The Tana is a new riverboard that offers the latest greatest innovation in plastic riverboard design, made in the USA.
Length: 122cm / 4’
Width: 61cm / 24”
Height: 30cm / 12”
Weight: 8kg / 18 lbs
THE DESIGN
To best understand the Tana, one needs to compare it to its predecessor, the Anvil.
Celliers Kruger, creator of the Tana, also created the Anvil in 2011 in close cooperation with Charl van Rensburg. Of necessity, the Anvil’s shape was very utilitarian, designed to meet the needs of the widest possible demographic of riverboarders, from beginners to advanced riders and everyone in between. The Anvil became the best selling riverboard in the world with its robust construction, great stability and responsive handling.
Over the years, constructive criticism filtered back to Celliers, until he finally decided that it was time for an update. He rounded up a small team of highly respected riverboarders to create the new toy: Charl van Rensburg, Josh Galt and Asaf Arad.
A long series of design iterations followed, with detailed input from the team to fix the flaws and improve on what worked on the Anvil. Finally the mould was made in South Africa, and one pre-production Tana was manufactured before the mould was shipped to the USA. This Tana was put through its paces by Charl, putting him in a unique position to give first-hand feedback on the design.
COLOURS
Chartreuse – Orange – Blue – Green – Chartreuse/Blue combo – Chartreuse/Orange combo.
Note: the actual colours might look somewhat different from what is shown here. Just roll with it.
REVIEW – CHARL VAN RENSBURG
When we designed the Anvil Riverboard, my personal motivation was to help produce something that would overcome the biggest obstacle faced by anyone interested in pursuing this unique sport – a board to ride.
The Tana, produced by Lekker Kayaks, represents the next step in the evolution of rotomolded Riverboards: preserving all the aspects that made the Anvil the best selling Riverboard in the world, but pushing the design to new levels of control and performance.
The best way to describe the leap in performance of the Tana, compared to the Anvil, would be to liken it to a Supercar versus a regular car. Yes, you can run a river with both of them, but there is a difference between driving and steering.
The Tana puts you in the driving seat, firmly behind the wheel.
Boasting a more refined design overall – from its shapelier nose, to the soft edges of its hull and right through to the crescent tail – the Tana exudes style and performance both visually and functionally.
On the water is where the Tana really sets itself apart. The wider cockpit provides more space and the gentler sloping centre console (sans storage compartment) enables smoother movement of the rider, forwards or backwards, to facilitate intuitive transition, in tune with what the flow demands. Sculpted sidewalls with deeper contours facilitate freedom of movement and greater ease when hand-paddling while the ergonomically shaped pistol grip handles allow you to point and shoot, and shaped arm grooves ensure both comfort and pivot-point projection.
A redesigned hull provides greater stability and makes for an improved planing surface, letting you glide through the water while the soft rails let you to turn on a dime. An overall sleeker and more hydrodynamic design translates to greater manoeuvrability and responsiveness, so you can hit your mark and be where you need to be, even in the most critical sections and, when you need to punch through holes, the Tana leads the way with its refined nose and perfectly balanced buoyant hull.
It’s time to get rid of dead weight and elevate your performance on the river to new heights, with the Tana, by Lekker Kayaks.
Charl van Rensburg
