Ocean Racing Ski Review – Elio Mazu Pro vs. Epic V10

Having now paddled the Elio Mazu for 3 months it’s time for a quick review against my other ski, a V10. Elio, much better known for their sprint boats, has made their 1st attempt at an LD ski with the Mazu Pro.

The Mazu Pro is 420mm wide, short for an advanced ski at 6.27 meters, I have the sport version which is a 13 kg carbon/ carbon Kevlar sandwich construction and this ski just gets better and better the more you paddle it! As you would expect from a good sprint boat Manufacturer the construction is excellent producing a very stiff ski. The seat in the Mazu Pro is super comfortable and the paddling position is great with your feet just lower than your butt. The footrest is very good/ solid and you can also easily adjust its angle, very nice touch but on the down side you need an Allan key to adjust the length but with some clever drilling of the holes on the slide rail of the foot rest it can be adjusted in approximately 4mm increments.

Unfortunately the rudder lines just slip through the three holes in the pedals so a knot must be used to lock it off. This is one of the few bad points of the ski but would be and easy fix for Elio by adding some plastic inserts into the holes just like the V10. Other bad points a leak in the rudder tubes into the ski. Again an easy fix for Elio and me. Also they have no stop block in the rudder housing to prevent the rudder from spinning through 360 degrees when getting bowled in big surf. Again an easy fix but that’s it for the bad stuff.

The Mazu comes with nylon rope for rudder lines, which actually work well with the dolphin fin rudder to produce a nice positive pressure on the pedals resulting in good feedback back to the paddler as to what’s going on. I am not a great fan of that shape and I have replaced it with an elliptical rudder, which has notably less pressure on the pedals when steering. The elliptical rudder is excellent especially at high speed resulting in a ski that will easily change direction in an instant to chase down waves. It’s a bit problematic at low speeds getting back on a wave and up to speed again as its easy to turn it too far and have no rudder but once you done it a couple of times its no big deal.

The large single venturi worked very well but I have fitted a bullet to increase efficiency and decrease drag, just does not make sense not having one in my opinion.

Now the V10. The seat and footrest is slightly less comfortable than the Mazu and the V10 footrest is very easy to adjust by just pulling on the cord at the back of the footrest but minimal increments are larger than the Mazu Pro. Also from experience the V10 chews through pedals and hinges at an alarming rate costing $150 to replace the entire footrest. Only time will tell how robust the footrest in the Mazu Pro is. I had to replace the V10 rudder lines with stainless steel ones because of vague steering. This certainly improved it a lot but even so it’s not as smooth as the Mazu Pro.
On the water the first thing that is clearly evident about the Mazu Pro is how dry the cockpit area stays and even when you get a big wave over the top the large venturi empties it very quickly. The V10 however has a small venturi that is just too small to drain the huge amount of water that constantly comes over the low sides of the cockpit even in light conditions. I think this is the Achilles heel of the V10 and it really needs a far larger venturi to stop me from pulling my hair out every time I paddle it. The volume distribution appears to be very balanced, probably from being 200mm shorter than the V10, which takes a bit of getting used to from the V10 as it bounces up a lot quicker when going out through waves. Going out into waves both skis are good with the V10 slightly the better ski only when the cockpit is not full of water.
Down wind the V10 is a great ski good in half a meter plus with the only down side being the slightly vague steering and slow drainage.

The Mazu Pro, like the V10 does not come to life until waves get up to around half a meter. The Mazu Pro is a very manoeuvrable ski easily moving side-to-side chasing waves, which suits the wave normal wave conditions in the bay in Melbourne better than the V10. It does however feels like it does a big boat squat if you miss connecting to another wave, which has taught me to run at even more of an angle to the direction of the waves which is what the Mazu is very good at any way. The hull unlike the U of the V10 is a flat bottom U hull so it has good primary stability but there is a notably transition to the secondary that takes a bit of getting used to paddling both skis.

In summery the Mazu Pro is an excellent ski. I am sure the boys at Elio will sort out the couple of manufacturing issues I mentioned above resulting in a very enjoyable ski to paddle. Only down side is the boat squat and remounting is a bit more difficult because of the higher sides but that’s it. I have not yet used it down the coast on big open swells yet but I have been out in 25 to 30 knot winds and 2.5 meter waves and it was as good as the V10. Although I am 115kg I think it would suit the light paddlers well, being slightly shorter and the flatter bottoms adds a nice level of primary stability. So thumbs up to Elio with their first long distance ski.

Cheers
David Hunter