Reviewed by Geoff Jennings
The Dagger Mamba is the latest design from Dagger to attempt to be many things to many people. It’s a
river running design that takes some of the design elements of traditional longer kayaks, some elements of play boats, and mixes them all together to form a very successful boat for many conditions.
The Mamba comes in three sizes, the smallest appropriate for people in the 120-170 lbs weight range, the middle 160 - 215 lbs and the largest 210 - 245 lbs. Falling at the top end of the biggest range, I was excited to try the 8.5, since there are few boats that work well at those weights. For the past 6 months I’ve paddled the Mamba 8.5 pretty extensively, on everything from steep low volume creeks, to technical class V, to big water runs. It’s performed admirably.
The hull has pretty good speed, and performs very predictably. It ferries well, crosses eddy lines with ease and a lack of drama, and rolls easily. Even at my weight, the boat rides well, and resurfaces quickly. As designers have added edges to river running boats they have made certain handling characteristics better, but often with a price, in squirrelly water these edges can be harder to predict, and really make you feel on edge. The Mamba has none of this. Crossing boils, in huge rapids, wherever, the Mamba is there for you. One of the more telling moments was running the Mamba off a pretty good size waterfall; I plugged in deep, the Mamba resurfaced smoothly and upright. Even underwater it works super well. It does everything you ask, and nothing more.
The outfitting is good. It’s easy to adjust, and Dagger thoughtfully includes a small tool kit for doing so. I had mine set up in minutes. When I first got the kayak, I missed the ratcheting backband from my old kayak, but after getting the dagger seat adjusted, I know find I prefer the flipswitch backband. Its primary advantage is consistency; it always returns you to the same adjustment spot, while still being snug and easy to get out of. One outfitting concern is the bulkhead. Mine, even when fully adjusted to the maximum of it’s range, left considerable space around it, leaving me with concerns about foot entrapment. As with any kayak, be sure that your bulk head fills the space to the outer edges of the hull.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this kayak to beginners either. Although I’ve mostly been using it to run harder stuff, it’s predictable nature makes me confident that it would serve learning paddlers well, and I know some paddling schools that have put them in fleet for exactly that purpose.
Three words to describe the Mamba? Comfortable, Predictable, and fun. I’m a big enough fan that recently sold my old river runner and bought a Mamba for my personal fleet.
