Imagine Eco shaper, Corran Addison, is a 3 time world medalist in freestyle kayaking, and held the world record for the largest waterfall ever run in a kayak for over a decade. It was only natural thus that his passion for Stand Up Paddling would eventually fuse with his love for running rivers.

Corran quickly realized that conventional SUP shapes are as wrong for the river environment as surf kayaks are to rivers, and for the same reasons. On peeling ocean waves, tucked thin rails, flat bottoms, and low rocker are ideal for slicing and dicing. These same features make the boards unwieldy on rivers to the extent that progression was instantly limited to lower difficulty rapids.

What Corran has done is apply his 20 years of kayak design knowledge to a Stand Up that is essentially a kayak design that you stand on. With high rocker in the nose leading back into well rounded and forgiving sidewalls, a thick “water shedding” center and nose profile so the board will lift up and over waves and drops, and deep foot recess areas for increased stability, the Rapidfire has opened the realm of possibility all the way up to class 5 whitewater.

What was unexpected however, was the boards ease in small ocean surf. As a result, vacation areas and rental operators are using this to give people their first taste of stand up paddling. It’ll paddle out through the rolling whitewater surf easily, and surfs in effortlessly for first timers to get hooked.