L Flirt First Impressions:

Leif Anderson

The following is an email that I received from the newest member of Team Fluid, Leif Anderson. Leif joined the team at the '04 Outdoor Retailer Show and got his first river experience in the boat at the Skookmchuck Narrows in British Columbia Canada. The following are his first impressions of the boat.

"So I got the new large Flirt at the show (OR) and later that day, Andy (Maser) and I drove up to Skook.  We beat the crowds, and the first day that we were there, there was at least an hour where Andy and I were the only paddlers on the water.  It was totally sick.  The new boat was awesome.  It was nice and fast.  There was quite a while there once the wave built where everyone else had to hike it, but I was still fast enough to make the ferry from the eddy.  I was really proud of that.  The (Large) flirt was bouncy, too.  We were there for two days, and I worked on just about every trick that I could think of.  Totally awesome.  I loved it.

Anyway, after skook, I headed to walla walla to meet with some of my friends from school, and we took a little boating trip.  Our original plan was to hit the c-wave on the lower deschutes, but it rained too much that night, so we headed to the coast instead.  Unfortunately, it sucked.  Most of the waves were pretty small, and breaking close in, but every now and then there would be a good set.  I think that I hit a few pan-ams, but I'm notorious for thinking that my tricks were bigger than they really were, so take that with a grain of salt.  Regardless, it was fun despite the crappy conditions.

Because of the lack of surf, we decided to head inland the next day, and we threw a session at spencer's hole on the n. santiam.  Spencer's is a really nice loophole at about 1000 or 1100 cfs, but that day it was a little low, so there wasn't as much air to be had.  That was perfect, though, because it let me test out the limits of the Flirt.  It was pretty fun in a hole.  Most boats that I've paddled, when you launch a loop, you pop out in one short burst, sort of like when you squeeze a bar of soap in your hand and it slips out.  But when I'd launch out for a big loop in the flirt, it would just keep on going, as if you were being launched by a slingshot.  Maybe my metaphors won't make as much sense to other people as they do to me, so let me summarize that in one shorter sentence.  The flirt is good for looping.  Cartwheeling was a little more work than I was used to, but who cares?  Just about every other boat that I've paddled has been too small for me, and I've worked the cartwheel by just slamming it through.  The flirt was balanced and slicey, so I'll have to work a little on my technique.  Lots more potential, though.

After that, we headed back to walla walla, and I hate to admit it, but I've just been hanging out around here, and not doing much boating.  I did throw one flatwater sesh, and got a little more used to cartwheeling a boat with a stern. I also got a chance to flatwater loop the boat in water that was deeper than the OR show pool, and yeah, the flirt can flatwater loop pretty well.  Later today, I should be headed to spokane to do some mellow boating with my girlfriend.  Hopefully, there will be some more cartwheel practice opportunities there."

Check out the Team section of the website to see all the info on Leif. The L Flirts are now available in North America and are already making a big splash. Ask your local dealer about checking one out.

Welcome to the Team Leif- Bryon Dorr