Rambos Locker Ocean Sports Video Blog

I promised to give my thoughts on the Outrigger Connection Fuze so here it is.

Before I do just a little disclaimer.. I currently own and paddle a Hurricane which I love. I don’t have any connection to any Manufacturer nor am I lucky or good enough to be sponsored, so my opinion is pure and just that, my opinion.

My interest in the Fuze started at about the same time as I bought my Hurricane, 12 months ago. It wasn’t available in Aust. then so was crossed off the list.

I knew Lisa Curry Kenny paddled one in Hawaii and actually brought it back with her so I had seen it on the ocean at Mooloolaba and questioned her about it.

My interest was rekindled when in Hawaii in April this year to do 2 iron oc1 races on Maui. In between the two races I had 4 days on Oahu and visited Karels factory at Kailua to demo the Fuze and had morning tea with Karel snrs lovely wife Marcella.
They had both Hawaiian and Chinese made Fuzes available and you could not pick the difference.

I took the Fuze to local waters and paddled in various conditions for the rest of afternoon.
I was quite impressed with the wave catching ability of the canoe; it seemed to drop in on the wave easily and had extremely responsive rudder control. No pearling of the nose was another noticeable attribute. On flat water I felt that it did not have the speed of a Hurricane, but without a Hurricane there to trial it was at best a guess. Comfortable, I could have paddled it all day and the lower seat height allowed a closer to the water and straighter leg style of paddling that I like. I also like the looseness or slappiness of the Ama on the water which I believe is similar in action to the Puffy Ama on the oc6 Mirage.

Back to the present and the demo of the Fuze on Hammo.

Man straight-away I knew this was a different canoe. In fact it was Lisa’s Fuze from above. The only way I could describe the difference was that it was light-footed or loose on the water. The flat water speed felt much faster. In fact I was so excited about the performance of this canoe; I flipped twice in shallow water front of my Mooloolaba club mates and copped a huge serve from them. So Marty and Grant Kenny, Darren Mercer, Lemmo, my coach Danny Sheard and the others ¦…. Get Stuffed ¦I was just trying to see how light the Ama was, and it caught me by surprise.

Talking to Bart’s (Outrigger Connection Dealer in Australia) later about the canoe (actually I was trying to buy it) he confirmed that it was in fact Lisa’s Fuze and it was now his wife’s canoe. Further, it is also a Carbon- Carbon canoe not a Carbon-Kevlar like the ones currently for sale. Here’s the reason for the light footedness I experienced. It weighs full rigged 8.5kgs. I assume that it is a one off canoe and probably not covered by the normal warrantee as the Carbon-Kevlar product, and that’s completely understandable. But I want it.

So there you have it, an excellent canoe design and impressive all around performance.

If I had pick one thing negative it would be the non-adjustable seat, but you can slide fore and aft a few inches.

I now need two canoes, my Hurricane and a Fuze.

Cheers Rambo