Jefe vs nomad roll

[Anonymous]

Hello,
I demoed the jefe and the nomad 8.1 and I did realize that the nomad rolls much easily.
Does somebody have the same feeeling ?
ciao
Valerio

[Anonymous]

They are both remarkable creek boats.
The seat is a lot higher in the Jefe than it is in the Nomad putting your center of gravity higher out of the boat. This is why the boat seems a little harder to roll.

[Anonymous]

Dude, check out a prijon cross. I just got one and took it to BC a week ago and it's sweet. I havnt paddled the Jefe but I liked the cross tons more than the nomad. I know that doesn't answer your question but just thought I would throw that out there :)

[r.d.mcdaniel]

I demo'd a Cross, It's like a Prijon version of the H-3. IMHO it doesn't have enough rocker but maybe thats just me. I havn't paddled the Jefe but I did own a Huck for a while. It was a love/ hate kinda thing. All of the LL boats have an elevated seat, sales people will tell you that it gives you better control with your hips but due to the higher center of gravity I found myself upside down too often and found that it took near perfect technique to roll. I sold it and that 4 year old boat has now had at least 3 owners so it ain't just me.
Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

First of all, I'm a 43 year old novice paddler with all of about 40-45 river days in my whole life. So you can us that as a filter, or simply ignore my ramblings if you want.

At the last North Fork Feather River releases I did the Lower Cresta run 3 times on saturday. It's a simple little class I-II run with a short class III just before take-out. The first 2 runs were in my Embudo. Fun & easy, 1 nice combat roll while playing in a surf wave, made the final Class III rapid with no drama... all good.

Then I borrowed a friends new Jefe for the 3rd run, and I absolutely hated it. Felt super high & tippy. I flipped twice in simple little eddy lines, then couldn't roll it at all & had to swim out both times. With no confidence in my ability to stay upright or roll, I then opted to portage the final class III rapid. Bummer.

Although I realize that it is me & not the boat, at this early point in my paddling life I still want something with a bit more initial stability & something easy to roll. And I'll sacrifice some hard-core edge control if need be. Lots of people love the Jefe, but it's definitely not for me.

Incidentally, I borrowed a H3 for a run (Rich bar to Belden) in spring & came to similar conclusions as the Jefe, although not quite as severe. Felt tall & tippy, and lots harder to roll than the Embudo. The Diesel I tried seemed more similar to the Embudo, but I only gave it a brief paddle/roll session on a lake. I'm thinking of trying out a Nomad (rent for a day for $25 in Reno) on Reno's Whitewater Park in the next week or two.

[Anonymous]

go to the south fork and demo the boat from the river store for FREE!

why pay money to demo?

(the diesel rocks!, way more initial stability over the nomad and easier to control angle)