Unleash Your Inner Outlaw with the Ride Mutant
Prepare to defy the norms with the Ride Mutant, an unruly force that dares to challenge the status quo. Drawing inspiration from renowned surf-skis, our visionary designer, James, sought to infuse the sharpness of turns and acceleration into a closed cockpit kayak.
Undoubtedly, it’s one of the most underrated surf kayaks on the market, ready to revolutionize your surfing experience.
While we won’t sugarcoat it, the Mutant is not easy to paddle. But when it hits its stride, hold on tight! Its deep hull vee and optimal width deliver unparalleled acceleration and speed. Switching edges becomes a breeze, allowing you to hold the most radical turns, all thanks to the deck’s strategic positioning pulled back from the rail.
Get ready to elevate your game and ascend to the next level of performance.
Reviews
Where to start with this review…
The mutant is a tale of many different boats.
Tri fin and quad fin are so different, and seat position dramatically changes how it paddles and turns. With a little playing about, there is so many sweet spots.
First off me.
I’m in that zone where I feel a little heavy for the zenith, and a little too light for the Solar.
In the solar, I had so much room very comfortable, and in the zenith, i can just about squeeze in.
The mutant fits like a glove. With the thigh hooks installed and a slightly raised seat, I needed to do very little outfitting. It has a high deck that always good fit, but cuts away in the nose keeping it low volume and allowing it the slice through turns.
I’ve surfed the mutant in all conditions, small and large.
My mutant allows for both tri and quad fin setups.
I mostly surf quad, which is reviewed below, but tri fin really mellows out the boat, for those interested in a slightly tamer beast.
To start, the boat is hard to paddle, such a short tail means it sits low in the water and drags a little.
I’ve found moving the seat forward and raising it means i can do this effectively, but it is not fast. On the plus side, its easy to hop waves and duckdive.
The slow paddlespeed however does not effect catching waves, the wide tail and high volume gets the boat into waves nice and quick. The short tail also makes it quick to tail dip and boost into waves, a cool fun feeling that leads to lightspeed drops.
Because of this, even on small waves you can get a fast take off if you time it right.
In small waves, the short tail means you can milk extra turns in super fast and still get back down the line due to low rocker.
But the real fun is big waves….
The boat is insane, wickedly fast, twitchy, nervous. Not for beginners, but an awful lot of fun. In the big surf, guys on ski’s were beginning to skip and hop, the mutant stayed smooth, no hops, but then when it releases its instant air, even in turns, thats gonna take a while to get use to.
I’m truly blown away by the speed. Over 40km/h on a wave.
With big concave vee hull running the length, it can hold a very high line on a steep wave, and can turn super sharp instantly when you want to.
Turns happen so quickly and you can snap a mini cut back in places you think you need to gun out of the pocket.
It much prefers the pocket, I found steep and fast sections of the wave it was more stable and predictable, and its when you slow down you notice more nervousness, When it gets all white and foamy, it becomes a handful, but it’s kinda funny too.
I found with fins where I normally put them, its very drivey but the tail can slip, I’m running them almost all the way back in the box and its perfect, pivots fast and early, so much drive. You can literally feel the pressure off the fins and rail.
It climbs really quickly on the wave.
Tri Fin –
In tri fin,
its like adding training wheels, its a little less drivey, but also much more stable and less nervous on a wave
I surfed the Mutant at a wave pool, a clean point break and at a messy beach break. It’s a fun kayak which loves to sit right in the pocket of the wave. It generates speed well and has good volume distribution to paddle out in rough conditions. When you sit it in the sweet spot of the wave, the Mutant really excels - a super fun kayak for a range of conditions and paddler abilities!