Hobie Eclipse On Water Test

(Video Transcript) 

We've now got the Hobie Eclipse in stock down here in Southern Victoria, and we're going to take her out on the water today. As you can see, once they're in the covers... The shoulder strap is awesome. Put that over your shoulder, grab the centre handle, and it's really well-balanced to get it down to the water. 

We're using the Trax 2 Edge cart, mainly because of the soft sand here it will make it easy to get it right down to the water. And we got a bungee cord here that will hold the rudder in. We push it back into its lock-it-in position. Put the bungee cord on, and the rudder's installed. 

If you'll notice that it's a kick-up rudder so therefore, when coming through the shallows it will kick up until you get your drive out. Installing the handlebars is very simple. Just fitting it into the slot locking cam lock and then we insert the loop over the ball for the black cable and the all-important Mirage drive with the flow fins What we'll do is we'll insert them into their position once we're on the water. Got the shark skins on and the sun's out now, which is awesome. 

The wind's still blowing a bit from the northwest but what the heck? It's a good day to test him, so we're going to get him down to the water now. And this time I'm going to watch out for the dog shit that the last one I went through. 

Gee they're nice and light. I think even my kids will have fun being able to get these down to the water on their own. We're going to test the 12-foot Eclipse first. It's been really easy to get them down into the water. In some states of Australia you will need to wear PFDs, particularly when you get 400 metres offshore in Victoria but today, just for safety reasons, we've got him on. 

Okay, let's have some fun. Just gonna get the cart out. So when we're going to fit the Mirage drive in need to be in about knee-deep of water. And I can tell you that we haven't got into our into the warmer water yet. It's still probably only 10 or 11 degrees. And off we go. Stability-wise, it's awesome. 

Manoeuvrability is fantastic. And same as with the Carex, to do a faster turn a short little pumping of the feet spins it around, and the steering controls and the handlebars make it so easy. Positioning your feet on the pads, I'm quite far, I'm at the rear of the pads. It's quite an easy pedal and if you want to put some more intensity into it move up the pedals. You can even see, with my awkwardness, I didn't come off. Yeah, no issue with stability on it. 

Steering is very easily manageable, very responsive too. And such a simple mechanism and a system to remove the bars from the kayak are so simple as well but I just I'm touching the lips of the balls and spinning the cam lock, and the bars come out. They're adjustable too in height for taller people and shorter. 

The wind's now starting to pick up, and we're into the second hour of the run-out tide so now we'll put it to its test going back into the tide. When I tested the Eclipse in San Diego, it was the nice warm weather. Very little current movement. 

Getting it out here in Anderson's Inlet, feeling probably a two- or three-knot current. You know, 10 to 12, maybe 15 knots of wind. Stability was awesome. The Mirage drive worked incredibly well, particularly when you're pumping it into the tide and across the wind. Yep, Olay and I had a ball. Now watch me fall in.

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