Inflatable Kayak Blog

We recently attended the Outdoor Retail Show in Salt Lake City (August, 2011). The show opens with an “open air demo day” where attendees can actually try out products on the water.

This year the Open Air Demo was held at Jordanelle State Park near Park City Utah, which is about 30 miles from Salt Lake City. The day started out beautiful with bright sunny skies and warm, not too hot, temperatures.

We always like to check out the various booths first. In addition to a huge variety of paddle sports companies that were there to demo their kayaks, stand up paddle boards and other crafts, there are also several related participants from clothing and material manufacturers to sunglasses to gps units and makers of energy drinks and trail bars. Free samples are common for many of the booths as they are encouraging retailers to carry their products in their stores. We picked up a few hats and t-shirts and grazed on the trail mixes and bars that were offered.

About noon we decided to do some paddling. My first experience was something I had wanted to try since our previous visit to the Outdoor Show three years ago, stand up paddleboards. It looks easier than it is, at least for me. I guess my balance was a little compromised because I was still recovering from some inflammation on my right knee. I was afraid to make any sudden movements and didn’t adjust very quickly to a wind gust. That resulted in a fall backwards into the water. Luckily my wife wasn’t fast enough to get the picture to embarrass me for life. I decided not to pursue the SUP again because I’d still be worried about my knee.

Our next stop was the Sea Eagle booth where they had a variety of crafts, including the LongBoard 11 SUP (I passed on that one), a PaddleSki, rigged with a sail and their very popular 385ft Fast Track inflatable kayak. Actually I passed on the PaddleSki, too since the wind was kicking up quite a bit more. My wife and I each paddled the Fast Track solo, then got in and paddled it as a tandem. Both of us felt that the 12 and a half foot kayak was easier to handle as a tandem. That may be because we’re so used to our 11 foot Sea Eagle 330 or because we’re so used to paddling tandem, which we do 95% of the time we paddle.

We really did like the extra room in the Fast Track and the hard, drop stitch floor made the 385ft feel very much like a hard shell. I can understand why the kayak has become so popular in such a short time. It’s a solid technological advance for inflatable kayaks.

That wind gust that tossed me off the SUP earlier was a precursor of more to come. After a few hours of really nice weather through noon, some storms began blowing into the area and, in some cases, the winds blew hard enough that some participants had to re-anchor or even take down their booths. The good thing was we never got any rain or thunder or lightning, but the wind gusted throughout most of the rest of the day. Only a few accomplished paddlers and other brave (?) souls attempted to paddle anything the rest of the day.

We had planned on paddling some of the Innova kayaks, including the new Innova Twist and Double Twist, which are two of the lightest inflatable kayaks on the market. Innova also was debuting their Swing kayak, which will be available in solo and tandem versions in Spring of 2012. The Innova Swing is a new design that features a deck. It’s an inflatable that looks like a hard shell. As I said, we planned on paddling them, but the windy conditions cancelled those plans.

It was a fun day, though. Getting up close and personal with all the products and innovations is a great experience. And that was just the first day of ORS 2011.