The most radical C-1 design since Corran Addison’s Oxygen, the Groove, designed by Ian Thomson, is a C-boater’s dream. Not really a squirt boat in the strictest sense of the word, it is more of a squirt/rodeo “hybrid” with a unique hull featuring a central flat planing disc that extends from a bottom that is, for all intents and purposes, completely concave! Paddlers who have mastered it say it’s the most amazing boat they’ve ever paddled, and the boat’s performance at the 1997 World Freestyle Championships (double medalling in C-1 Squirt) lends credibility to that statement. It was the first boat to perform green grinds and counter-clockwheels, the first design to feature concave tips, and it set the trend towards the high-volume cockpit area and low-volume tips seen in nearly all of today’s freestyle surface designs. It is balanced in a hole, ridiculously loose on a wave, and flatwheels with the merest thought of trading ends...a C-boater’s dream come true!

The Fantum is the first of the modern short surfing squirt designs from Jim Snyder. Designed around a 28-32” inseam, it is more of a surface-oriented “hybrid” squirt design than the Hellbender series that followed it. It features a wide, true planing hull with hard chines, a knee position spread farther apart than other designs, and minimal room in the foot area. Though not a mystery machine (it will sink, but tends to stall quickly and pop back to the surface), it has found favour within the ocean surfing set and amongst those who want a low-volume, hard-carving, super-loose and super-stiff surf/cartwheel machine for river use. A slightly larger cut will accommodate those purposes well, without the discomfort that characterizes similar designs.