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Great boat, poor outfitting.
Intermediate paddler, 5'9" 170lbs, Medium fit perfectly. From an intermediate paddler perspective, it behaves like most other reviewers have said. It is quite fast and playful. It was immediate fun, and I was amazed how fast you could rip around on it. It has much less primary stability than my Jackson Karma, but is more playful and has lots of secondary stability. That led me to rolling a fair bit more than I was used to. I immediately found it took an adjustment to my roll, as I tended to sink the stern and either throw myself all the way over the other side or catch and spin me around. This is not a knock to the design, this is clearly what it was meant to do, I just need to learn. The biggest gripe, the outfitting was very disappointing. Coming from a Jackson Karma that fit like a well worn glove within minutes, this one was like trying to get comfortable sleeping in a shoe-box. It took several hours to get things padding out correctly, and I still find my legs occasionally fall asleep because of the poor design (IMO) of the thigh braces. I had to drill new holes to push the thigh braces forward and modify the backband and hip-pads so that they would ride higher and not constantly pinch at the back of the seat. I would strongly recommend having extra foam around, as what was included was not enough
Best kayak ever.
The Ripper is the best kayak ever. Hands down. I love kayaking, I've loved kayaking for decades, but the ripper made me love kayaking even more. It makes everything more fun, from class 2 to class 5. It's shrig as. I'm 6'1" 190 and rip the large. The rest of my kayaks are feeling lonely.
Love It!
I'm 6' and 135lbs, and the small is a blast! The Braaap and Axiom don't work for me because the boats I fit in are too large to be playful. With the small Ripper I get a narrow, long boat that carves like a knife and is super fast! I was a little concerned that at only 23" wide it might be too unstable, but I've found it to be perfect. It's not rock solid, but take your creeker if you need more volume, stability, etc. Bobbie was mad helpful (as usual!) with my order, and was spot on about my Machno collecting dust once the Ripper arrived. :-) My only minor quibbles would be that 1) the length does make it a bit more prone to tail tapping on ledges, boofs, etc. (but maybe that's operator error), 2) while there is plenty of leg room, the narrower cockpit does make my legs a little more sore/tired than usual - I tend to prefer my knees higher up, and 3) the Pyranha outfitting, or at least the seat and back band, still really **** IMO. I replaced the seat pad with a Jackson Sweet Cheeks and it is at least 10x more comfortable! All that said, I'd highly recommend this boat. Everyone I know who owns or has paddled one has felt similarly. IMO, the only reason to look elsewhere in the half-slice category is if you want a displacement instead of a planing hull, though I guess if you want a 1/2 slice boat that is more towards the creeker end of things something like the Rexy or Steez could be in order.
10/10
Great all around boat! If I want to get reckless and have fun I can easily do that in this boat however if I want to run bigger rapids and stay in control throughout them I can also do that in this boat. All around a well made well designed boat...would highly recommend.
This boat rips!!!
This boat is super fast and boofs incredibly well, but is still very playful and maneuverable.