Maelstrom Vaag - made by crazy people having crazy fun!
There’s a new player in the Brit-style skeg boat market, hailing from the wonderful land of Quebec, Canada. Maelstrom kayaks, designed by a fun-loving bunch of kayak cowboys, are only a few years old but already their new designs are turning heads. I’ve also heard they are coming to Australian shores in the coming months, and to give you a little taste, here’s a teaser of surfing action in these new boats. Enjoy! – FP
Great blog!
I’m one of your larger paddlers…6’3″ 250 pounds. My wife fell in love with the Vaag 174 so we bought one. I fit very nicely into it..once I get past the thigh braces! It’s a bit less stable than the boats I normally paddle but I’m getting used to it. A very fun ride! I haven’t had it out in anything too exciting yet…but I’m very pleased with how it rolls and turns in calm conditions. We did have to spend some time working on the back pad, to make it fairly comfortable. We’re still not totally happy with the seat comfort though – maybe some more tinkering in my future. The build quality seems very good but I must admit that I don’t have a lot to compare it too…this is our first fiberglass boat.
Was this a sponsored post?
I wish Grumbles! No, no sponsorship here, I just think it’s exciting to get some new boats coming to our shores. Mind you, if you DO know Maelstrom’s sponsorship department, put in a good word for me! 🙂
Not sure about these boats. I tried one last season in Toronto and they just looked like badly made Tiderace ripoffs. this might be why the video is so bad of them doing the playboating, if they are not so good as the Tiderace or the Alaw Bachs that they copied.
I think Mick from Flat Earth Sales has a Maelstrom.
Hey Mick. The Mick from Flat Earth does indeed have a Maelstrom, except its not the same brand. His is made in Victoria (Australia), where-as the Maelstrom Vaag and Vital are new designs that have come out of Quebec, Canada. I dug around and found a link to Mick’s Aussie Maelstrom here, you can see it’s not the same boat:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f108/timphoto83ec/P3290017.jpg
Cheers – FP
Saw a glass and CK Vaags here in Boston, but haven’t paddled them yet. Was surprised at the sloppy workmanship…especially around the skeg control box.
Definitely not up to Boreal’s standard.
SubaruGuru, have you managed to test paddle one yet? Be interested to hear how it went. 🙂
I picked up a Vaag just shy of a month ago and love how it looks and paddles. My concern is with the durability of the boat, as I managed to take quite a chunk from the gel coat recently from what was a very light scrape over a ledge covered in rock weed. I also noticed 3 cracks along the coaming after doing some rescue play. There seems to be quite a bit of flex throughout the boat, especially when compared to my VCP pintail and NDK Explorer. Has anyone else noticed the boat to be lacking in the toughness department?
Guess this boats are produced by tahe marine in estonia, I also have a Vaag made by Tahe marine, same problem..cracing ..
But this is a result that people only want to pay for cheap copy..
So thats how the kayakindustri work: some use their know how and spent a lot of time to create the perfect kayak… then someone by the whole shit and produce it whit no respect to quality it deserves..