Slalom kayak

This is a type of kayak used for Slalom. Design of slalom kayaks is tightly restricted by the rules of slalom competitions. Despite being used on whitewater, they are very long and narrow, with pointy ends. They are usually made from composite (often carbon fiber), to be as light as possible.

Down the years the regulations on sizes and weights have changed considerably:

• In the late 1950s in the UK it was a requirement that a slalom kayak must take-down and fit in two smallish bags - these were folding Skin-on-frame boats.
• In the 1970s the minimum length was 4 meters (about 13ft) and minimum beam was 60 cm but there was no minimum weight - some boats were so lightly built that they fell apart.
• In the early 1980s a minimum weight of 8Kg was stipulated
• The current (2005) regulations call for minimum length of 3.5m, minimum beam of 60cm, minimum weight 9kg with 1 and 2 cm minimum tip radii to prevent "spear" injuries.

The nature of the competition has changed over the last thirty years with courses shortening from 800 meters, 30 gates and about 220 seconds to 18 gates and 110 seconds.

These and related changes have driven boat evolution as designers played complex games with rocker, volume distribution, and hull edge profile in pursuit of the ideal boat. The second round of low-volume slalom boats in the mid seventies were the start of the thread which gave us the squirt boats and todays playboats.