Noah Jeti Poll
DAVID P EDDINGTON
some opinions, comments, or stories good and bad about this boat. I
understand they were the first short boat and caught a lot of hell
in the mid-80's because they were radical. If anyone's had any
experiences or knows of anyone else's please respond via e-mail,
and I will compile all and submit.
Paul Johnson
I loved my Jeti before it was stolen from me :{
It was a great surfer, I always thought that the hull had the same shape of a
great surfing wave. Good side-surfer too, but I always tried to keep out of
hairy holes.
Of course, a short boat like the Jeti is slow. You'd be hard-pressed to use a
spud-boat for even the most casual club slalom race, but who cares? Use it as
a great play boat, one that rolls with a quick snap, and doesnn't care the
least bit about the complex underwater hydrodynamics that drives a novice
squirt-boater crazy!
Paul Johnson
spa...@ix.netcom.com
Spudfish
Jeti (10') and the lesser-known Pulsar (11') in, I think, 1984. Thi was
after his "chine" period, when he built 12' boats like the Krakatoa and
Magma, which you could balance on edge like a suitcase. We all ordered
Jetis, because, as Angus Morrison said, "If you're gonna get weird, you
might as well get REALLY weird." These boats featured the proprietary
"X-layer--no good for stopping bullets, but better than sharp stick in
eye, absolute!!!"
The plastic Jetis and Grandes followed soon after, and we all took them
down to Chile in Jan. '85 for a Bio-Bio trip. KB and I met up with Steve
Currey Expeditions' guides, and got roped into safety boating an
exploratory trip on the Futaleufu, again in our Jetis. We thought we had
the first descent, but it turns out that Lars & Co. beat us by a couple of
weeks. However, it may be that no one on their trip ran Throne, in which
case the first boats ever through this drop were back-to-back Jetis.
I sold my boat to Herbert the Good, and he promptly lost it on the upper
Maipo. Soon after, back in the states, the AQ came out, and we all
switched to those. However, in the late '80's, Tom Blue showed me a topo
map of something called the "Green River Narrows", a dam-released section
of river that hadn't been run (i.e. portaged down) since the mid-70's.
Sight unseen, I had a feeling about this place, so that fall I did some
work for Vladimir on his "fortress" for AQ's, and took a Jeti in payment.
In November, four of us--Mary Hayes, Cat potts, KB, and myself--bumped and
portaged our way down the Narrows in two Jetis and two AQ's. The next
weekend, John Kennedy and Tom Visnius (also in Jetis) went back and,
incredibly, bagged the first no-portage descent. Can you imagine hopping
out above Gorilla (which they called the "Flume"), or Sunshine, or any of
the slides, taking a 10-minute scout, and then going "sure, I'll be the
first person in the world to do that"? This has got to be one of the
all-time great whitewater achievements.
Tom and John were in a special place that year, boating seriously weird
runs in the Smokies and off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I remember two quotes
from John that season, both delivered in all seriousness, and with a
totally straight face: 1) "You know, six hundred feet per mile really
isn't that steep, but SEVEN hundred--that's pretty steep."
2) "You know, the Jeti is the
best boat in the world for, say, running a ten-foot drop and landing on
rocks. For that kind of boating, you just can't beat it!"
More stories to come,
Eric the Fish
Gene & Jayne
wrote:
> I was a "Jeti Warrior" from the get-go--Vladimir came out with the glass
> Jeti (10') and the lesser-known Pulsar (11') in, I think, 1984. Thi was
> after his "chine" period, when he built 12' boats like the Krakatoa and
> Magma, which you could balance on edge like a suitcase. We all ordered
> Jetis, because, as Angus Morrison said, "If you're gonna get weird, you
> might as well get REALLY weird." These boats featured the proprietary
> "X-layer--no good for stopping bullets, but better than sharp stick in
> eye, absolute!!!"
Around 1985 dumb as a stick and green as grass I started a Canoe & Kayak shop.
Perception wasn't interested and I ended up trying to sell Jetis.
Really think they where better or at least as good as the Dancer but the
hot shot reviewers of Canoe magazine couldn't come up with much more than
spud boat,
slow ect.One even called the Mustang short short.
They say it is just as bad to be ahead of your time as is to be behind and
Vladimar Vanha was ten years ahead of his.
I can't keep from thinking that a bigger advertising budget would have
gotten better reviews for his boats.
Vladimar has earned a place in kayaking history and it would be nice to
see a good writer do a story on him and sell it to Paddler.
Has anyone paddled his Fantail? From the pictutes it looks twenty years
before it's time, like a semi planing hull.Did it work? Was it fast for
its length?
gene
Jim Cavo
>...They say it is just as bad to be ahead of your time as is to be behind >and Vladimar Vanha was ten years ahead of his.
>
My first boat was an interestingly colored Jeti -- it was red with a white
marble effect throughout. Aparently they ran out of red plastic and
tossed in some white during the molding. The effect was the same as the
multi-color boats Dagger came out with 10 years later. And of course,
like all his boats, it had Vladmir's "3mp Dynamic Test"...
Steve Cramer
Jim Cavo (jdca...@nfi.com) wrote:
: My first boat was an interestingly colored Jeti -- it was red with a white
: marble effect throughout. Aparently they ran out of red plastic and
: tossed in some white during the molding.
I think they started offering that as an option with the following
guarantee: "If you can find another boat that looks exactly like yours,
we'll refund your money." Don't know if there were any takers.
Steve
--
Steve Cramer
Test Scoring & Reporting Services Sometimes you never can
University of Georgia always tell what you
Athens, GA 30602-5593 least expect the most.
jeremyb...@gmail.com
Best Regards,
Jeremy
jsboo...@yahoo.com