Hobie Revolution -- discontinued

Heard this from a dealer a couple months ago, wrote it off as attempt to get me to purchase a new one.

Now seeing this pop up on forums. Guessing there's validity to it.

Plastic barges now reign supreme.

It's a sad state of the industry.  I can't really blame them.  As a business you need to focus on what sells.  Currently the market wants a wider platform to support the escalation in electronics, motors and batteries.
 


All the accessories are fun but at some point why not just get a 12' or 14' Lund?  The industry has moved away from what got me excited about kayak fishing in the first place.

I haven't looked at Hobie's line up in awhile.  Does this leave the outback as their sleekest, non SUP, kayak?  The Revo will be missed by many.

Aw man, I hope it's not true. Revo 13 is such a great boat. Strikes a great balance among weight, carrying capacity, and seaworthiness. I have friends who started with the Outback, then went to the Revo 13, and they prefer the Revo for the fishing we do out here on the coast.

But if it is true, then I agree with Snopro's assessment as to the why. The new electronics and especially the motors, just don't mesh with the Revo. The market wants to sell you the big, slow, heavy boat. They want you to tire of manually powering it with your arms or legs, so then you'll buy the motor for it. Slick strategy, I'll give em that.

if only,....youknow Hobie actually put some effort into it.  Sure it got the latest and greatest drives, but the Revo line never even got integrated gear tracks.  With the intro of the compass and passport line, anyone looking for a non-fishing pedal drive had options there that were more stable and cheaper

I started with an outback and moved to a Revo and dont want to go with a bigger model.  Hoping my revo last a long time

I do love my Outback, but every time I hit the salt with Clayman, it definitely takes a bit of effort to keep up. Admittedly, some of that is being older and not being in as good of shape, but I know for sure some of it is the difference in boats too.

bummer, using the design/simulation techniques that got us the current Outback from the original Outback, I was, wink wink, hoping that Hobie would apply them to the Revo13, but in reverse, keeping all the speed/low drag goodness while adding to the stability and features.

a new 'better stability/still just as fast/not heavier' Revo13 design, with some of the latest gear tracks, drop down rudder, and retractable transducer mount and such..seems like it had a market.  guess not.

I love my Revo. I have both a Revo 13 and an older Outback (which is not nearly as big as the newer ones). I find myself opting for the Revo more and more, the exception being when I am bass fishing or other outings when I know I would prefer to stand while fishing (casting dry flies from a kayak). The Revo seems to take about 10% less effort to peddle and has a higher sustainable top speed. My legs definitely notice the difference after a day of trolling when comparing the Revo to Outback. Much easier to load on and off the car as well.

Hopefully, someone else will fill the niche left by the discontinuation of the Revo with an equally awesome boat.

Ouch...glad I got one recently. It's unreal to me that there's basically no pedal drive kayak that's actually narrow and has a low COG.

I fell in love with the speed and efficiency of the old school Hobie Adventure. Can't believe there's nothing even close on the market anymore.

Maybe someone will actually make one? Do we really need more bass barges?

Guess you gotta paddle a dock or buy old school used!!! Times are changing for sure!!!

now I have started looking at Revo's on FB Marketplace....must....not...buy

What’s kind of nuts, is i was browsing the hobie site a they recently upgraded their PADDLE kayaks, which, who knew they still sold those!?!!?  The Quest is  Maybe there is hope for a refresh of a revolution line.

I like my Revo over my Outback.  Was hoping they would update it…not discontinue it!!

Man I would venture even in the PNW that Outbacks and Pro Anglers outsell the revo's 2 or 3 to 1 at a minimum, and likely much, much more than that outside of the coastal areas, when I was in the south I didn't see one Revo in any of the shops I visited, and HUGE Hobie dealers at that. No true metrics to back this up aside from what I've seen on the water but they're going to invest in what sells and they haven't invested in the Revo line in some time.

On the front of electronics and motors there's a huge market out there especially with bass tournament anglers which is a huge market even in the PNW. A Tournament out of tri-cities had >125 anglers registered, of which I would reckon half or more had motors onboard. Does it make you any less of a kayak fisherman to have a motor? The argument used to be if you had a pedal drive then you weren't really kayak fishing. To me the line seems to be drawn at whatever level is one level removed from your current level; if you paddle then pedal kayakers are not really kayaking, if you pedal then having a motor isn't really kayaking, and so on.

I can say with some trepidation on the forum that I added a Motorguide XI3 to my kayak a few years ago and while I have plenty (most) of my trips without it, that thing can be super useful when river fishing and perhaps a bit tired or wanting to anchor, this thing has "Anchor mode" which lets me safely "anchor" in river current and fish which is super helpful on a kayak where anchoring is normally not the safest endeavor. I was shad fishing near the mouth of the Clackamas last weekend and encountered many logs that would've been quite troublesome when anchored on a kayak. I pressed a button, moved positions slightly and then moved back and anchored again. This was super useful, enough so that a few of the nearby power boaters were looking at me quite jealously as they pulled anchor to move. I also was able to move 10, 20, 50+ ft in any direction trying to find a current seam and didn't have to pull an anchor, made for much more efficient fishing... Was it true kayaking? Debatable I guess. It certainly feels like cheating but if it gets more people out fishing and enjoying the hobby then why gatekeep? 

You know, what if there was a positive spin to this….hear me out. 

Hobies line up is a bit of a mess these days.  You have the compass, which was originally the decontented budget model to the outback, but then along came the passsport as the even more budget model.  At its introduction, it was thermoformed, so there was something unique about the passport, but now it’s all rotomolded and the overlap between the compass and passport is high.  Further, when you start optioning up a Compass, it gets really close to an outback in price and is no longer the budget proposition (it’s still the lighter though than either the passport or outback).  It seems like the compass could also be trimmed from the lineup. 

Then you have the Lynx…essentially the shape of the inflatable line, but in a rigid format. Yes it’s light, but the design is full of compromises on anything but flat water.  Those design compromises are acceptable in the inflatable format because of the portability but given the cost of the lynx, you have to REALLY want those weight savings over anything else.  Something tells me there will not be a second generation Lynx and since hobie just updated the inflatable line, it seems to reason they are sticking with it.

As for the revo line, the 11 doesn’t really have a place.  It’s too short for big water stuff and most fishing, but too narrow to be super rec friendly (what does it do that the passport lineup doesn’t do for a recreational/non fisher?).  It makes sense for it to go.   

The 13 though is a very unique proposition in that it’s long enough to handle big water, narrow enough to have a performance improvement and enough room to be a proper fishing kayak. It’s also the only thing on the market like it.  Now the revo lineup hasn’t really seen any hull improvements other than the change over to the vantage seat, but if I recall, that didnt do anything below the water line.    What if the Revo lineup is being canceled, and a new big water boat is coming onto the market with actual fishing features a modern kayak needs? (rails, bigger transducer pocket, etc)?    Could it be the existing revolution lineup isnt a good basis for that and so they may just create something new? 

Let’s be optimistic and hope that’s the case because if Hobie can justify the niche-ness of the Lynx, then there seems like there’s room for a big water boat like the Revo