Wave Sport Mobius Freestyle Kayak Specifications

Wave Sport Mobius Freestyle Kayak Features

• Welded-in Hull Beam
• Forward Ratcheting Back-band
• Adjustable, Padded Thigh Braces
• Removable Outer Thigh Hooks
• Rescue/Security Bar
• CORE WhiteOut Outfitting System
• Rotomolded Play Seat with Adjustable Ratcheting Leg Lifter
• Quick Fore/Aft Seat Adjustment
• 1 Security Grab Handle
• Padded Foam Foot Brace System

Getting Started

Seeing a new freestyle kayak in the flesh is the kayaking equivalent of ogling the lines of a flashy sports car.

As the sport has developed, and designs have been refined to pull performance from the tiniest edges and grooves, every feature in the shape has a purpose, and the Wave Sport Mobius is no exception.

This is hardly surprising from a company of such freestyle pedigree, which has put its designs on many global podiums over the last decade and a half.

On first inspection the Mobius is a bulbous boat, with a fair bit of volume throughout its short length.

In terms of comfort, this gives a sigh of relief to the feet and legs, as there’s plenty of room (relatively speaking) to bend your knees under the well shaped thigh braces and put yourself in a powerful seating position.

From outside the cockpit it’s impossible to look at this the Mobius without drifting into a daydream about how much pop it’s going to give you when doing front loops.

Distracted by this exciting thought, most subtleties in its shape are lost until on the water, apart from the continuous rocker of the hull, which led us to believe that emphasis was towards hole performance over wave performance.

On The Water

Adjusting the excellent ‘White Out’ outfitting to get on the water was self explanatory and fast.

We liked that it wasn’t over complicated, with pockets behind hip pads for additional foam, a central rail with a single hand screw to slide the seat forward/backwards and just the loosening of two screws with an allen key to adjust the thigh grips.

A feature that we really liked, for placing additional foam under the seat, was the ability to reach under the seat to unhook the fitted seat pad.

This meant that we could easily slide in a couple of extra layers of foam, to raise us up, and gain a bit more control in what feels like quite a deep cockpit area; due to the boats volume, and the bulges where your knees fit.

That said, getting on the water and breaking into the current confirmed our suspicions that, due to its curves, this boat has the secure feeling that it can navigate some fairly chunky whitewater en route to, or in between, play spots.

With a rainy December we felt comfortable on bank full rivers and to test how far we could push it, we went for a freewheel session at the Falls of Falloch.

Even off a nine meter drop there was very little down time to be had.

Whilst comfort is not necessarily a priority for designers when it comes to freestyle boats, we did find the Mobius relatively luxurious in terms of foot room. Because of that we enjoyed some full days without losing sensation in our legs, which certainly counts for a lot in terms of maximizing the enjoyment of a boat.

Once You Pop

Getting to grips with the boat’s edge was quick, as it felt very forgiving and well balanced, which made for an easy job of maneuvering in a grippy hole and also led to easy set-ups when we wanted to initiate moves.

Due to the Mobius having a keen desire to pop into the air as soon as an end is down, this isn’t a boat for learning the basics of freestyle such as cartwheeling, but that’s boring anyway.

Despite this it could link together ‘slicey’ moves such as Tricky Whu’s and Lunar Orbits, with what felt like an aerial flourish on the last end.

Looping is where the Mobius really comes into its own.

Provided you can loop, it takes little practice to get this boat to a height that will happily keep your head dry.

With a bit more time in the Mobius, there was little need to close our eyes mid loop and enough time to enjoy the aerial sensation a lot more.

This would often lead to the bow automatically plugging in for a second loop as the first one came round.

For a cutting edge freestyle boat it is surprisingly forgiving, but we did find that the price for this was less accuracy for big loops after cutting in the bow to do McNasty’s and Phonix Monkeys.

The high volume bow combined with a comparatively high water line meant that it just needed a bit more of a shove in the rotation, so that the Mobius’s eagerness to pop was postponed until the right moment. But this is nothing that wouldn’t be refined by getting used to the boat, as it’s rare to come across a freestyle boat that takes absolutely every move in its stride.

Wave Time

Throughout our time playing with the Mobius, we shifted the seat around a fair bit to feel the effects, and came to the conclusion that it was most effective slightly back of center. Particularly on a wave, as this meant less of the hulls continuous rocker was in the water.

Using the boat on two different waves – one with a shallower face, and one with a steeper face – it was easy to see that the Mobius was more at home on the later.

It felt much more controlled, and to the envy of other paddlers, could spend much more time pulling moves in the sweet spot on the steep shoulder; as its wider hull started to plane while technically faster, but narrower boats became more of a handful.

On the shallower wave face there was somewhat of a role reversal, as the Mobius required a powerful forward stroke to give it a punch of speed before initiating moves.

It did however have a trick up its sleeve, as despite being slow into moves, its volume made it easy to retain the wave on landing or recovery.

Once we got used to this, and it did take a session or two, there was comfort in knowing that despite not having the most velocity into moves, the Mobius was one of the easier boats for retaining the wave.

Similarly when releasing the hull, for the likes of Helixes, on shallower faces the sense of confidence came after initiating the move as opposed to the sense of speed leading up to the initiation.

The rule of thumb in this boat on such waves being; even if the speed or position doesn’t feel quite right, just commit and go for it.

Review Summary

Considering the refinement of cutting edge freestyle kayaks, the Wave Sport Mobius is exceptionally forgiving – to the point that we’d happily drink a cup of tea whilst back surfing it, confident that it’s not going to dish out any nasty surprises, even on surging features.

It would have been nice to have a bit more speed on smaller waves but the real fun is on steeper shoulders, such as Hurley’s middle gate, where this boat will spin you dizzy and allow those trying new moves to retain loads of recoveries, while those with a well practiced repertoire will relax into a display of high scoring tricks.

Whilst plugging the nose is no problem, the biggest frustration was getting to grips with the bows haste to get out of the water when you wanted to cut it in, for advanced hole moves such as Fonix Monkeys, to maximize the pop out of the move.

This did make for a balancing act whilst rotating on the bow, and a lower hit rate of air from these moves than we initially expected, but with practice the boats desire to pop could be unleashed with devastating effect in competition.

The biggest smile from this boat will come as you plug the nose in and your front air loops get higher and higher.

We could have happily spent all day just plugging the nose in and seeing how much air we could get between the foam pile and our helmets.

When we say all day, we mean it, as with some careful outfitting this boat has enough room to be considered as one of the more comfortable designs on the market, so you can spend less time stretching out on the bank and more time on the water (especially when compared to some of the other freestyle kayak reviews that we have carried out).