|
December 29, 2004 -- Bryson City, NC
On October 9th, 2002 USAWildwater.com announced “Nantahala Racing Club Inherits Dagger
Racing Molds.” Since then, the molds have laid mostly dormant as we have struggled to find
someone to put them to good use.
Over the past two years the paddle-sports industry has gone through some drastic changes.
Far fewer composite manufacturers exist today. Industrial overhead and government health
mandates have forced many paddle-sports manufacturers to move composite construction over seas.
Watermark, owners of Perception and Dagger, now have all their composite sea kayaks manufactured
in Mexico. Since the Nantahala Racing Club inherited the Dagger racing molds, the USA Dollar
has also taken a huge noise dive against the Euro. To buy a racing wildwater boat from Europe
today and have it imported into the USA will cost well in excess of $2000. Such prohibitive
costs to get in and stay in this sport, limits us all.
So it’s a pleasure to finally announce that the NRC/Dagger wildwater race molds are finally
being put to good use. The USA Wildwater Committee has been in negotiations with two boats builders.
Larry Parzynski of Florida operates a composite workshop with his father producing surf
skis, sea kayaks and sprint kayaks. An accomplished competitor himself in marathon, surf ski and
sprint, Larry spends his time either building boats or paddling and his passion is evident from
the finish quality of his boats. Larry currently has the TipTop C1 and SuperStar K1 molds in
operation. Dave Mason of USACK’s Board of Directors recently took possession of a blue TipTop
made by Parzynski and was very impressed with the attention to detail and build quality of his
new boat. Three lay-ups are available.
Training Lay-Up - $1100
Training Hull/Race Deck Lay-up - $1350
Race Lay-Up - $1600
To order your boat or to discuss build details and options, contact Larry Parzynski at
k1sprinter@hotmail.com or call him at 239-218-6522.
John Diller of Maryland owns Savage River Inc, a 15-year-old company building high
quality canoes, specifically racing canoes and outriggers. John’s canoes rule the marathon
canoe-racing world. You can visit his web site at www.savageriver.com
for insight on his construction methods and his use of the most high tech fabrics. Diller
currently has the Esox K1 and Millennium K1 molds, both top of the line racing designs still
widely used across Europe. He has already produced several wildwater boats out of these molds
in his immediate area, so watch for them on the Yough and Cheat. Although pricing has not been
established at this time, you can contact John Diller and Savage River at
srwjd@mindspring.com or by calling 301-334-2335.
Finally USA wildwater paddlers have access to well made domestically manufactured wildwater
designs at reasonable prices.
|
