Kayaking, Diving, Skiing, & Surfing Forum. - Inflatable kayaks

hi all,

wife is looking for a kayak she can manage on her own..
loading/unloading from van, carrying to/from water, ect...

saw some inflatables... wondering if anyone has any experiece or suggestions.

thanks, chris

My wife and I camped out on Dry Totuga last January. We could not find a dealer in Key West who wanted to rent us two kayaks to take out there for 5 days so I called Stearns which is a company I am a dealer for. They gave us two inflatables for free to test out. We carried them on the airplane as our carryon baggage. It was great to have them out there fishing. If someone will teach me how to post pics I have almost 200 from the trip. They were better than having no kayaks but when the wind picked up I wished I had a hard kayak. The best selling yak we have in our shop is the old towne/dimension cricket. Your wife will have no problem handling it at 33lbs. It is comfortable,fast and sells for under $300.
Barrell

I had a Stearns blowup kayak and hated it. There no comparison to a hard kayak. It's better than no kayak at all, but a real kayak is much better.

I have never used one but I have seen the wind move em around when I was out on my hard yak, they leave you up to your own power to overcome the wind to get where you want to go. does'nt look fun, It looks to be a weight issue since blowups have low mass and are filled with air. I always have losta sharp hooks and a gaff on board wich makes me a bit nervous at sea not that I wont get back in, But then I would have to deal with patching and repair. I have gotten too brazen at times when the bite is on and got caught in a swell (That I knew was coming) and was flipped on the rocks and swam for it to get to deeper water and went back to get what I could salvage of my gear, I let the yak take the brunt of the misshap as it was floating upside down in a nasty reef area and when the swell subsided I swam back in and pushed it back out to deeper water and just righted it and sent it out and dove for what ever I could find,I would not have attempted this with a blowup for obvious reasons, Back to your question There a few small wheeled carts that your wife could use with ease once she pulls it out of the van that make it very easy to transport it over all types of terraine. Sorry for the long read but I put some points that I think make a case for the hard yak over the blowup blowup. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I've got an inflatable sit on top;

19963

Yes they get blown around in the wind, yes a gaff would be a worry, but you can pack them on your boat a lot more conveniently that a hard version.

I use mine when we go out to Moreton Island. Park the boat offshore in deep enough water and paddle in. The kayak sure beats a swim out to the boat in the middle of winter at 5:30am!

Red tag, in that case get yourself a carry on blowup dinghy. ;)