Inflatable Kayak Blog

Planning on getting someone a kayak or kayak accessory as a gift? If so, I have a few suggestions. Make sure you buy them something they’ll like. In other words, you might not want to make it a total surprise. A little research goes a long way and you’ll be glad when your gift is welcomed with open arms rather than a confused facial expression.

In the case of avid kayakers, you should be familiar with what they are paddling now and whether your gift will fit their preferences. Kayaks are kind of like shoes. One size or type doesn’t “fit” all. Ask their friends, fellow paddlers or significant others for advice. A portable (inflatable or folding kayak) may not be the perfect choice for someone who’s used to paddling a hard shell kayak. However, if they’re tired of storing or car carrying the hard shell, a portable kayak might be the perfect gift. Accessories, especially paddles, can also be very user specific. Find out what they have, then buy them what they’d like to have.

If you’re buying for a newby it’s even more important to research your choice. I’ve seen a few situations where a wife or husband has purchased a tandem (two person) kayak without consulting (or even hinting to) the other person only to be disappointed when they experienced that “confused facial expression”. The hassle and expense of returning the kayak could be easily avoided if you could have discovered in advance that the “giftee’s” idea of water sports is lounging on a Caribbean Cruise or maybe they have an aversion to paddles or … you get the idea.

If you need a few gift suggestions, maybe these will help you out. A Sea Eagle 330 or 370 is a great gift for a beginner who wants to start out paddling. Sea Eagle Explorer Kayaks (340, 380 or 420) or any of the Innova inflatable kayaks are terrific for someone who wants to upgrade from a beginner level kayak. PakBoat’s Arrows or Puffins folding kayaks are nice for a hard shell kayaker who’s tired of carting around and storing that hard shell kayak. PakBoats track very much like a hard shell, too. And, of course the TRAK adjustable kayak is perfect for the kayaker who has everything and wants more. All of the above also travel very well on planes or in car trunks or the back of a minivan. Some kayak accessories you might look at include these items that can all be used by any type of kayaker, traditional hard shell or portable. You could buy someone a new, lighter fiberglass or carbon Cannon paddle, a PakPod Deck Bag/Paddle Float or one of the new WindPaddle™ sails that fit most any type of small boat, kayak or canoe. If there’s a paddler on your list that’s also a photographer, an AquaPac 100% waterproof/sand proof case is a nice gift. There are also AquaPac cases for cell phones and MP3 players.

There’s some great gift ideas here, made even better by a little advance ‘gift giving’ research.

Awhile back I wrote a blog post about the WindPaddle™ sail and how well it works with kayaks, canoes and other small craft. But what really excites me about this sail is how well it functions with my inflatable kayak.

One of the problems that occur when paddling an inflatable kayak is that the wind can affect them quite a bit. I find that I have no trouble paddling into the wind, however a cross wind and, especially, a tail wind seems to want to turn my boat around. That can get very frustrating. We also seem to choose paddling destinations that have more open water, rather than small rivers, which may be less affected by wind. My wife and I have avoided paddling on windy days because it’s just not any fun fighting with that problem. The WindPaddle™ changes that mindset completely. We’ve been able to paddle out into the wind, then when we decide to turn around, we launch the sail. She usually sits in the bow (front) of our inflatable kayak, so she handles the WindPaddle™ steering while I rudder and paddle a little in the (rear) stern to adjust the course. It sure is a lot more fun now and we actually look forward to a windy day so we can use our WindPaddle™ kayak sail.

The WindPaddle™. I think it’s a clever name. After all, you’re using the wind to paddle your kayak. Nick Wiltz, who lives in the kiteboarding/sailboarding mecca of Hood River, Oregon, designed this lightweight, circular, portable sail a couple years ago. It’s slowly gained momentum in the paddling marketplace and is now considered to be one of the main choices as a sail for kayaks, canoes and other small crafts. The sails have received good reviews from Practical Sailor Magazine and Playak dot com.

