Melker Varmdo HV First Impression
I got to start off 2026 with one of our Full Immersion Sea Kayak 1 Courses, and I had a boat in mind that I wanted to check out. The Melker Varmdo HV, and I knew this was my opportunity to take it out. The class and timing was perfect, everyone had their own day touring boats in a similar size range and it gave me two days to paddle this boat and check it out in a variety of conditions.
Here are some quick specs on the Varmdo HV, its 14.5ft long, 25ish inches wide, and has an advertised paddler weight between 165lbs and 265lbs. I was paddling the Cork-core layup, which is absolutely beautiful. But what is Cork-Core? Melker is doing something a bit different in the boat manufacturing space, they are trying to make kayaks as eco friendly as possible, by cutting out the amount of harsh chemicals and materials normally used in kayak manufacturing. Cork-core is Melker’s most lightweight and most sustainable sandwich layup, flax in the deck, Green Poxy resin, and Green Coat. They do offer another more traditional layup properly named Trad-core with PET soric-core, flax in the deck, vinyl ester resin, and gel coat.
On day one, I hopped in the Varmdo and started teaching, only slightly distracted by the beauty of the boat’s core and flax deck and found myself struggling with getting my skirt on the cockpit rim. I use the same neoprene skirt on almost all the kayaks I paddle and have never had this issue, maybe it’s because it was cold and dry, or maybe my skirt was rolled up weird, lots of things went through my mind. Until I realized it wasn’t my skirt but the cockpit combing, the combing is pretty short in its height and pinched my skirts bungee so tight that I could barely get it in. It could be the skirt I am using or a flaw in the design that can be updated. But this is the only major flaw, I can’t remedy easily. After fighting, the skirt on my cockpit was dry and warm in the 40 degree day full of rain.
After everyone got into their boats, we paddled to Lotus Isle Park, and worked on strokes, maneuvering, wet exits, rescues and the forward stroke. During this time I never felt like the boat was lacking in any particular way, draw stroke drew, sweep strokes turned, edging felt controlled and predictable. The hull of this boat felt familiar and unique at the same time, the wider knuckle of the bow helped with on edge stability and the subtle chins of the hull felt very intentional. This boat has a skeg but I never actually used it, the boat tracking was amazing, as we worked on forward strokes and doing down and backs along the docks, the Varmdo felt natural, I wasn’t working harder than I had to and the boat felt like it was part of me.
On Day two of the class, we like to go to Ridgefield and circumnavigate Bachelor Island, which unfortunately at this time, beginning of 2026, the route is blocked by a pile of logs and debris from flooding in December. So instead we planned to still meet at the Ridgefield Lake River Kayak Launch but decided to paddle across the Columbia River to Warrior Point Lighthouse for some lunch and more rescue training. I loaded my gear for the day in the surprisingly tight hatches and put my spare paddle under the deck lines and we were off. The first two miles or so, we reviewed yesterday’s work and worked on some towing skills, swapping tow belts from person to person and only towing for a little bit. Even with the extra stress/resistance of towing another person this boat cut though the water with ease and grace.
Once we got to mouth of Lake River, where it meets the Columbia River, we got out and looked at the conditions, everything looked smooth and flat with a mild amount of current. We picked our heading to cross and not get swept away with the current from our final destination, Warrior Rock Lighthouse. As we made our crossing the students did amazing and with facing slightly upstream this boat handled the crossing amazing too! We got to the Oregon side of the Columbia and got out to eat lunch and warm up before doing self rescue practice in the eddy next to the lighthouse. As we were eating a sea lion stopped by to say hi and look for its own lunch, which is always a treat and a good reason to go paddling in the winter on the Columbia.
After lunch, we practiced rescues, taking turns in the water. I went first to show the techniques and test the waters. This is where my only other gripe with the Melker comes in, the perimeter lines that are meant to be static lines and don’t move, were laced with a stretch line that moved and pulled as I was climbing in and out of the boat. I know for a fact that Melker knows this issue and their new boats will have better cord for those lines and if you have one with the old style of line, its quite easy to restring. This didn’t make the rescues impossible but slightly harder and I needed to make sure my technique was perfect to not flounder about in front of my students. With the demo completed and questions answered, they all succeeded with their rescues and wet exits and were happy to paddle up stream and back across the Columbia for a bit to help warm back up. Back at the put in now take out, we all did one last rescue to celebrate the first paddle of the year. And I had one final question for the Varmdo, “How does it roll?” So I got to get my head wet with my first rolls of 2026, one on each side to make sure that Melker made the boat just right.
My overall impression was that I really like this boat, with it coming in two sizes, LV and HV, helps get this boat to fit whoever is looking at it, plus they offer multiple sized seat pans, something I didn’t mention earlier. I’m on the light side for the HV weighing in at 170lbs but feel as though I could go back and forth in either size depending on my mood or type of trip. The construction not only performed well, it looked amazing! I could stare at the boat all day when paddling and miss all the amazing scenery on Lake River. The Varmdo handled everything I thought of and passed with flying colors, for a newer company this boat felt like an old pro. After spending the weekend in this boat I hope they stick with it and come out with revisions to make the Varmdo even better. As it sit, I already feel as though this is one of the best ay touring kayaks on the market. If you want to see one of the prettiest and most eco-friendly boats on the market you should stop by the shop and take one for a spin.
