Inflatable Kayak Blog

Being the owner of an online store (PortableKayaks.com), you sometimes get a chance to speak to or correspond with your customers. Most of the time it’s a regular person who lives a normal, non-famous life that needs an inflatable boat of some kind. Once in awhile, you have a customer who is just the opposite. Such is the case with Robert Twigger, who recently purchased some pontoons for the inflatable trimaran (shown in the picture) that he plans on using next year to go around Britain.

Robert Twigger is a British author and explorer who is often referred to as, ‘a 19th Century adventurer trapped in the body of a 21st Century writer’. He was educted at Oxford University and later underwent training at Martial Arts alongside the Tokyo Riot Police. He was awarded the Newdigate prize for poetry, the Somerset Maugham award for literature and the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. In 1997, while he was on an expedition in Northern Borneo, he discovered a line of menhirs crossing into Kalimantan. In 1998 He was a member of the team that captured the longest snake in the world- documented in the Channel 4/National Geographic film and book Big Snake; after that Robert became the head of the expedition that was the first to cross Western Canada in a birchbark canoe since 1793. Most recently, in 2009-2010, he led an expedition that became the first to cross the 700 kilometer Great Sand Sea of the Egyptian Sahara totally by foot. His articles have been published in newspapers and magazines including The Daily Telegraph, Maxim and Esquire. He has also published several poetry collections, the most recent being in 2003, with Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing. One of his books, entitled Real Men Eat Puffer Fish (2008) is a humorous but comprehensive guide to repeatedly overlooked but not exclusively masculine pastimes.

I could go on, but if your interested in learning more about this adventurous customer, you can visit his blog at RobertTwigger.com. I hope to keep in touch and find out if the trimaran trip leads to another noteworthy adventure.

By M.A.S. (Guest Blogger)

If you are like most Baby Boomers, myself included, you may have spent your childhood in the great outdoors. I spent mine camping.

I remember my folks dragging out the old Army tent, the gas stove, the lawn chairs and tarps. After spending most of the first day setting up, we would sit around the campfire to detail our plans. We decided we would spend our time fishing, hiking, swimming and kayaking. Kayaking and fishing turned out to be a chore. We would have to drag those big metal boats out on the lake. By days end, I remember being so tired as we ate our dinner next to an open fire pit.

Today, my husband and I love to camp, however the experience is much better. We get the outdoor experience without going broke or packing all the heavy supplies.

We have a easier time setting up camp. We bought a pop-up tent which takes minutes to set up and opens up in 3 seconds. No more metal Kayaks or fishing boats either, After an on-line search, we bought an inflatable kayak and an inflatable boat. And, of course, now we have access to excellent electronic gadgets like GPS and ‘fish finders’ and the waterproof cases to carry them in.

We can now pack up our small car with ease. The pop-up tent along with our portable kayak and inflatable boat still leaves us room for our sleeping bags, cooler, lights and even our camp stove.

We “Boomers” are downsizing and downsizing our camping equipment is no exception. After we return from our trips, unpacking our tent, the portable kayak, inflatable boat and the rest of our gear, we can place them on the same shelf either in a bedroom closet or in the garage for safekeeping until our next trip.

If you still long for the good old days, I think I still have that old army tent hidden in the back of the garage.

Labor Day weekend will be the last big holiday to pack up the family and get out and enjoy the great outdoors. Whether you are camping, boating or just getting out for a hike, don’t forget to play it safe and have very enjoyable holiday. Here are some safety hints you’ll want to remember.

No matter what you are doing, be sure to have plenty of water handy so you can stay hydrated. It is also wise to drink up before you start out, giving your self a head start on that hydration. You may also want to carry along some energy bars or granola for a quick pick me up along the way.

Don’t leave home without your sun protection. Slather on the sunscreen and be sure to wear sunglasses and a hat. If you will be out in the sunshine for extended periods of time be sure to reapply the sunscreen every few hours. You wouldn’t want a sunburn to spoil the long weekend.

If you will be out in the kayak, like some of us plan to do, don’t forget to follow your usual safety measures.
* Check out weather conditions before leaving home.
* Be sure to let friends and family know your plans: where you will be kayaking and when you plan to return home.
* Don’t kayak alone, a group of two or more is safer and more fun.
* Know your limitations: don’t paddle farther than you are comfortably able to paddle back or in water that is beyond your abilities.
* Don’t drink (alcohol) and paddle.
* Wear your life vest or life jacket at all times.
* If you will be paddling in a location that has a lot of motorized boat traffic, be aware of your location as kayaks and canoes are very vulnerable to accidents. A boat being paddled can be difficult to see and are not as easily maneuvered so be aware of other boaters around you and take reasonable precautions to able to get out of the way of an oncoming boat if necessary.
* Wear brightly colored clothing so you will be more noticeable and carry a first aid kit with you.

These are just a few safety suggestions for you to consider while enjoying the long holiday weekend ahead. Wishing everyone a safe and happy Labor Day!

Most of this month’s blog posts have been about our recent visit to the Outdoor Retail Show in Salt Lake City. Over the next few months, I don’t doubt that there will be several more references to products or activities we saw or events we participated in during the first week of August, 2011. The show was huge and the variety of products were way too numerous to mention them all. I mainly wanted to summarize our visits with Sea Eagle, Innova and Advanced Elements inflatable kayaks, the lines we carry at PortableKayaks.com.

We found several other products that we may or may not add to our product line such as new life jacket designs and cooling towels. Plus there were many, many products that we came across that might be related to kayakers, depending on their other interests, such as pop-up tents, camping food, fly rods and so many more.

The show itself is big. The Open Air Demo on the first day was held at Lake Jordanelle State Park near Park City. It was a beautiful setting until the storms in the area kicked the wind up so that demo paddling was not as much fun as it could have been. We managed to walk (a lot) checking out the booths and participating in the Magellen GPS Cache Treasure Hunt. We each won a t-shirt. I did get to demo a few kayaks before the wind messed things up, but the storms stayed away and a good day was had by all.

The next two days were spent walking (a lot) inside the Salt Palace checking out the booths, sampling trail bars and camping food and being totally amazed by the varieties of products that are available in the outdoor marketplace. Also admiring the ingenuity that’s displayed in creating some of the products. I can’t count the number of times that I said “Wow, that’s unique.” For example, the new Go Pro Video Camera that takes 1080 dpi video in a waterproof case, the Sea Squirts children’s life jackets that I mentioned in a previous post and the Can Cooker that campers can use to cook an entire meal in one container or the Noggs sunglasses that have frames that are virtually indestructible.

I could go on, but if you’d like to check out some of the videos that were produced by the ORS staff, they are available here. One video features Sea Eagle’s Cecil Hoge talking about his company and what they are planning for the future. In another video, SurfTech talks about the rise in popularity of stand up paddling.

In conclusion, we had a great time, learned much and walked (a lot). I always enjoy the show and hope to return sometime in the next few years. And when we do, we’ll let you know about it here on the 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.