Welcome to Atascadero Kayak's sprint boat page. We are located in Central California. Generally we don't ship sprint boats out of state from our stock and encourage paddlers to support those rare kayak shops in their local state that are brave enough to keep these tippy rockets in stock (like us if you live in California)! However if there is no dealer in your area we can thru KAS Shipping that loops through the country about once every 6 weeks. If you have never paddled a ICF sprint boat or modern ocean racing surf ski it is important that you try one with someone that has experience. They can be unbelievably tippy. For example the Eagle sprint boat will flop over onto its side when you place it in the water! We try to keep a few Nelos in Stock and a couple SRS boats. The new for 2007 Nelo Viper 51 is a extremely fast boat for the first time paddler and is a great choice for master sprint paddlers, entry level ICF paddlers and the adventure racer (but not on the Ocean). It is a bit more stable than a Lazer and works very well with its rotating seat. You can really put some leg into it and stay right side up. I measured it at the 4 inch waterline and it was 18 3/8 inches wide which makes it legal in the USCA Touring class! For experienced sprinters that want to enter races that have water a bit too choppy for their ICF boat Nelo has a Sea Vanquish. This boat is about 19.5 feet long and has about the same waterline beam as a normal Vanquish. The big difference is it gets wide above the waterline and you can lay it over like a wildwater boat without is flipping. This would also be a great boat for the new sprinter that is constantly falling out as the upper beam almost acts like training wheels. The Sea Vanquish is probably the fastest kayak I sell but only in the hands of a experienced sprinter. This boat is not a stable boat compared to a surf ski or Viper.
We have one demo "Dart" which is based on a 40 year old Olympic design. It is very stable by todays ICF K-1 standards and faster than just about any traditional "Sea Kayak". The Dart is about one inch skinner than the Polaris and as a result is a tiny bit tippier (not much) and about 2 seconds faster in the 500 meter sprint. For 2001 & 2002 the "Dart" was the favorite kayak of 10 year old Molly Reeves who enjoys beating some of the local adults! The photo below shows Molly at age 9 in a Dart "Expedition". The "Expedition" version has bulkheads and hatches added - sort of a very fast flatwater touring boat.
The following is s shot of Molly's current favorite sprint boat which is a Viper 51 in sprint trim with a rotating seat. It is stable enough for her to put her paddle down and adjust her I Pod headset!
