Choosing an inflatable kayak. What promo videos don't talk about

hi my name is jack and i'm the founder of the inflatable kayaking meetup group in portland oregon i got into inflatable kayaks about seven years ago after i sold my little sailboat and was looking to get on the water without the hassle of boat storage or roof racks or trailers since then i've owned about 40 inflatable kayaks and generally find that they take a very important and under appreciated niche in the boating world i get a lot of questions from people about which kayak to buy that's what i want to dedicate this video to and also add some tips to what i've learned along the way first off it's probably obvious but if you're looking into buying an inflatable as opposed to a hard shell kayak it's probably for two reasons they are much easier to transport and store and they also can be really cheap so overall they might be the most accessible way to get on the water and that's why some kayaking snobs might not take them seriously i'd say that while most inflatable kayaks might not be viewed as a status symbol unlike a fancy boat they are a wonderful vessel to get you on the water and the higher end ones can get quite fancy and pretty expensive too it might be counterintuitive but i might view the fact that they're not a status symbol as a benefit let's say you're starting to date somebody and propose to go boating if you have a fancy expensive boat you won't know if they actually like you or the boat if someone agrees to go kayaking with you it's a sure sign that they like you and also paddling together can reveal so much about the relationship dynamics it's like modeling being married for a brief time they have another advantage that might be appreciated by novus paddlers they're generally very stable compared to hardshell kayaks some of them would be hard to capsize on calm water even intentionally stability in kayaks correlates with width inflatable kayaks are usually quite wide that makes them stable of course there are disadvantages as well most importantly they are slower than hardshell kayaks they can't reach the same speeds nor are they usually as good at being able to go straight as hardshell kayaks much smaller but still an existing concern is that they can get punctured and therefore have some inherent safety concerns although in all the years that i've dealt with them i've witnessed a serious air leak just once and it was because of a misuse of the kayak i should also clarify most of my experience is on the calm water lakes and slow rivers not on white water i have done some white water adventures but in this video i will mostly talk about kayaks on flat water okay so you're thinking of buying one and are trying to cut through all the marketing nonsense i sure remember being lost in all the information when i was looking at my first one now i have a much simpler and effective system of categorizing them it makes my life significantly easier here is how i do that i divide all the inflatable kayaks into three categories based on what they are made of first category are the kayaks made of single layer of thin vinyl think of a cheap inflatable mattresses that's the same material that these ones are made of this material is cheap and easy to manufacture therefore these kayaks will be by far the cheapest ones many of them cost less than 100 with a pump and a crappy paddle and you might find a used one for 60 or even fewer dollars higher end ones in this category might be 200 or a little more i should also note that not all kayaks i put into this category are made of exactly the same material c eagle 370 i have here is made of slightly thicker vinyl and intex excursion pro is a really interesting beast that i would like to dedicate a separate video to it's made of some weird plasticky feeling material with a fabric base in it it's trying hard to be category three but i would not put it in there i'd call them category one plus second category are the kayaks that are made of the same cheap vinyl but now it's encased in protective fabric this makes them much more protected from the puncturing and uv light exposure this category is quite a populous but has one major disadvantage that first time buyers usually don't think about i'll talk more about it in depth shortly if the kayak looks like it has some fabric on the outside and has zippers that's a sure sign you're looking at a category 2 kayak if you open that zipper you'll find the same cheap vinyl chambers inside these kayaks are generally quite a bit more expensive than category 1 kayaks ranging probably between 350 to 800 dollars third category are the kayaks made of thick single layer materials like pvc and rubbers these are the most durable materials and can withstand quite a bit of abuse these kayaks would be hard to puncture and would be more likely to have leaks around seams if anything i've taken boats of this type on white water and after rubbing against the rocks quite hard i could barely see any scratches on the bottom they are also more likely to last significantly longer than the other two category boats i'd say that 20 years for these would be easy of course these boats come at a premium prices for most of these vary from 800 dollars to well over a thousand some of you now just want to hear what is the best brand i can give you my general observations category one kayak seemed to be dominated by the brand who managed to make cheap yet surprisingly well performing boats intex is its name second category has many good players advanced elements is probably dominating there is also aqua glide and bunch others third category is led by sea eagle aquaglide has some go good boats in there hobie although their pricing is a bit insane any of these brands are fine and they have more or less successful models there's just one brand that i personally would stay away from all together i've seen a few of their kayaks none of them were greyed but two were absolutely abysmal so i personally would not gamble with them their name is sevelor they seem to end up sacrificing good design to win the price war also common kayaks vary quite a bit by where you are in the world in europe you have a whole bunch of other brands we don't really see here in the states and vice versa now let's look at the common story of what people go through