A couple of people have been asking about my thoughts on the Hammer so I'm posting a little review here. In this review I'm comparing it mainly to the Reflection. I have paddled Rowan Gloag's old Reflection in Surge in some decent current. The past weekend when I had the Hammer Ro's new reflection was there and I was jumping back in and out of the Reflection and Hammer in flat water comparing them. Unfortunately I didn't get to test the new Reflection out in current that day, but I did get to see it in action in Surge as the current built up before it had to take off.
As for comparison to other boats, normally I paddle a plastic Chatham 16 for playing and a HV Exploerer for tripping. I've spent most of my time in Surge in the Chatham or Explorer, but have also been there in a Romany and Delphin, and the weekend I was testing the Hammer I also surfed the Delphin.
In short, both the Hammer and the Reflectin actually feel quite similar to each other.
Both roll very similar, and neither like body bracing very much to about the same degree - I slowly sink in both of them unlike in my Explorer, mind you, that's the same with the Chatham also.
Highish back deck on both the Reflection and Hammer. Both feel the same to hand roll - do able, but I wouldn't trust myself in rough water! Ok I wouldn't trust my hand roll in any kayak in rough water
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Hammer has the tighter turning radius, but Reflection is tight also. I prefer the feel of the reflection better on the flatwater - I think the feel of fibreglass and its lines is the reason.
Reflection needs Yakima footpegs, not the crappy plastic ones, but I was surprised how much I liked the feel of the Reflection - normally I want stronger thigh hooks, but the cockpit is the most keyholed one I've ever been in and I felt nice and snug in it. Love the outfitting of the Hammer, but my foot got stuck between the rail and the footplate on a re-entry roll in current. I could still get upright and paddle, but really had to play and jerk my foot around for about 45 seconds till foot was unstuck and in right place - note that I could still have come out of boat, foot was stuck and prevented from being in the right place and not trapping me in. Still not cool though.
Oh and the Delphin should not be made with those lousy plastic footepegs. Period. I don't care whether there is also the footplate option in the surf model, if they're touting it as a performance boat don't put in lolly gagging recreational footpegs. The Chatham 16 now comes with those lousy plastic footpegs also and Brent broke 5 of them in 1 month before we switched them out and put in the Yakimas.
Note that I'm not necessarily a huge Yakima fanatic - I just want some type of metal footpegs that I'm sure won't break on me!
As for performance on the wave. Both very forgiving, and surprisingly the Reflection almost looks like it would perform as well on the foam pile as the Hammer. This from seeing videos of it and my little experience in it.
Reflections big advantage is its speed - on slower current you could fix a mistake with speed if needed. Hammer not so. But, when Surge was at 9 knots Hammer was very responsive to little corrections and you could just slide over and onto wave in right position whereas the Chatham 16 and Delpin usually need 1 strong forward stroke/sweep stroke. I think the Reflection might be closer to the Hammer than the other 2, but in most cases might still need that 1 forward stroke.
I'll have to try them both out in big surf on the west coast, but my feeling is that the Reflection is better on greener waves with some surf, spilling and bigger with some plunging - but when it comes to bigger plunging surf I'd want the Hammer.
Wish I could have taken the Hammer up to Okisollo, not sure it would be as good as the Reflection there when the wave is steep and green. Actually thinking about this one more, I don't think the Hammer would have the hull speed for Okisollo - as you have to drop into the wave you might just get carried off and not have enough speed to drop down. When it's the claw of death then, yes, the Hammer would be better - but really you want a true whitewater boat then ... and at least 1 power/rescue boat!
As for why I put the Hammer and the Reflection in the same class, they're designed very similarly with lots of volume around the cockpit and rocker so that the bow and stern free up. The recent video by Simon Osborn shows some moves that can't be done in a Chatham or Romany ... or at least I most certainly can't, maybe better paddlers out there can! I have, however, seen videos of Ro and Kate Hives pulling off similar style moves in the foam pile and surfing down the line in the Reflection. It seems both boats were designed for tidal currents, surf, and rock gardening - hence the comparison!
Simon in Hammer (see especially 1:50 to compare with Reflection video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBNIKJEOBew
Kate in Reflection at 3:35:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkO3Rsdi3dE
I'm pretty sure I've seen videos since then of Rowan spinning his boat around in foam at Jordan or Tofino, but can't find it right now - if anyone has it please post!
I don't think any other boat I've tried could do that in surf. Yes the Delphin loves spinning and dropping down the wave, but I don't think you can spin it around and backsurf it like the other 2.
Well those are my thoughts, hope you find them useful. Feel free to disagree completely or add caveats to anything I've said!
