Inflatable Kayak Blog

I’ve heard several people say that they think inflatable kayaks are “tippy”, even more so than a regular hard shell or folding kayak. Personally, I’ve paddled them all and I can’t quite agree. Maybe that’s because in my mind I’m thinking how inflatable kayaks tend to be wider and more buoyant, therefore they are actually harder to tip over. I feel more secure in my inflatable. The “tippy” feeling does have justification for a couple of reasons. One is that in inflatable kayaks, the seats are more often also inflatable and therefore thicker. You sit a little higher and you can feel the movement more, unlike the way you sit essentially on the floor of a solid body or folding kayak. The second point is that the surface material of an inflatable will absorb more of the water’s energy because it has more “give” to it unlike a hard shell, which ‘hits back’, so to speak. Because folding kayaks have a softer surface, they actually ride smoother because of that energy absorption factor. The difference being that with an inflatable, since you’re not actually ‘inside’ it, you would tend to feel that energy exchange more significantly.

So are inflatable kayaks “tippy”? I think it’s going to vary depending on your own personal point of view and the way your mind and body gauge the reactions the two factors above.