We’ve talked quite a bit about how paddlers are getting older recently.  I know.  It seems almost everyone I meet has paddled a Perception Mirage or Dancer at one point in their lives.. Well, at one point a very, very, very long ago.  (Well, the 80s through 1994 actually) Of course I wasn’t paddling way back then, so when these old school cigar-shaped kayaks were all the rage I missed my opportunity.  That is, until this old beat black Mirage came up for sale.  Hey, I couldn’t help myself! 

Not knowing what to expect, I took the old beast down my local river.  You might hit a class II or III bump here or there if you are lucky (and if it’s the right time of year).  Considering the foam supports are gone, this is about all you’d want to do in this boat at the moment. As I said, I didn’t know what to expect.. but I certainly didn’t expect what it was either.  The Mirage spins.  It spins and spins and spins.  Like all white water boats, you have to be very accurate in your strokes to keep it on a line. You also must keep your body centered.  Even the slightest shift in body weight can send a gliding boat spinning out of control.  The soft chines on the Mirage make it very slow to react to corrections as well. Big edges & committed strokes rule. It took me a mile or better simply to reign in the beast.

My biggest concern was that I would spin out in a rapid and end up pinned before I had time to correct. (In the Baraboo river.. the risk is mostly inconvenience!) The nose of the Mirage would dig into an oncoming wave and the stern, by force of the current, would spin out almost immediately.  Once I recognized the habit, I could control it easily enough.  It was best to run the rapids and rifles with speed and not give the current the opportunity to bully you around.   On a positive note, the very rounded chine allowed for safe, soft landings when slipping into an eddy.  I never felt like I would get rolled cutting across the eddy lines. Even in this little river, you normally feel the sensation of the change in flow, the Mirage seemed oblivious.

I also found a nice little surf spot where I could easily ride the wave in the Mirage.  In fact, I really enjoyed how stable it was on the wave.  The length meant that the nose would pin into the oncoming water and lock me into place. On a bigger river, this would probably not turn out well at all!  Here though, the result was that while the boat sat on the wave nicely and didn’t wander.  On the other hand, moving the kayak laterally was a bear.  You first had to get the nose up out of the on-coming current which is a challenge it this boat.  The hull shape doesn’t give you much bite either, so getting the boat moving laterally called for a big edge and a strong angle, unlike my play boat which seems to move across a wave by psychic suggestion.

My first impression is that there is a lot more nostalgia value to these old boats than anything else. The Mirage doesn’t exactly handle with ease. On the other hand, once I got the feel for the old beast It’s not as bad as I heard either. In fact, I’ll probably use the Mirage to run my local river quite often.  It’s not a play boat, but I don’t have to cut off my toes to fit into it either.  I had been running the river in my old Romany, but now that I’ve fixed that boat up I can’t bring myself to feed it back to the rocks.

Related Posts:

1. Nothing At All
2. 100 Down The Boo
3. Back to the Wisconsin
4. no, but, wait
5. Back on Your Head