when choosing an inflatable kayak when i was researching inflatable kayaks for the first time i thought i was smart and i was going to pay a bit more and get a kayak that looks like it's really high performance so i can stick with it for years to come it had an appropriate name too advanced elements made me think i was cool modern and outdoorsy if i got it and looking at their promotional videos made me think that they designed something great and unique it was more money than some cheaper less fancy sounding stuff but seemed like i was getting a much better kayak so i got it i must admit i was a bit disappointed when i discovered that their whole supposedly innovative design consisted of a couple of aluminum brackets and then i discovered that when i open the zipper on the fabric cover i have these cheap vinyl chambers staring at me and the kayak sags when i sit in it i felt like it was dirty secrets that were meant to be hidden but the worst blow by far was when i discovered that drying this is a total and utter pain this seems like the perfect time to talk about probably the most important topic that novice paddlers don't think about drying your kayak i often get asked how long it takes me to inflate and set up a kayak the answer is five to seven minutes max and it's quite easy and joyful what nobody asks about and they really should is how long it takes to dry and pack away a kayak i will tell you that that part of the process is much more critical than the setup when you're getting the kayak ready you're enjoying the thought that you're about to be underwater you're probably in nature and you're generally having a good time when you come back all tired from paddling the last thing you want to do is deal with your kayak but you have to and it is particularly bad for category 2 kayaks category 1 or three kayaks you just drain wipe off deflate and pack category two boats are almost impossible to dry fully because they're covered with the fabric that allows moisture in and they have multiple layers so the water gets in between most of the time they will be slimy on the inside even after months of dry storage and are quite prone to molding drying them when you get home might be required which usually i assure you is the last thing you will be in the mood to do if you're buying an inflatable kayak you might not have too much space to drive a boat to begin with so this is a big consideration and i never side mentioned any promo materials so as you might have deducted my first kayak was a category 2 kayak and i have a bit of a prejudice against category 2 boats because of the drying issue i don't want to sound all negative about advanced elements and will openly say that performance wise their kayaks are quite good they truly are among the best performing inflatable kayaks if i were to do it all over again though depending on my budget i'd either jump on the category 3 kayak right away especially the fully drop stitch one it's a technology i'll talk about in a bit or actually go completely the other way and buy one of the cheap category one kayak so let's talk about category one these are great kayaks to have relaxed shorter paddles in the good weather if you're evaluating how much will you actually use a kayak get one of these these are really cheap and you might score a used one for close to nothing however i would advise to get a good big manual pump and a good pedal if you feel like you will use it often enough usually what comes with them is not good on the pumps many people assume that electric pumps are faster and easier than manual ones that's usually not the case electric pumps need your car nearby are really noisy slow and just annoying there are good electric pumps but they're usually really expensive these pumps will cost you more than a category one kayak a lot of times you might want to spend more money on the paddle than you would on one of these kayaks and it's okay that paddle might stay with you for the rest of your life and you can change kayaks while keeping it another great advantage of category 1 boat is the fact that they're really small when folded for example category three kayaks takes a whole big storage shelf while the same space could fit probably six of these disadvantages of these boats is they're usually quite slow many of them don't track well at all that means they have hard time going straight so with every paddle stroke you rotate the kayak and waste your energy spinning rather than moving forward but if you get one of these you're probably not going really far anyway they also often have inflatable seats that's something that at first does not seem so bad yet it is actually quite annoying and uncomfortable these seats often have super annoying tiny valves that are really hard to inflate and even harder to deflate they only make these seeds because they are cheap to manufacture if you can avoid these seeds or replace them with normal kayak seeds intex is the company that dominates this category and they make surprisingly good value kayaks for the money they might be more kayak per dollar than any other kayak simple rule to follow don't buy a kayak if it does not have a skeg that is a tracking fin it of any sort probably it won't be able to go straight at all category 2 kayaks i've already talked about them a little they're significantly more durable i've gone on multi-day camping trips on them and they do just fine if you don't mind the drying issue they are quite a good choice also most inflatable white water kayaks belong to this category air is probably the main brand for the inflatable white water kayaks when looking at white water capable kayaks you might see the phrase self-bailing advertised as a great achievement i imagine it meant some kind of water pump in it turns out it actually means it has holes on the bottom it really helps when you get a bunch of water dumped into the kayak and you are wet already anyway if you're on a flat water self-baling translates as wet butt because water is coming inside through those holes you don't want self-bailing for paddles where you are hoping to remain dry also you'll notice many kayaks in this category are enclosed and you can have a spray skirt attached it seems that it's rarely used by people most kayakers dedicated enough to kayaking in that kind of conditions use hard