The Teacher River, as our friend called Salza, was also to test the Ultima Eddy and Ultima Tramp packrafts in the last week of August. Three days spent on the river showed that they can handle triple water without any problems. Maybe check out the introduction video.
We started the first afternoon paddling on the section Dam - Wildalpen. The second day was the classic Wildalpen - Sagrabben and the last day Fachwerk - Saggraben.
And how did we see our packrafts on the wild water by WW III?
Ultima Eddy is tailored to a kayak fit and acts like one. It's extremely fun to play with on the river, stopping at every eddy, surfing the rapids, and most importantly, it won't let you down in the big waves of the Salza rapids. Thanks to the cut and the narrower 25cm tubes, you obviously have to steer and guide it, it's not an inflatable that you just drop downstream. The packraft spraydeck can handle big waves, it just needs to be dug out from under the rapids occasionally. It catches the absolute most water, we only bailed Eddy out once on the 22 km stretch to Sagrabben, but even then there wasn't much water in the hold.
Ultima Tramp is a classic wider packraft with 30cm tubes and it does exactly what you expect. It's brutally stable and it'll punch through a triple rapids like a tank. It's not as playful as the Eddy, of course, but it's still no problem hitting eddies. Unlike the Eddy, the Tramp doesn't have a classic kayak spritz, but a packraft "semi" sprayskirt that doesn't seal the boat as well. So you have to take into account that water will get into the boat more often and now and then it will be necessary to pour out the boat (we poured out 3 times on a 22km stretch).
We used both Tramp and Eddy with knee straps and EVA backbands, which makes it possible to plug into the packraft so that the ship can be controlled 100%.
After three days of fooling around in the rapids with the water gauge in Wildalpen at about 160 cm - 140 cm (the water was gradually dropping), we had zero punctures or problems with the boat and two swimmers who were able to get back on the packraft in the current in about 15 seconds. This is, of course, another advantage of inflatables - you don't get back into a kayak from a swim easily.
Just a great 3 days with Tramp, Eddie, David and Ultima Packraft co-founder Fin Alpo.
STAY WILD BE FREE…
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