What will I be doing tomorrow? Making the first All-Star from the new, sweet, polished, cast aluminum mold!!!!

I paddled the first All-Star prototype in October, a PS Composites, Kevlar, composite boat. I have since worked with this boat for months, tweaking the concept, getting every kink worked out. I won the Pre-World Championships (International Freestyle Championships) in my prototype. It went big!

Today, I received the most expensive mold I have bought yet. It is everything you can do to a kayak mold to make the end product as close to perfect as possible. That mold is of the All-Star- the final All-Star, the one that I will be paddling tomorrow!!!!!

The mold was properly mounted, the graphics positions determined, the mold is being sealed and “seasoned” to prepare it for abusive cross-linked plastic molding, and tomorrow at 8am I will be adding plastic powder to the mold in increasing weights. We will come in somewhere just under the Fun, most likely at 27-28 pounds, very cool! The air amplifiers, the shields, the cycle programming, etc., etc. are all worked out for a kayak junkie concoction that will produce a masterpiece of a spec sheet.

Every hull is “t-miked” where the ultrasound machine takes 13 readings of the hull, deck, and end thicknesses to make sure the boat is exactly right. The amount of powder is electronically measured with a robot to assure exact weights, etc. etc.

What does this mean to me? I will be pulling a brand new, first ever, All-Star from the mold tomorrow!!! After we make several boats and dial the programming in, exactly where we want it (starting with the Fun program), I will take 5 hulls to the plant where Brian Talbert, and crew will help me assemble these boats into workable, fully outfitted, All-Stars!!

Then, I will head to Rock Island and take off!!! I will do my biggest flatwater loop, my biggest Macho move, my biggest blunts, etc. etc. at the water level we are at tomorrow, simply because that is what David Knight and I made this boat to do! I will throw a helix on the way down on the top waves too!

With a little luck, I will get some video and photos for you tomorrow. I have never seen a production All-Star before- have you? Tune in tomorrow!!

EJ