The F1
23 inches wide, 14 feet long, 29 lbs
"Brian, I finally got the chance to paddle one of your kayaks. It was my birthday and Judy let me paddle her boat. It was a peak experience, it was like wearing silk underwear." -Lorriane
Equally at home on quiet estuary back channels, extreme surf and howling winds, glassy high mountain lakes, or long trips down big water rivers with occasional rapids, you’ll be hard pressed to find another kayak that can do so many things so well as the F1. Comfort, lightweight, maneuverability, quickness, cargo capacity, handling in surf and wind, and most importantly, customized to your exact body proportions, the F1 feels like exactly what it is: a kayak designed by paddlers. Refined over hundreds of copies, we build more of these than any other kayak. We’ve omitted useless overhanging ends that are a hindrance in caves, tight channels, the wind, and your garage, but left the waterline long enough that you can still punch it up to 5 mph when you need to give it some juice. Optimized for the normal cruising speeds, the combination of lower weight, a flared hull, and a slightly shorter waterline reduces wetted surface resulting in noticeably less paddling effort. This combination of playfulness and touring capability means not only can you get where you are going, but you’ll have more fun along the way, and I’m pretty sure that is the whole point of being in a kayak.
Here is how a very experienced husband and wife pair of paddlers describes their F1's:
"Our fair assessment is that it is a truly magic boat. We get out in the f1s about every week. I and a few friends were out on Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park a few weeks ago in 30 mph (measure with an anemometer) winds. I had a blast making surfing runs with the F1. Maneuvering in the wind was so easy compared with my 18 foot Impex. Everyone out on the lake with me including myself were stunned that I could paddle at any angle to that raging wind with either zero or a trivial amount of weather cocking. It balanced perfectly paddling with the category 6 winds right on the beam with no skeg or rudder weight or cables. My buddies in their ND Explorer and Tiderace Excite fought hard for every turn and surfing run while the F1 dance around with ease. My Mom stole my boat for a half hour last weekend. Wouldn't come back to shore with it. When she did, she said to my Dad as she beached it, "Bill, you've got to build me one of these."
and this three years later from the same person:
"I thought you might want to know about some F-1 fun I had. I competed in the tenth annual Blackfoot River Challenge Race an 11-mile down-river race event. I used a wood Greenland paddle and placed third over-all. I was beat only by one of the 2-person Olympic-style racing canoes and the 23-foot ocean racing kayak. The race ran through mostly class I and some not-quite class II whitewater including some fun head-high wave trains and lots of rocky poor-overs. As usual the F-1 performed like a magic boat. It bashed through all dynamic water effortlessly and with no drama whatsoever. The flexible frame felt like it was acting like a shock absorber, giving me lots of time to feel and react to the forces of waves and currents when they acted on the boat. Mostly it just ran straight and true through anything I pointed it at. In the last half of the race, the 23-foot boat (I didn’t even know they made 23-foot kayaks) had me in its sights (he had started at a later time with the faster boat classes), but I easily prevented him from overtaking me as I think he was running out of juice in the second half of the race. I finished ahead of him though his actual time was faster. The paddler of that long boat with his wing paddle expressed his frustration to me that he couldn't catch up to someone paddling with that skinny Greenland paddle. Needless to say, I laughed under my breath. The biggest win of the day for me though was just how much fun I had discovering the F-1’s magic river running skills."
Here is how another builder describes his F1:
"Hello Brian Hope your keeping well as can be, I am Peter from South Australia. I blogged my build as I was going through the process. After a reasonable bit of flat water paddling and paddling in strong winds. I finally got it out into some rough water, well rough enough for me at this stage. Swell was about 1.2 to 1.5 meters wind around 15-20knots gusting to 25 knots and about a 2' wave breaking on shore.
Once I got out passed the small shore break I encountered a real sloppy section of water that was created by a channel running through the Port Noarlunga. Interesting to say the least. Found the F1 a little bit tippy at first, took me about 20 minutes to settle in and relax myself. Once feeling good the F1 came into its own. Secondary stability is amazing, the kayak felt right at home in those conditions, it was only me that took awhile. It din't matter where you pointed it, it handled the conditions superbly. In the heavy swell, whether going into, running parallel, or going with it, there was never a moment that I thought I would be dumped in the water, the secondary stability just works ( what more can you say). I was with 7 other paddlers from my canoe club on a training day. One of the training exercise was to paddle in and around the jetty pilings by using a forward and revers sweep stroke and edging the kayaks. They were amazed at how well and how quickly the F1 could perform this manoeuvre in very strong winds and about 18" to 2' of wind waves in the shelter of the reef. So all in all I couldn't be happier with the F1, it performed well beyond my expectations. I only have 4 images showing me landing but this gives you a bit of an idea of what the weather was like. In about 4 weeks I will take it surfing and get some better pics. A FANTASTIC KAYAK BRIAN WELL DONE."
