This past Sunday I demoed a Project X 56. I was with my friend Mary who likes to do the same simple playboating I do, so I had more opportunity to try different things with the Project. I had Dneesh with us in her Burn to pick up any flotsam and jetsam. We put on at Ferebee, and as I got into the boat I thought, "This little boat is gonna kick my ass". Not the most positive thinking I know. The Nanty was running around 1100 cfs, still higher than normal (normal release is 700), so there were lots of wave trains. From the looks of the boat I expected it to feel like paddling a beach ball, with grabby edges.

Well, it was nothing like that. The boat is very wide, and I guess that's one reason why it is stable - very stable. I had moved the seat as far forward as I could. On wave trains I had a new sensation - that I was detaching off of the wave as I went over the top - I guess because the stern is so short. But I never felt like I was going to grab an edge. I even started doing silly things - going thru wave trains with my paddle over my head, going thru wave trains while making the boat spin around... it was the most stable aggressive playboat I've ever paddled.
The Project has plenty of foot room for my admittedly small feet, and the new white outfitting is weird - in a good way - it really doesn't hold water. There is no drain plug - a pet peeve of mine. Even though it's so short, it didn't feel short when I paddled it - I don't know how the designers did that.
We got to a favorite stern squirt spot. The Project X is very easy to stern squirt. I have heard that shorter boats are harder to get on end. Not this one, not for me. But rolling it was challenging. I rolled it every time, but I had horrible technique. I think it's because the boat is so wide. I'm used to the EZ; with its slicey ends maybe the EZ is easier to cheat on a roll, I don't know.
Ferrying was very easy. I ferried a lot and again, never caught an edge, never blew my ferry angle, never felt like the boat was too slow to make the move.
However, if I blew an eddy I found it very hard if not impossible to get back up in the eddy. I also had a hard time trying to catch little surf waves on the fly. I was unable to get on Surfer's wave even once. I guess I'm just used to a faster longer boat.
Surfing, the hull didn't feel as slippery loose as the LL Freeride. The 3 Hump Rock spot and the Pizza wave were both blown out so I didn't get to spend much time at either spot. The Project X is very easy to muscle around. I spent some time at the Slow Joe/bridge wave. There were a few times I pearled, I guess that's to be expected with a bow designed to give up pop/loops. It carved back and forth very fast, very easy. I could have stayed there all day, it was so much fun! but we had to run shuttle and I had to drive home...
I didn't try any flatwaterish things with the Project X. I can't bow or stern stall, or flatwater cartwheel even though I have boats that are supposed to be the easiest boats ever designed to do these moves in - XXX, EZ. I'd like to demo it again on the Ocoee. I had forgotten my head heater and that nanty water was giving me ice cream headaches...

I'm kind of in a dilemma about a new boat because the Freeride was fun, but the Project was fun in a different way. I'm going to demo them both again.