It comes in two sizes, the “Adventure” sail, which uncoils from 15 inches to a 42 inch diameter sail and the “Cruiser” sail, which deploys from 20 inches to a 56 inch diameter sail. Either sail can be set-up for instant self-launching either before sailing or while out on the water. It connects easily to existing boat hardware (perimeter line, bungee cords, eye-straps, etc.) and a continuous sheet (or steering line) allows the paddler to easily control the sail while keeping their paddle in their hands for bracing and steering. There’s also a large window in the center panel of the sail for visibility. The WindPaddle™ design puts the center of force of the sail down low, at about the same level as the paddler, making the boat/sail combination incredibly stable and easy-to-use.

If you’ve ever thought about sailing a kayak, canoe or other small boat, the WindPaddle™ could be just the ticket. It’s an inexpensive and easy way to add the functionality of sailing to almost any craft.

One of the things we planned on doing on our annual trip to visit relatives in Michigan was to try out our new WindPaddle kayak sails. We got the chance when we paddled at Peach Lake in the West Branch area. Peach Lake is a nice little lake with very little boat traffic. There was one fisherman and we did see one person in the distance on a jet ski while we were there. It is a fairly rural location with a few nice homes along the shore and farms in the distance.

It was a perfect day to try out the sails, there was a pretty good wind blowing towards shore. We had both sizes of the WindPaddle sails to test, the smaller “Adventure” Sail and the larger, “”Cruiser” Sail. We strapped the “Cruiser” sail to the bow of the kayak and paddled out. There was enough wind that the water was a bit choppy, but nothing too bad, as we still don’t like to get out in big waves. We turned the boat around and opened up the sail. We didn’t have everything set up like we should have, the steering line (the sheets) was not completely undone, but we did manage to catch some wind and move the boat along pretty well. It was fun. (NOTE: It is strongly recommended that you get familiar with and practice with the sail first before using it, but I guess we succumbed to the rush of wanting to get going.) We managed to make it to shore moving fairly quickly when we could catch a stiff wind, but the shortened steering line made it harder to maneuver.

Seeing it didn’t take us very long to get out and back we decided to try out the smaller “Adventure” sail. I waited on shore in the kayak while my husband put the big sail away and set up the smaller one. While he was at the car I looked up and saw a bald eagle soaring overhead not too far off shore. This was one of the highlights of the trip, seeing the eagle. I only wish I could have gotten to my camera and got a shot of it. But it was too fast and I missed my chance.

It didn’t take long at all to hook the kayak sail to the kayak and we paddled out again about the same distance from shore and turned the boat around and set the small sail out. We paddle a Sea Eagle 330 and it seemed that the smaller “Adventure” sail gave us better control than the “Cruiser” Sail, although we’ll need to test further with the sheets completely undone. We made it back to shore in no time. I think I’m going to like this sailing and paddling combination. It was a fun paddle and we got to experiment with the sail. We should definitely go back there the next time we are in Michigan, and this time I will have my camera ready and maybe get a shot at the eagle!

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we were in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the Houghton area at our “camp” on Portage Lake.  We had been out in the kayak on the calm lake and after a break we decided to drive to White City for another paddle. White City is a sandy beach park on Lake Superior. There’s a neat lighthouse there that sits at the end of an old cement pier about ½ mile long at the entrance to the channel to Portage Lake. In earlier years, when copper mining was the biggest industry in the area, this lighthouse was important to the ore boats that made their way through the channel to unload in the Hubbell area.

Though this is Lake Superior, it is a calmer area to put the kayak in, with its long sandbar that stretches out quite far along the pier. It was quite windy with a distinctive a chop to the water. We wanted to get another chance to try out our new kayak sail and this was definitely a good time for that. We paddled into the wind, down the shoreline for what seemed like a long time, especially since it was our second paddle of the day. We picked a spot to turn around and undo the sail. Unfortunately, we had gotten the steering guides hooked under the sail when we clipped it to the kayak and couldn’t use the guide. I had to just hold on to the side of the sail and catch the wind as best I could and steer that way. Even though we didn’t have the sail hooked up correctly, we did make it back to shore in no time flat with the nice wind we had going for us. I think after we have had a chance to use the sail and know what to expect (and don’t make a stupid mistake clipping it to our inflatable kayak), it will be a nice addition to our kayaking.

With that trip, now we can say we have been kayaking in Lake Superior. Maybe we will be brave enough now to put it in the ocean the next time we are there.