Inflatable Kayak Blog

You might think that it’s a long and tedious process to pump up an inflatable kayak, pontoon or float tube every time you go out, but it’s really not that difficult or time consuming. People often say that’s why they wouldn’t own an inflatable boat, but when you compare the time it takes to strap the boat on top of a car or truck or deal with a trailer, spending 8 to 10 minutes inflating your kayak is minimal effort. The high-pressure bellows style pumps that come with most inflatable kayaks can really blow some air with very little foot pressure.

There are also electric inflatable boat pumps that can be hooked to vehicle batteries or plugged into cigarette lighter outlets that can speed the process up. They won’t do the whole job though. Electric pumps normally don’t inflate your boat completely. You’ll need to ‘top it off’ with your foot or hand pump.

If you’ve been looking to add a few kayak accessories to your gear, here’s a chance to do so and save some money. It’s unusual for companies to discount accessories but Sea Eagle is discounting all their accessories 20% this month (October 2008). If you’ve thought about adding an electric or battery operated pump to make it easier to inflate your kayak, pontoon or inflatable motormount boat, now’s a good time to buy. Many of the accessories aren’t limited to Sea Eagle boats. They can be used with other craft as well. Their kayak accessory sale also includes paddling vests, paddles and accessories for their FoldCat inflatable pontoons and the catamaran style PaddleSki inflatable kayak.

If you’ve just purchased a kayak, you are probably anxious to take it out for a spin. But before you rush out too quickly, make sure you have the necessary kayak accessories. (And invest in a few unnecessary ones as well just for fun.)

-Kayak paddle: Obviously, this accessory is necessary. Some kayaks come with paddles, but others do not. Be aware of this when purchasing. There are a wide range of paddles on the market, so do your research about feathered versus non-feathered, weight, and price.

-Foot pump: If you’re paddling around in an inflatable kayak, a foot pump is going to be an absolute necessity. If the funds are available, invest in a really nice, efficient pump. If your kayaks are a pain to inflate, you’re going to be hesitant to take your kayaks out.

-Spray skirt: While spray skirts are great to have, they aren’t absolutely essential. If you are kayaking in particularly cold water, however, they are great for keeping you dry and warm.

-Kayak seat: If you’re going on long trips, an extra cushioned seat can make the trip much more enjoyable. Comfort becomes key on long trips, but it is definitely one of those “extra” accessories.

On the floor at the 2008 Outdoor Retailer Show in the Salt Lake Convention Center, we got together with Erik from Clear Blue Hawaii at their booth. A question that’s been on many minds for awhile is “when will the two person Hanauma inflatable kayak be back in stock and available for purchase?” Due to manufacturing problems, the Hanauma has been unavailable since March. Erik told us that it looked like the Hanauma would be available, hopefully, by the end of August. We hope so, too, since we have a long list of potential customers wanting to buy one.

We also saw a new product, expected to be available in 2009. Clear Blue Hawaii has developed a self-inflating kayak carrier. It’s a set of two rectangular padded straps that attach easily to the top of any vehicle. They’re super lightweight and can be carried in a small bag until you’re ready to use them. They have a self-inflating system similar to some life vests. They won’t scratch the car top and they can be used for any kind of kayak or boat, depending on the width. Folding kayaks don’t usually work well with carriers because the strain of tightening them down bends the frame. This padded carrier should reduce some of that pressure and may be an answer for those of you who have folding kayaks and want to occasionally ‘car top’ them.

Over the next few days we’ll continue to post several blogs that will have specific information about more of the individual products we’ve tested and seen here at the 2008 Outdoor Retailer Show.

The indoor portion of the 2008 Outdoor Retailer Show began on Friday and runs through Monday. The Salt Lake Convention Center was jammed with booths and exhibits from manufacturers from around the world. The main rooms, the hallways, and smaller meeting rooms we’re all filled with exhibitors. There were even exhibits outside of the building. This show is the largest in North America and our feet learned why!

As we’ve said, the reason we attended this show is to visit with our current distributors and to look for possible product additions. In addition to touching base with PakBoats and Sea Eagle, who we also got to see at the ‘Open Air Demo’, we we’re able to meet up with Erik from Clear Blue Hawaii and Stuart of Cannon Paddles and learn more about what’s happening with those products.

Some of the new items we really liked were the K-Pak Folding Boat, the Aqua-Pak line of waterproof bags, the “Spot” Satellite Messenger and the Kona inflatable stand up Paddle Board. The “Paddle Boards” were considered one of the ‘show stoppers’ at the ‘Open Air Demo’ and are quickly becoming be one of the hottest new trends in paddle sports. When we saw them at the ‘demo’ we could see how much potential they had, but it looked like they all were of solid construction like their surfboard cousins. Since that didn’t fit into our ‘portable’ watercraft niche, we didn’t think much more of it … until an accidental meeting with the man who distributes the inflatable version. Our general conversation about each other’s businesses led to the discovery that there was an inflatable paddle board and we could become a dealer! There are more details to be finalized before we have these products on PortableKayaks.com, but the future looks good for all of them to be added to our line.
 
Over the next few days, we’ll continue to post several blogs that will have specific information about more of the individual products we’ve tested and seen here at the 2008 Outdoor Retailer Show.

After our quick paddle on the Indian Creek at the beginning of the month I was thinking how quiet and relaxing it was paddling along this shallow water. That got me thinking of all the exciting rivers there are to paddle and a couple of the kayaking terms dealing with river kayaking.

 “Eddies” can be a paddler’s best friend. Eddies are currents of water behind obstacles where the water is calm and can be paddled into. Eddies provide paddlers with a place to rest, check gear, drain boats or scout upcoming rapids.

 Another term that’s used on a river excursion is when you’re thinking about how neat it would be to just see what was around the next “River Bend”. Did you know that the water on the outside of the river bend is usually deeper and moving faster than the inside? The outside bend is also a more dangerous area of the river because this is where the debris can pile up, creating very dangerous obstacles that you might not be able to see when moving along at a fast pace. If you were to flip over in such an area you could get your life jacket or paddling vest caught on the debris and end up trapped.

We are looking forward to a chance to get out and explore a small part of the Ohio River soon. This should be an exciting change from the little river we had just been on. Will write more about that after the trip. If anyone would like to share a river adventure we would enjoy hearing about it here.

It was time to check out and head home from our trip to Fairfield Glade, but it was such a nice morning and we really didn’t have to be back home at any certain time so we decided to take one more paddle before we left. Lake Dartmoor was close by so, even though we had been there before, we decided to go there again. It was a little windy and the lake was a bit rougher than it was the time before. There were small white caps in places, but we seemed to get through them without any problems. Going into the wind we could paddle right where we wanted to go. But when we had the wind at our backs it was harder to paddle straight. We figured that since the inflatable kayak sits a little higher in the water, the wind probably affected our ability to paddle in a straight line. We also thought about getting a Sea Eagle Quiver Sail for situations like this to add a little ‘sailing’ to our ‘paddling’. The Quiver Sail is a hand held sail that can be used with almost any type of kayak, or light watercraft, even hard shells.

We weren’t the only ones out enjoying the day; there were two other kayakers out there too. We were paddling in the same area as one of them and got to chat for a bit as we paddled along. She lived on the lake and got out paddling quite often. We paddled on the far side of the lake this time checking out more of the beautiful, big houses. Seeing we still had to get things packed up to head home, we only stayed out for about a half hour. We got the boat all packed up, checked out of the room and got on the road before noon. The nice thing about the inflatable kayak is that you can carry it with you when you travel. And every time we passed a nice river or a scenic lake on our trip home, we would make a mental note of more places we’d like to kayak.