Inflatable Kayak Blog

No, this isn’t a blog about Brian Wilson and the boys’ recreational activities. According to Wikipedia, in Hawaii in the early 1960s, the “Beach Boys” of Waikiki would stand on their long boards and paddle out with outrigger paddles to take pictures of the tourists learning to surf. This is where the term “Beach Boy Surfing” originated. Nowadays, the sport is called Stand Up Paddle Surfing (aka: SUP) and it’s becoming quite popular. In regular surfing, you catch a wave and attempt to hop up on the board while on the wave. With SUP the goal is simply to stand on the board and propel yourself forward using your paddle. This makes the sport perfect for flat water, something that’s much easier to find and easy enough that most people are up and paddling within a half hour. The recent popularity of the sport is also attributed to surfers using SUP to train in the off-season. Stand up paddle surfing requires a heightened sense of balance and a strong core, which helps stabilize the board and maneuver it. What excites me is that inflatable SUP boards are now available for easy transport and storage.

And I thought kayaking was fun! The latest “thing” in paddle sports is Stand-Up Paddle Boards. They’re very similar to a surfboard, but you don’t need waves to enjoy them. They can be used on any kind of water; rivers, lakes, flat water or waves. You stand on the board and use a long paddle with a handle on top and a blade on the end. Because you’re standing, you’re using more muscles than you would sitting in your kayak, so it’s a wonderful workout. Standing on the water also gives you a great view of what’s around you on and in the water. If you do get some waves, you can actually surf with the board, but the neat part is you don’t need much wave action to propel the board. They’re available in solid core models like surfboards and there are a couple inflatable versions on the market.

I saw this picture of Jennifer Aniston on a stand-up paddle board, so I guess even the celebs are getting into this unique paddle sport. So, how do I find out where she paddle boards?

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.