I want to buy an inflatable kayak for recreational use. I have a small car and want something easy to carry and to store.
I want a tandem kayak but also one I can use solo. I am 6’3" and my girlfriend is 5’10. Will we both fit comfortably in one of these things for up to 2 hours?
I understand that once one of these things gets wet, they take a while to dry. Should I be concerned about this? Will I be able to deflate the thing and get it back in the bag if it is wet?
I want something that will last many years. Many reviews for these products are excellent but I’m guessing that the review was written right after purchase. Has anyone owned one of these for many years and it still enjoying it?
Any recommendations?
All I can tell you is that I had a good experience owning a Sevylor inflatable kayak, I think it was the Fiji Travel Pack.
Consider going origami, Oru has one that converts from tandem to solo.
https://www.orukayak.com/
eta, I’m 6’2 and found the closed cockpit of the Bay a little tight, the more open designs look fine, but never tried one.
[Moderating]
This’ll probably go better in IMHO.
I’ve paddled with some inflatable paddlers.Spend a little to get a good manual air pump to take in the boat. You can inflate it nice and tight in the hot sun at the put-in and toss it in the cold water and all of a sudden it’s under inflated. Spend a few more bucks and get a 12v inflator that hooks to your car battery to fill it initially. NRS used to sell some rugged inflatables at a reasonable price but I haven’t kept up lately, not sure they are still around.
Judging by the huge number we shipped during that sale thingy Da Jungle had back in July — the K1s.
https://www.humbersport.net/intex-challenger-k1-kayak-review/
That and consider PMing Kayaker ----- trust me, he is the resident guru on such matters.
Heh. I’ve owned/used all sorts of kayaks; whitewater, flat water, recreational, SOT (sit on top), sea boats, folding boats (including an original Folbot), sail equipped yaks, pedal propelled fishing kayaks, etc. You might notice I never mentioned inflatables, that’s a personal bias.
When a friend asked which inflatable kayak he should buy for a likely one-use situation (he was going kayaking with friends, wanted his own boat, but was afraid he’d then have a kayak taking up room in his garage and never being used) I helped him find and purchase a used recreational kayak. He did his trip, then a bit later when he decided he’d never kayak again, we sold it for what he’d paid.
I know a guy who kayaks Pittsburgh’s Point (Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio rivers) in a sea kayak he trailers on a lightweight trailer towed by a tiny Smart car.
That’s a good point - resale. While inflatables might have some good points in 3-4 years are you going to be able to resell it? As for storage - yes they store in a small package. But doesnt that have to be kept at a certain temperature and free from getting wet? With a regular kayak I’d think you could just leave it outside.
I store our kayaks outside stacked on a big (commercial) trailer. I check them weekly for bird/bee nests. Many of my friends have rigged storage above their cars in the garage.
I live in a condo so storing outside or towing in a trailer is not an option.
Friend with a backyard? We’ve stored things for other people.
Since hitting this thread and looking around ------- if we’re talking calm water and no a-holes in jet-skis around and this is possibly a one-and-done I keep coming back to the K1. If you may (or do) get serious and a hard-shell just isn’t possible the Aquaglide seem the popular choice but the price almost had me reaching for my nitro-quik tabs.
Yep. My friend Jeff has my Coleman Canoe stored at his house. I have plenty of room, but Jeff borrows&uses that boat so often that I just consider it stored at Jeff’s place. For a while I also had my son’s kayak stored at my place since he lives in Florida. When he bought one down there, I gave his away (with his blessings).
I used to do a bit of kayaking and would buy one of these in a heartbeat. I urge you to check them out.
Looks good but out of my price range for the tandem.
I have an Aquaglide Chelan, acquired this summer. What is your price range? I also have a smaller, cheaper one that is still a step up from the cheap stuff. I have to look at it to get the name. I’ll post more later, but it would help to know if they are out of your price range.
Two questions relating to the OP: 1) Might renting a kayak near where you want to paddle, be better than purchasing an inflatable (whose benefit AIUI, is that you can easily backpack it to the body of water)?
2) For other people, is tandem kayaking the relationship tester I found it to be? (Or that tandem cycling is supposed to be?)
We tried tandem kayaking. Once. Then bought ourselves separate sit on tops, which I loved until the divorce.
EDIT: Re-reading this, perhaps it was just us.
In the kayaking community tandems are referred to as “divorce boats”.
I asked the same question a few years ago. I ended up getting the Intex Explorer; I wonder if I would have been happier with the Challenger considering the advice in the last post of that thread.
However, after using the Explorer with my wife and considering the size of you and your girlfriend, I can tentatively guess that you will not be comfortable in an inflatable. I weigh (or weighed at the time) probably 230. No amount of fiddling with the placement of the seats made it comfortable for me with another person in the kayak, there was just too much weight on one end. Also the inflatable seats offer no support for someone with a long torso. Your girlfriend is taller than my wife, so she might balance the boat out a little better.
2 hours is about all I could handle in it, and we only did that once. After that it was relegated to taking the kids for a loop around the cove.
As far as durability, I had it for two years, of which it was used for 1 week a year. Still, it seemed like a pretty sturdy contraption and I didn’t have any problems with it. It got dragged over rocky shoreline, moved around my garage in the bag several times. I fished out of it a bit and never caught a hook in it, thought I was pretty careful not to. Never had any leaks.
I ended up selling it for 1/4 what I paid, but since I didn’t pay much I figure I got my money’s worth.