Submitted: 10-27-1998 by hjorg
The Riot is a fine sit-on-top boat for casual flatwater cruising, wave surfing, and fishing. It is small and light (40 lbs.) so I can easily load it in my powerboat and haul it to shallow parts of a nearby lake for flat fishing. I'm still negotiating with my wife on whether I can leave it tied to the top of a car for use on a river at lunchhour. It tracks well despite its small size and handles this 200 lb., 53 year old male without effort (i.e., lots of manueverability without the feeling I'll be dumped) even when leaning out to untangle fishing line from waterplants or low hanging bushes. Although it has a slightly elevated seat platform, I noticed no real loss of stability from sitting up an inch or two higher than I would in most other sit-on-top cruisers, and the benefit (a slightly drier posterior on cool days) is a real plus. The Riot comes in some reasonable colors as well as the outrageous Easter Egg green/blue/yellow I got (which "they" call maize and sapphire), which powerboat friends of mine say is quite visible to them on foggy mornings!It's retail cost is about $450, and it comes with premounted handles, accessory clips for a seat (or whitewater legstraps), and an 8(?) inch dry hatch as well as a behind-the-seat depression with straps for securing gear. I bought the optional ballistic cloth seat but use it only when I'm going to spend hours paddling or sitting. I have legstraps on my Perception Torrent (Andes) (AKA the BananaBoat) but I've never felt like I needed them on the Riot even on busy boating weekends when the wake waves are pretty intense (and can even be surfed a little). I'm very pleased with my purchase and the low impact exercise I'm getting while just fooling around on the water. Any drawbacks? Yeah. I like it so much I already upgraded my paddle and am starting to add extreme weather clothes to my paddling outfits so I can extend the season. This doesn't leave much room for watching extreme weather clothes to my paddling outfits so I can extend the season. This doesn't leave much room for watching daytime TV on weekends. Why 9 instead of 10? Nobody's perfect, and there might be a better boat for what I want than the Riot, but I haven't sat in it yet. |