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After completing the two day RJ1 class with currentadventures on the south fork of the American River I learned a few things about the XP10. It's stable and did not flip as many times as the pyranha kayaks; but it will flip, and when it does it us more difficult to upright than the more nimble pyranha's. For this reason, I'm thinking it's not a good choice for class II rapids. You absolutely must have the talent, and the kayak, to quickly roll upright when swept rapidly downstream upside down with your helment bumping rocks. Otherwise, you must escape the cockpit, pop the spray skirt and swim ashore; meanwhile your kayak and paddle are going downstream. Therefore, the lesson learned is straightforward: "Go lake kayaking in a lake kayak, go river running in a white water kayak. " A crossover does neither very well.

Love this kayak! I had concerns about it's stability, but discovered that it is very stable in lake paddling, with no tendency to roll over. In fact it is more stable than my Necky Looksha 14 (actually 15.5 ft long), a touring kayak. Even with the skeg down the nose wanders back and forth about 10-15 degrees with each paddle stroke, and it requires a little more work to maintain speed than the Necky. I have stabilizer floats in the bow space to keep the kayak afloat in case I capsize, but will soon replace those with inflatable float bags. The low back seat does not provide enough back support for my 87 year old back, so ordered a high back seat from liquidlogic. . I will eventually work up to river paddling after my kayak training sessions with River Adventures in Lotus, CA.