I'm in italy again... here to put the Mad Boy into production. Yes, after endless testing, we finally have the aluminium mold, and are spinning the first boats.

Anyone who has followed my design style over the years knows that I'm a perfectionist... I take forever to bring designs to market because I test, do more prototypes, test again, more prototypes... until its exactly right. Perfect. At that point in time, the absolute best boat ever (for the intended style).

Friday, we had the chance to run one boat before the factory closed. So I outfitted it, and headed up to the boarder of Austria with some friends - Danielino and Remo . The river, the Passirio in Merano.

Merano is famous for its slalom course. I raced here at the world cup in 1992, but even more astonighing, I realised as we put in that I'd run the river before in 1986. Back then... the Dancer was my boat of choice, while the AKC paddlers were in Gattino's and Taifuns.

I remember the river being really hard, and on the way up Danielino had told me that it was "the hardest run in italy". We were not disapointed. It was everything I remembered, and stood up to all the huurah I had to listen to on the way up. In fact, it was very much like the Upper Upper Sorba that we ran filming End Game. Some nasty holes, big drops, undercuts and tight lines. Good fun!

The last thing I would ever expect wouls be for the Mad Boy to even come close to the Critical Mass for pure "get me through anything" factor. Simply put, when I'm scared shitless, there is no better boat to be in than the Critical Mass... period. But, many people find it big, and "overkill" on a lot of thier local fun creek runs - runs which are steep, you need a safe boat, but are not necessarilly "life threatening". It was designed primarilly as a "river running creeker" - that is tos ay a fun to paddle safe boat on the kind of creeks most people run.

So... it was going to be interresting to see how the Mad Boy WOULD stack up in a "hard" environment. I was not disapointed. The bottom line is I would run anything in this boat. Granted, it does NOT have that same "juggernaught" feeling the Critical Mass has, but I never felt under gunned. In fact, I loved every second of the run!

This drop had a really nasty hole at the bottom. Here, the Mafia does its thing!

The Critical Mass going for the boof over a nasty hole with a pin rock to each side. Talk about being boxed in!

The Mad Boy taking the drop over one of the harder drops.

The waterfall coming in fromt he side is about 300ft high... awesome to see coming down into the gorge.

One of the things that I love about the Mad Boy is it handles like the creek version of a slalom boat... it's very responsive and likes to be paddled off the front of the boat. Surprisingly... when I tried to paddle it like a slug, off the tail using back strokes and sloppy technique, it was also amazingly responsive and easy. Everyone from the "technically perfect" to "beginner creekers" are going to love this boat.

Looking back up at the drops we're running... it certainly keeps you on your toes...

Its funny sometimes looking at yourself... I still paddle like I'm in a slalom boat... 16yrs after the Barcellona Olympics, and I still thing I'm running gates lol!!!

Here is a cool sequince for you...

This drop is awesome. About 15m high in total, with the last part a vertical 8m to 10m drop. really hard entry. It sort of reminded me of Gorilla on the Green river in N Carolina, but with a much bigger drop at the end after the "notch".