[MonsieurExtrem]

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.

 

[Dave Frank]

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.

 

[B.I.G.D.]

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.

 

[Mike B]

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.

Mike

 

[bigboater]

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.

 

[boulderite]

Great boat for its time indeed. It and the Cruise Control could get in
to a trough of a glass wave.
But a sick squirt boat ?

 

[El Flaco]

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......

 

[cdw]

The name...

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

 

[kozmonot]

DOnate it.

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.

 

[MonsieurExtrem]

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...

 

[LSB]

I ran the Grand in my lose control
It might have been the perfect boat
I do love the mullet analogy though

 

[Brook]

Retro surfers..

If by some incredible stroke of luck (or the 10 year cycle) Big Sir happens we better all bring a retro boat like the Cruise Control to surf. Reminisce on that! I had a Savage Scorpion and a Kendo back then.
Glaser and Sloane had Sleeks. Thor - Scorpion, Frank- Pirouette? Paris-Invader?
What did you all paddle the last time Big Sir was up?
(95'-97')

 

[badkins]

I think I paddled a Pyrannha Razor on it in '97, took a direct hit from a Dagger Blast and broke 2 ribs. Maybe the modern boats with blunt ends will cut down a bit on the carnage there, probably not. If it ever goes off again there will be at least an hour wait in the eddy...

 

[Curtis_Elwood]

I know a guy who's got like four Sleeks. He runs pretty much everything in it except for overnighters. When he breaks one, he looks for another. One can usually find them cheap at the NOC for GAF weekend. The look of that scooped stern always made me leary.

 

[MonsieurExtrem]

Alas, it was'nt meant to be. I posted the original message when I found out about a Sleek for sale. So I got some advice/thoughts from the peanut gallery, i.e. you guys. And then I went to see it. It was the ugliest color. Somebody at NewWave must have thought (or didn't) that it would be cool to mix red and black plastic, to make some kind of 666 hell cruiser or something. Well, it looked like death vomit. I have yet to see a plastic mix that actually looks cool. Dagger and Pyranha were the worst. Anyways, the ebola paintjob alone cut my offer in half. He wouldn't sell it for fifty though. Good for him. And me too. I'm better off with fifty bucks in my pocket than a dinasour in my closet. And so the door of opportunity closes, for better or for worse.