Chili Review | Zet Kayaks | Zet Chili Review

[@ChristelVinot]

I'm a flatwater kayaker, transitioning to whitewater. The zet chili is going to be my first whitewater boat, and I've never been in a ww boat until I tried it for the first time in a pool yesterday. WOW! I can't wait to fly down a river now dude holy crap!!! I'm used to my 9ft Perception kayak which I thought felt agile but in reality is a big ol' cumbersome thing lol. I'm so excited about the agility I felt in the pool in the chili.. it was so new and cool, whoa. Just dropping in from the poolside, I felt like I shot forward like a rocket! I heard people say it has almost no stability... but dude, it's hella stable to me. I'm sitting c-1 style, but using a double blade, which is really called x-1 style. I'm very skinny and light... I think those factors combined make for a super stable feeling boat for me. Anyway, thanks for the vid!

[@AlexBarham]

Just take it slow and don't be discouraged. This is definitely not a beginner friendly boat

[@davidharris3685]

Happy to see the UY footage to. I was out there in my rewind that day. Alex you styled it! The look on your face at meat clever was priceless though, with saying you didn't remember of the lines and how much you loved running drops blind in that race boat!

[@AlexBarham]

It was definitely a good day! So so glad we had someone to follow. That would be a maze to try and sort out on your own.

[@BillDurr]

Was waiting to see some of that UY chili footage. Happy it got in there at the end

[@AlexBarham]

Of course bud! Thanks again for skipping moving to come and play!

[@joshinfwtx4506]

Interesting boat. You kinda touched on the RPM comparison. Could you expand on that a little? I remember the Scorch being described as a boat for the advanced paddler. Would you say the same about the Chili or is this something that would be a good upgrade for someone used to the RPM?

[@AlexBarham]

You could draw a line from the RPM to the Chili in that they both are river runners born from slalom boats. The main difference would be that there is a 30 year spread in design technology and philosophy. Personally I never bought into the idea that the RPM is a great beginner boat. I was jammed into RPMs and similar boats at different points in my career, and I have to say I hated them as a beginner and didn't appreciate them until I had the fundamentals dialed in other designs.

[@AlexBarham]

As for an upgrade to the RPM, you have the Braap which was advertised as such by Pat Keller. I think that is much more in keeping with the feel of an RPM but with more rocker and higher performance. I LOVE a party Braap for general river running and durability. The Chili is going to be an even higher performance slalom inspired river runner. It wants you to try those moves in a typical river environment, but will also run big stuff if asked nicely.

[@joshinfwtx4506]

@@AlexBarham Thanks for the feedback. It's really great having experienced guys like you and Wade Harrison share your knowledge. I feel like I really lucked out with the RPM. It's snug getting in but seems to be ideal for my size (5'11" 160lbs). At this point I don't have anything else to compare it to, but I'm really comfortabe in the RPM. Thanks for the Party Braap suggestion. I've been leaning towards Rewind for my next boat, but I've heard good things about that one also. The Antix 2.0 is also on my list. So many great boats out there. It's frustrating to only have room for one at a time.

[@jacquesblackburn7329]

@@AlexBarham When I try the RPM coming from a Prijon T-slalom, a long time ago, (12 feet long 60 gallons) the RPM feel so easy to paddle and to surf and so fun to go into eddies. But I ketpt my Tslalom for a while to run my prefered river with big holes fearing I will be flip from the back in thoses holes. But after a while I was used to work with the RPM and keep it as my only boat. I had the RPM for many years. I now own a Chili and the Chili is much better thand the RPM, more confortable even with the very bad outifitting (measured against moderns boats by the way the Prijon T-slalom don't had a back band and the RPM one was very poor). That boat surf very well, keeps its line very well but change direction at will to avoid rocks or features you don't want to go in. As a paddler who is used to avoid features and rock instead of going in straigh line it's a very good boat for me.

[@AlexBarham]

Awesome I'm glad this helped you find something you really like! Thanks for your feedback!!

[@FeWolf]

It reminds me of the Necky, I ran a Bliss, very interesting boat.

[@AlexBarham]

Definitely not that much in common with anything Necky did

[@jacquesblackburn7329]

@@AlexBarham totaly agree

[@eppicuro]

Is the Chili a kind of RPM with planing hull?

[@AlexBarham]

Extreme emphasis on kind of

[@eppicuro]

@@AlexBarham So it is not a planing hull RPM?!

[@AlexBarham]

I would not call it that, no

[@AlexBarham]

If that's what you wanted you could go find a Redline

[@eppicuro]

@@AlexBarham I didn't know the Redline. For sure to eddy caching with a lot of upstream moves, Chili will be better. Thanks for the information.

[@kevinhill.8]

Solid review, as usual. Gives good impression of what boat is and isn’t. Definitely not the boat for me (my least favorite thing ab Ripper was not enough bow rocker, esp for surfing), but you spell out nicely who might dig it and why. Covering specs would be nice, esp weight since you talk ab how incredibly light it is. I was worried you were going to gloss over the outfitting, which I heard Wade and Weld refer to as basically unacceptably poor, but you discussed it more at end, which I appreciate. 🙏

[@AlexBarham]

I hear you, but specs aren't really something I want to obsess about

[@kevinhill.8]

@@AlexBarham that’s fair. I get not wanting to obsess ab them, but I think at least mentioning the boats length, width and weight should be SOP for any review, esp if you are going to discuss the weight as being so much better than other boats in this category. For the record (and anyone who is intersted) specs according to Zet are 9' long, 24.5" wide, 40.5 lbs, and paddler range of 120-198 lbs. I'm not sure what the boat's actual weight is, but 40.5 isn't crazy light imo. Goat and M Ripper are both 44 (just weighed my new goat on digital and it was exactly 44 lbs 0 oz. which is kind of wild), M Rewind is 43, and M Antix (obviously a much shorter boat at 8') is 38 lbs.🤷🏼‍♂️ Just nit picking here, of course. Thx for all you do to help us stay stay in the know, make educated buying decisions, and keep our WW stoke going.

[@josh8058]

@@kevinhill.8 as demonstrated you were easily able to find those specs. I don't watch read or listen to reviews to get specs regurgitated.

[@kevinhill.8]

@@josh8058 glad you got what you needed. I think it’s fair for me to voice that in some ways I didn’t. At 6:20 Alex says the “theme” of this boat was to “make it as light as possible,” and at 7:20 says it weighs “2/3 as much as the next half slice you pick up,” then says it’s lighter than his (non-carbon) playboat. I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to request someone state the weight of a boat after talking up how light it is multiple times, but we can agree to disagree. ✌🏼

[@josh8058]

@@kevinhill.8 weight is a weird thing. My partners Delta V 73 is supposedly 1lb heavier than my mullet, yet feels significantly lighter.

[@ChristelVinot]

did you say attainments are dorky? damn dude I'm the biggest dork of all time then!

[@AlexBarham]

Come on, tell me they aren't lol

[@ChristelVinot]

@@AlexBarham there's nothing dorky about building strong muscles and endurance! lolz

[@willooooooooo]

Attain gang represent

[@levirc3930]

Wasn't able to concentrate because of that carbon boat...

[@AlexBarham]

Me neither lol