Cheers, Peter
23 inches wide, 14 feet long, 29 lbs
"Brian, I finally got the chance to paddle one of your kayaks. It was my birthday and Judy let me paddle her boat. It was a peak experience, it was like wearing silk underwear." -Lorriane
Equally at home on quiet estuary back channels, extreme surf and howling winds, glassy high mountain lakes, or long trips down big water rivers with occasional rapids, you’ll be hard pressed to find another kayak that can do so many things so well as the F1. Comfort, lightweight, maneuverability, quickness, cargo capacity, handling in surf and wind, and most importantly, customized to your exact body proportions, the F1 feels like exactly what it is: a kayak designed by paddlers. Refined over hundreds of copies, we build more of these than any other kayak. We’ve omitted useless overhanging ends that are a hindrance in caves, tight channels, the wind, and your garage, but left the waterline long enough that you can still punch it up to 5 mph when you need to give it some juice. Optimized for the normal cruising speeds, the combination of lower weight, a flared hull, and a slightly shorter waterline reduces wetted surface resulting in noticeably less paddling effort. This combination of playfulness and touring capability means not only can you get where you are going, but you’ll have more fun along the way, and I’m pretty sure that is the whole point of being in a kayak.
Here is how a very experienced husband and wife pair of paddlers describes their F1's:
"Our fair assessment is that it is a truly magic boat. We get out in the f1s about every week. I and a few friends were out on Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park a few weeks ago in 30 mph (measure with an anemometer) winds. I had a blast making surfing runs with the F1. Maneuvering in the wind was so easy compared with my 18 foot Impex. Everyone out on the lake with me including myself were stunned that I could paddle at any angle to that raging wind with either zero or a trivial amount of weather cocking. It balanced perfectly paddling with the category 6 winds right on the beam with no skeg or rudder weight or cables. My buddies in their ND Explorer and Tiderace Excite fought hard for every turn and surfing run while the F1 dance around with ease. My Mom stole my boat for a half hour last weekend. Wouldn't come back to shore with it. When she did, she said to my Dad as she beached it, "Bill, you've got to build me one of these."
and this three years later from the same person:
"I thought you might want to know about some F-1 fun I had. I competed in the tenth annual Blackfoot River Challenge Race an 11-mile down-river race event. I used a wood Greenland paddle and placed third over-all. I was beat only by one of the 2-person Olympic-style racing canoes and the 23-foot ocean racing kayak. The race ran through mostly class I and some not-quite class II whitewater including some fun head-high wave trains and lots of rocky poor-overs. As usual the F-1 performed like a magic boat. It bashed through all dynamic water effortlessly and with no drama whatsoever. The flexible frame felt like it was acting like a shock absorber, giving me lots of time to feel and react to the forces of waves and currents when they acted on the boat. Mostly it just ran straight and true through anything I pointed it at. In the last half of the race, the 23-foot boat (I didn’t even know they made 23-foot kayaks) had me in its sights (he had started at a later time with the faster boat classes), but I easily prevented him from overtaking me as I think he was running out of juice in the second half of the race. I finished ahead of him though his actual time was faster. The paddler of that long boat with his wing paddle expressed his frustration to me that he couldn't catch up to someone paddling with that skinny Greenland paddle. Needless to say, I laughed under my breath. The biggest win of the day for me though was just how much fun I had discovering the F-1’s magic river running skills."
Here is how another builder describes his F1:
"Hello Brian Hope your keeping well as can be, I am Peter from South Australia. I blogged my build as I was going through the process. After a reasonable bit of flat water paddling and paddling in strong winds. I finally got it out into some rough water, well rough enough for me at this stage. Swell was about 1.2 to 1.5 meters wind around 15-20knots gusting to 25 knots and about a 2' wave breaking on shore.
Once I got out passed the small shore break I encountered a real sloppy section of water that was created by a channel running through the Port Noarlunga. Interesting to say the least. Found the F1 a little bit tippy at first, took me about 20 minutes to settle in and relax myself. Once feeling good the F1 came into its own. Secondary stability is amazing, the kayak felt right at home in those conditions, it was only me that took awhile. It din't matter where you pointed it, it handled the conditions superbly. In the heavy swell, whether going into, running parallel, or going with it, there was never a moment that I thought I would be dumped in the water, the secondary stability just works ( what more can you say). I was with 7 other paddlers from my canoe club on a training day. One of the training exercise was to paddle in and around the jetty pilings by using a forward and revers sweep stroke and edging the kayaks. They were amazed at how well and how quickly the F1 could perform this manoeuvre in very strong winds and about 18" to 2' of wind waves in the shelter of the reef. So all in all I couldn't be happier with the F1, it performed well beyond my expectations. I only have 4 images showing me landing but this gives you a bit of an idea of what the weather was like. In about 4 weeks I will take it surfing and get some better pics. A FANTASTIC KAYAK BRIAN WELL DONE."
Cheers, Peter