It was a sick squirt boat and a river runner. You could surf it, Rocket, pirouette it, run big water. Yeah, the Sleek. What would you pay for a Sleek in good condition, today? Or maybe on a Friday afternoon after you've had three or four beers and you were feelin generous? Would you pay anything at all? I'm thinkin, if it hasn't been oilpanned, maybe (and I mean MAYBE) $99.99. But definately not $100. What say ye, community of kayak bretheren? ye who be omnipotent in the ways of water sports. Divine upon me your knowledge of worthless boating trivia.
I suppose if you were actually going to paddle it it might be worth that. IF you are in the 100 dollar baot market you could probably find a Whip-it or something newer even that would do everything except squirt better than a sleek. My buddy kevin used to creek in his sleek back in 96 or 97. I remember some pretty good beatdowns after he would unintentionally squirt his way through most of the rapid.
Aaah, "The Sleek." Rarely has a boat's name captured its essence so elegantly. To put a price on such a boat is truly difficult. But, Grasshopper, beauty, and price, are in the eye, and the pocketbook, of the beholder, and buyer. And, mind you, not all Sleeks were equally beautiful. The Sleek I owned and surfed so ebulliantly in the summer of '97 on Lunch Counter was "The Tangerine Dream." The Dream model of The Sleek was a shimmering array of dazzling irridescence; Deadhead swirls of sherbert orange melting into zesty lemon peels and cherry cherry bang bang reds. It was enough to make your mouth water and your skirt pop. So, $99 seems a small price to pay for memories as delicious as these.
Here is a comparison. I gave away the Sleek's big brother, a Cruise Control, in perfect shape for the princely sum of zero back in 2002. So if you ever see me advertise something on the Gear Swap, you can figure I try to set a pretty fair sales price.
Ahhh - the loose control. If ever there was a boat caught between two worlds. Kind of like the mullet, business in front party in the back. Doesn't surf well, suicide on a creek. About the only value in one of those is on the wall of a trendy mountain bar or a mail box.
Ah yes- I too possessed both the Sleek and the Loose Control. I have fond memories of inadvertently cartwheeling the Sleek in the sneak at Gore at 1600. Then subsequently tail squirting most of Kirshbaums until an unceremonnious demolition and swim. I think that was the last voyage of the Sleek, come to think of it.
But dammit, if you love to front surf......
__________________
"This is the reason why your headache didn't go away: That's actually pronounced analgesic, not anal-gesic. The pills go in your mouth."
in regard to BIDG's post, I myself always refered to this fine craft as the "svelte" due to the preponderance of middle-aged, over-weight weekend warriors who owned them. I always felt like they were trying to project an image of themselves as more in shape than they then were. For anyone over 2 hundie, it was indeed a squirt boat, and infinitely easier to get the back under than the RPM.
I myself just paid $125 for a back-up rockit in case I kill the one I bought in '97, so $99.99 seems like a fair price to an old-schooler like me
-C
WHoa , the sleek , priceless,Lean foreward, I gave mine to a buddy in Oregon so I could go visit it, took it in the surf and sternsquirted around in the muddy mackenzie. I ran gore in that thing too, once. $99.99. but priceless!WHen are they gonna come up w/ a boat that GAINS value, or that evolves. I think the solution really is a boat co-op. WHich is both a museum and a lending center, newboats every year. Old boats for the newbies? HOWZABOUTIT ? SHit has become so commercial, anyway.
Oh the nostalgia. I too once owned a Sleek. Sad to say it's not too sleek in a landfill. But before you attack, back, back, I say. Already I hear the howls of lament. What can a poor boy do? Unbeknowest to me this all american (red white and blue it was) had been uncerimoniously left out in the sun, no doubt touching the ground. The commy bastard who sold it to me (for a whoppin $150 in 2002) neglected to mention that. As it was I, being as green a rookie as the river I paddled, hit another paddler. Back, back ravenous dogs. Let me explain. I did not hit him with the bulk of my fist. Rather I bulked him with a twist of my Sleek. If that makes any sense. Anyways, what can a poor boy do with a cracked yak? I forgave but never forgot. And so the Sleek hath haunted me ever since. It's not so much that I was looking for it as it has found me. To be continued...
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