Dagger Mamba 8.6 long term review - 1 year with the Green Snake

Don't mess with this Mamba:

Mess with this Mamba:

I got my hands on the Mamba 8.6 in April of 2012, and it has been a great boat for the past season. I bought the Mamba 8.6 thinking that this would primarily be a big water Idaho or extended overnight boat. I didn’t really see myself pushing a 90 gallon creeker on a regular basis, then I took it down Robe Canyon on the South Fork Stillaguamish river; I’ve been sold ever since.

Mamba 8.6 stats son!!
Length: 259cm
Width: 70cm
Boat Weight: 22kg
Volume: 337L or 89 gallons
Paddler Weight: 79-118kg

This is probably the largest boat I’ve ever paddled. At 90 gallons of displacement, this thing (for my body size) is the whitewater equivalent to a Chevy Tahoe. This thing is a beast, and destroys waves and holes accordingly. That being said; it’s a very easy-to-roll boat and has crisp, clean edges. The rise of the cockpit gives you a sunken feeling if you’re under 6 feet tall, but I think this can be easily remedied with either foam shims under the seat, or a foam pad over the seat. That sunken feeling only lasted for about a week while I was getting used to the boat.

The Mamba 8.6 doesn’t have the rocker that you are used to seeing on some of the newer creek boats these days, but that doesn’t stop the nose from coming back to the surface when pushing through a hole or hitting a nice delayed boof.  The hull has a very pointed, slightly upturned nose with sharp, crisp edges that run back to about where the seat meets the thigh hooks, then they smooth out into more of a displacement hull shape.  The stern is large volume and flat, but not slicey.

There are always pros and cons to any hull design, so while this boat is much wider than the Nomad, it’s definitely not as nimble. The planing hull helps you turn pretty quickly in big water, but on lower volume rivers and creeks it’s not as fast to change direction as the Nomad or Shiva (IMOP). The upside to this is stability. This thing is very stable, to the point that I really can’t say much about it’s secondary stability at all. I’m always upright and the few unplanned rolls that I’ve had in this boat were generally initiated by either a plugged boof or an Oprah sized hydraulic. Neither of which care one bit for the width of your craft.

The outfitting for the 2012 was awesome and while I haven’t gotten my hands on the 2013 outfitting yet, I hear it’s even better. The boat boasts a movable bulkhead with a generous helping of predrilled holes for your leg accommodation. The “out of the box” boat comes with a pretty solid foam kit that is pretty easy to install and has proven durable in the long haul. Neither of the foot foam blocks has even come loose after a year of use and the hip pads are still tight and have held their shape.

The boat has 5 metal hand holds that are pretty evenly spaced for rescue scenarios as well as normal boat strapping escapades. One of the things that I like about this metal hand hold design is the width and placement of the band holds. Too many times, in a rescue scenario or sketchy portage session, the cloth grab loops on other boats can be a pain. Another boat I’ve paddled has small, almost finger hole type, grab loops at the base of the rear cockpit. You can generally only get a finger or two in there and a well-aimed carabineer. The Mamba solves this problem by giving you a full handhold. Very easy to rig webbing or rope to. Very easy to hold onto while stabilizing a buddy or recovering a boat.

Scott Waidelich grabbed a couple great shots in Robe Canyon. Robe Canyon on the SF Sillaguamish river is a great place for a large volumed boat.

  Last weekend I was able to finally put the Mamba's big water specs to the test and got out on the Tumwater section of the Wentachee at about 6500 cfs. The Mamba made it a breeze. Enjoy the photos by Scott Waidelich and Jeremy Bisson.

Adrian Wigston sacraficed a lap for us on Sunday and shot some video of teh "Dam Rapid":

The Mamba is kind of like the Oklahoma version of the RPM. Corn-fed and burley, but no buck teeth as far as I can tell… You can take her home to mom and be proud of your choice. My overall opinion of the 2012 Dagger Mamba 8.6 is that this is a great all-around kayak. While this isn’t a single purpose creek boat, it covers all bases from river running to creek boating with a little bit of green wave surfing to boot. I think that this would be a great beginner boat as it is very predictable and stable and for the same reasons I think this would serve well as an instructional craft. The Dagger Mamba 8.6 would be a solid addition to anyone’s whitewater quiver.

A huge thanks to the guys who sacraficed time in the saddle to get these photos:

Photographer : Dave Costello
Badass : Adrian Wigston
Jah Himself : Jeremy Bisson
The Living Legend : Scott Waidelich