The Envy from Kitchen Composites www.kitchencomposites.com

We can't help feeling that, given the name, this little fella should be green. But itcertainly wouldn't have been as eyecatching or as photogenic if it had. And anyway, you can order it in any colour you want. It's just that the Kitchen people, for better or for worse, seem to like pink for their demo boats.

Check out some of the pix below.

It looks like a ski, and it rides like a ski.

We tend to paddle surf kayaks, and our usual gripe about those is that they aren't sa symmetrical and balanced as we'd like them to be. So... we didn't expect to like this boat, with its wide hull, curved sides and non-existent tail. But you can't help but grin, really. It's quick, it turns well and maintains its drive (even tho the fin set-up we had was a bit... inadequate ;) and is a whole lot of fun, as well sa being super-roomy and comfy despite it's obvious ickle-ness.

The boat is based on a ski hull desgn by Kevin Andriessen of Dirty Habits fame. The Kitchen boys have tweaked it a bit, including adding a swalowtail, and have designed a deck that looks like a cross between a ski and a Tomahawk cruise-missile. The boat we tried had somewhat poor fins but the production boat has a standard thruster set-up you can do whatever you want with. Notwithstanding, it drove up the face nicely as you can see:

...and it certainly charges the wall and holds well on a rail :

... making gouging, full-rail turns better than anything else we've seen :

What else can we say? It's a bit weird to paddle out on a beach-break (like a ski) and slightly odd to roll (like a ski), but it certainly has all the wave-performance you could ask for (err... did we mention it was like a ski???) If raily turns are your thing and you fancy the ocasional shot at air, this might be for you. Check out the website (link at top) where as well as Envy info you will also find pics of GoatBoater boys charging in Tahiti.