Play boat (blistic rad) or river runner (burn)? Still can't decide... Need to ship one or the other on Monday. 21 day trip. First time down the canyon. 5 other kayakers are going, apparently all now in playboats. Been in the burn all winter and feeling good. Not much or a playboater. But hey, maybe this would be a good chance to dial in some play boating skills. Shipping and airports at this point doesn't really make a difference. Thanks for the advice!

You should just take whichever you're more comfortable in.

Jed's point about flatwater is worth thinking over -- it's like 99% flatwater down there. Even if you're hanging off the side of a raft in all the pools, you'll want to be comfortable.

The other 1% of the time, yeah there are tons of green waves to surf, but there are also breaking waves and holes (if you dare). And there are tons of wavetrains you could wheel over, etc -- it's not an obvious win either way.

Don't forget to surf the hole in crystal! Either boat will work the same for this...

I love playboating and creeking/river running and I have done my fair share of long river trips with raft support (Selway, All salmon trips, Deschutes, Rogue, Illinios, etc. etc.). Once or twice I have taken a playboat and always regretted it because: quality play spots worth sessioning are hard to find and if they exist, they have already been found. How many people go to any popular multi day run purely for the playboating (none that I have heard of). All the greatest playspots are destinations in and of themselves. Sure there are probably a few places on the grand that are good, but what are the chances you are going to find a perfect breaking wave with eddy service? And, if you do, are you going to hang out there for a couple hours and then get on with all the flat water miles you will have to do? No, you are more likely going to find a bunch of killer green waves surfable in a longer boat. I have way more fun in a long boat on river trips because there are so many more waves that are surfable. You essentially increase the amount of surfing you will do tenfold. Of course they will all be front surf soul sessions, but if you are doing things right you will have a buzz which really only allows for this kind of surfing, if you catch my drift. Bring the long boat and then laugh at all the playboaters sitting on rafts because they cant take sitting in their boats anymore. Playboat = wrong tool for the job at hand.

Edited by Ellingferd - 07 Apr 2013 at 9:50am

Looks like you have all the info you need, but I know this issue has been discussed a LOT over at the mountainbuzz and boatertalk boards.Just pointing that out if you wanted to sample a larger footprint of opinions.