shell kayaks and novice kayakers usually seem to be more comfortable in open kayaks that in their openness are more like a canoe it feels safer and in the case of a cap size you won't get trapped so category 3 kayaks these are for kayakers who are more committed to kayaking or just have the money these are the kayaks i take on multi-day trips and i'm not worried about puncturing them they usually feel solid and i personally now do most of my paddling in these i've loaded these kayaks with three four hundred pounds of camping gear and they handle it like nothing kayak camping is one of my favorite uses for a kayak it's like backpacking but exercising the upper body while sitting and also you get to bring much more stuff with you and be comfortable kayak camping as opposed to backpacking might also save you on expensive super light backpacking gear i see the main future development in inflatable kayaking mostly happening in category 3. i think the category 2 will rightfully lose some market share to these and there is a lot of promise in one new emerging technology that is pretty much revolutionizing inflatable kayak and i'm really excited about it it's called drop stitch what it is is a technology that allows boat makers make inflatable chambers that are flat instead of round the way they do it is they have thousands of strings inside connecting the two sides what this translates to is inflatable kayaks that have chambers of about the same shape as a hard shell and also have high pressure so they are rigid and behave much more like a hardshell kayak it means this significantly faster sea eagle razer light line is the pioneer with these and i personally love them they're as close to perfection and inflatable kayak as i've seen at this point they have only one potential area of improvement left the seam between the floor and the sides i would certainly endorse these kayaks they are pretty much all a paddle now but they certainly cost quite a bit somewhere around thousand dollars for a single and 1400 for double however if you use them often in my opinion it's well worth it i'm noticing i'm starting to sound as if i'm pushing sea eagle razer light kayaks i'm in no way affiliated with them or any other manufacturer but yes indeed i consider these kayaks to be superior to any other kayaks on the market i know it seems that they are expensive but i'd say it really boils down to how often you'll be using it here is a simple calculation if you paddle twice a month for six months out of the year and that's pretty low use and we compare it to a kayak rental that costs thirty dollars which is also a low conservative estimate buying a fancy 1400 kayak will pay off in less than four years but if you don't actually end up using your kayak and it just sits around even if you spend hundred dollars on it you are not getting your money's worth so ultimately your goal is to get a sense of how much you'll be using a kayak if you own one go rent a kayak borrow one from a friend and see how it feels or buy a really cheap category one kayak if you realize you like being on the water or especially if you like to go some kayak touring camping category 3 kayaks is my advice i just skipped the whole category 2 wet fabric nonsense sometimes i get a question about double versus single kayaks let's say if you have a partner and a deciding between two single kayaks or one tandem one i'd say the main thing to consider is how good of a team you are paddling a tandem kayak can be a relationship tester but if you're good at it you get a great bonus tandem kayaks are inherently much more efficient they're faster just because they're longer but there is also another interesting effect at play here if a person is paddling alone you might be going let's say three miles an hour if two people are paddling the speed does not double you would not be going six miles an hour you will only go at probably four miles an hour so so on longer trips it makes sense to paddle one person at a time and rest fifty percent of the time that can allow you to go much further with the same effort another question as he i hear is what is my opinion on inflatable stand-up paddle boards and how do they compare they're generally slower than a kayak and will make you work harder you're also likely to capsize on those so while standard paddle boards can be used as an exercise and splashing device in the warm weather a good kayak can actually get you places and keep you fairly dry even in colder weather i personally also don't like to stand i'd rather sit but some people prefer the standing position of stand-up paddleboards they sure give you a good core workout but kayaks will get you further with the same amount of effort an important thing to acknowledge with stand-up pedal boards is that they have become hip and cool be cognizant of that aspect of their appeal and why you might want to get one they are indeed cool for exercise and posing for instagram but in my opinion less practical than a kayak they're also much more expensive than a cheap category 1 kayak that would serve about same roll let me mention the topic of valves there are a number of valves that i would consider perfectly fine and workable what i don't like is when boat makers use two different valves on the same boat it's like it's just annoying and feels disrespectful towards the user also tiny little valves used on cheap kayak seats or small chambers are a pain and i try to avoid them as much as possible another topic is storage conditions try not to store your kayak in the places where the temperature swings quite a bit basement is preferable to the garage and ideally if you can avoid it being tightly folded with sharp bends especially for long periods it'd be ideal but i understand it's hard to do ideally you have enough space to store it inflated but not tightly inflated but that's really a lot to ask you're probably owning a hard shell at that point hope all that info helps drop me a line or leave a comment if you have any corrections comments or questions come paddle with us if you find yourself in portland oregon and have a delightful time on the water wherever you are you

Channel: J Baikoff

Views: 1,071,261

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Id: 5U8u_rkNTSY

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 08 2020