Whitewater kayaker, surfer, kiteboarder and now SUP surfer Julien Fillion, took my new Whitewater SUP design down the Class 3 "bigwater" Lachine rapids.

We've run these rapids several times on normal "ocean" SUP shapes... and while it is possible, it's certainly NOT easy. The rocker, bottom and rail shape are all wrong, and as a result every little current and wave tries to flip you over. It's not like paddling out through 6' surf, where between waves the ocean is realitively calm and constant - out here in the lachines its the extreme in "river runing difficulty" for a craft like an SUP because there are so many converging currents, boils, eddies and choppy waves coming at you from all directions - and this doesn;t even count the wave trains you have to go through.

So its a perfect testing ground for a SUP designed specifically for whitewater river running.

Dragorossi has plans to produce this in plastic in the spring of 2009. This is perfect because for a WW SUP designed for rivers to be practial, it needs to be really strong, as as kayaking has proven over the last 2 decades, you can't beat plastic!

A note of interest - it was about -5C this day, and Dry Suits were a must!

Julien coming around the first bend of the river - a series of 2-3ft waves that hit you from all sides. He cruised through it all no sweat.

Turning to face upstream so he could "ferry glide" across the river to get back on like and hit the biggest "wave train" on the run to see what it would do.

You can see all the converging currents here trying to lap onto the board and flip it over.

Going into the seconf wave train on the run - a great series of crashing "funky" waves. A real roller coaster ride!

The board performed admirably, just crusing effortlessly across all of it.

Lineing up for the 3rd wave train, the biggest drop on the section - about a 6' slide into 4'+ waves and the set-up for the Big Joe and Mojo waves below.

Finally, Julien paddles onto Mojo and takes a surf. it's not as "fast and responsive" on a slick green wave as a traditional ocean design, but for the very reason that makes it so much easier to paddle in whitewater.

Overall, we're stoked on the way it handles, and will be padling it a lot more and making any needed changes.

Right now, it's 9'8" x 30" x 7"