Inflatable Kayak Blog

A couple weeks ago I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. I mentioned that I had been doing some kayaking and he immediately pictured me shooting down whitewater rapids and wondering how I became so adventurous in my “old” age. That’s not an unusual reaction from someone who’s not familiar with kayaking. It does have a reputation for what some would call “wild” behavior. After I explained that whitewater wasn’t the only form of kayaking and that I was into flat water paddling, he actually thought he might like it, too.

Flat water paddling is a wonderful way to enjoy the outdoors and way more relaxing than whitewater. It’s also terrific exercise, although not quite as energetic. I find it somewhat therapeutic, too. It’s so peaceful to paddle my inflatable kayak down a beautiful stretch of water and just blend with nature.

So if your concept of “kayaking” doesn’t include flat water paddling, think again. You might have just discovered a new activity for your “old” or “young” age.

I was recently in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and had a chance to take my sister’s hard shell kayak for a paddle on Portage Lake. The sun was setting so I didn’t have a real long time on the water. I mainly paddled along the shoreline checking out all the new, beautiful homes that now fill the waterfront. This is quite a change from the once mostly wooded area with a few “camps” I remember from my younger days.

As I paddled along I was making an effort to watch my strokes to see how the hard shell kayak moved through the water compared to our inflatable kayak. Maybe I was doing something wrong, because I was having difficulties keeping the kayak tracking on a straight course. I had always heard that inflatable kayaks didn’t track as well as a hard shell, but with this kayak that wasn’t the case. I tried to change my stroke but nothing seemed to work. I will have to change my thinking about how the inflatable paddles now, for the better.

We will be returning to Michigan at the end of September and I will have to give it another try but after riding in that hard shell, I am very happy with my inflatable kayak and the way it handles.

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to paddle a kayak made of wood sticks and animal skins? Maybe not, but that’s how kayaks originated. The small ‘human-powered’ boat that we know as a kayak was originally developed by Native Aleut and Eskimo hunters in sub-arctic regions of North America and Greenland. They used the boats to hunt on inland lakes rivers and coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic, Bering Sea and North Pacific oceans. These first kayaks were constructed from stitched animal skins such as seal stretched over a wooden frame made from collected driftwood, as many of the areas of their construction were treeless. Archaeologists have found evidence indicating that kayaks are at least 4000 years old.

The closest you can come to paddling an “original kayak” today is to paddle a folding kayak. Of all modern kayaks, they are closest relatives to the skin-and frame vessels of the past. Folding kayaks exhibit many of the same paddling characteristics. Their ‘skin’ also absorbs some of the energy from waves and actually makes for a smoother ride than that of a hard shell kayak.