run for family adventure.
I packed the Star Raven II tandem for our youngest (10 yrs.) and I to paddle together. The Star Viper XL was for our eldest ( 12 yrs.) to paddle solo. Arriving at the put-in, it took me all of 10 minutes to pump up both kayaks, and get them ready for the river. The Star kayaks from NRS come with backpacks, pumps, and repair kits.
Our eldest did great in the Viper XL.
The Viper XL comes "with an aggressive rocker design and eight more inches of length, the STAR Viper XL Inflatable Kayak is built for bigger paddlers looking for an inflatable that can ride over waves, punch through holes, surf and ferry like a hard-shell." And we currently have it on sale for $896.
The Raven II tandem was equally as fun on this float.
The Raven II Inflatable Kayak is good to paddle "with a friend for whitewater thrills and lazy-floating fun. Or, load it with gear and paddle solo for multiday adventures. The tandem Raven II gives you unlimited possibilities for fun and adventure on the water." The Raven II is also on sale for $821.
Harriet enjoyed the Antix so much she decided to hold on to it for the rest of the year to paddle it a few more times. We have 2023 Antix on sale.
The whole day was a ton of fun, and it was such an easy load to carry to the river between the Antix and the two inflatables. The Viper XL even served as a great lunch table when we took a break. River lunches are a favorite in our family.
Our eldest has now paddled Balcony solo twice. It feels like she is starting to come into that phase of life that brings the right amount of physical capabilities with her youthful drive for independence. But she's still smart enough to follow her mother's line.
And young enough to still love "jump rock."
Our youngest on the other hand, has been in a kayak or canoe with me since she was 10 months old. This trip was the first where she starting asking about paddling her own craft. It won't be long, and these inflatables seem like the perfect transition kayak for that personal growth.
They are great for adults as well. Whether you don't want to worry about having a car rack for transportation, or you don't have space to store a rotomolded kayak, inflatables are a great option. Plus they are lighter!
Whatever craft you choose, get out on the river this summer and soak in the beauty of our bounty! Here in Virginia, from mountains to the sea, we have the chance to paddle in splendor!
