Takeout Talk: Small Gnar (vs Med & Female 1st Thoughts) 

Thx. That’s one of my favorite boats. 🥰

Thanks Boyd. Always appreciate your insights, and this is some great stuff re seat position. 👍🏼

@@kevinhill.8 man it’s crazy how much it matters. Keep up the videos!! Stoked you guys got in this one 🤙🏻

@@CleanLineKayaking thanks. I should’ve opened my video w a quick summary of my Gnar experience so far. Derek and I bought the two M Gnars that were the reveal/release event boats at Next Adventure in PDX. I’m 6’ but only 135, and after a few paddles I sold my M, feeling it was a bit too big for me. The small feels fantastic for my weight and size. I’ll be experimenting moving my seat back a notch based on your advice. 🙏

Def give it a try. Consensus seems to be that all three sizes run a bit large (just saw a Reddit post ab someone 300# loving the L Gnar). 👍🏼

Nice! I remember chatting. Glad you are liking it. Such a sick boat! 🤙🏼

Glad it helped. I think small will float you pretty well, and at 5’ 6” you would prob feel a little swallowed up in the medium, esp if you prefer smaller boats.

Update: my buddy who is 5’7” 175 paddled my S Gnar yesterday and decided to go w the M. I could def see him sitting a bit low in the water vs my wife who is ab 145 and was in her S Gnar. He also said the cockpit was too narrow (snug on his hips) even w no hip shims. This is something I definitely noticed myself. I usually need 3-4 hip pads per side but w the S Gnar I’m using 1 on one side and 1.5 on the other. In his comment on my FB post of this video, Boyd Ruppelt shared seat placement thoughts like he did here, but also added some sizing thoughts. I found them useful so adding them: “I tried both the small at 168 lbs and I found the small felt maxed out... it goes much better if you're closer to 100-120 lbs. It was a more fun option at my weight though to spice up easier whitewater. So best to be heavy in it if you're never paddling above class IV, but you'll want to fit in the recommended weight ranges if you're really planning to creek. I use the medium at 168 and it's a great boat” I think 100-120 as ideal for the S Gnar is selling it short. Seems totally fine up to 150 imo, but ymmv. Center of weight range is 135, which is what I weigh and it feels great. Kind of wish it were two inches longer (it’s 8’ 6”) and maybe 0.5 to 1” narrower (it’s 26”), but it’s fast enough and the width makes it very stable, esp in big water.

Oh boy! It’s a great question, but they are very different boats. Biggest diff is prob the stern, which is much better in the Gnar, imo. The BG stern was my least favorite part ab it. Too low/not enough rocker and the parting line for that rocker begins too far back, which makes it twitchy. BG is also a much narrower boat, so it feels pretty tippy, whereas the Gnar is very stable. Gnar is much better all around boat, whereas BG is more of a high performance race car. Also, the BG doesn’t do well with anybody in the upper end of the weight range, whereas Gnar handles it very well. Hope that helps. I’d def steer clear of the BG unless you are under 140 lbs, and tbh I wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone. There’s a reason you see so few of them on the water. 🤷🏼‍♂️

@@kevinhill.8 That's not the stern for me haha. Thank you so much for the comparison!

That was my M Gnar and a buddy’s L Code.

Correction: just found photos and that’s a Medium Code. Sorry ab the confusion. I have three buddy’s who paddle Codes in that color, two L and one M, and I forgot who was there. 😊

Thanks a ton for the awesome reviews. Any change in your thoughts around sizing for this boat? I’m a 150 - 155 pounder, 5’10”. Thinking of going Medium, but I’m not discounting the Small. Im not really into pushing myself outside my comfort zone (I.e., no class V) so wondering if the small would be a descent daily driver. Thanks again for the info

@@nickweber8834 at your height and weight, and given your stated intentions for use, I would def recommend you at least consider the Small. The M is a pretty big boat.