Introduction To Inflatable Kayaking
Book Extract
Young or old, just about everyone gets paddling: the marvel of gliding effortlessly across the water, marked only by the gentle splish-splosh of your paddle slapping the surface. But not everyone has the space to store, the means to transport or the strength to carry a solid plastic ‘hardshell’ kayak or canoe. An inflatable kayak (or ‘IK’), on the other hand, slips into a backpack or boot of a car, inflates in minutes and is more resilient than most think. And it’s easier to paddle than an inflatable SUP board.
Paddling is an exhilarating and low-impact way of enjoying the outdoors. It’s now a booming industry: one of the many life-enhancing recreational activities we’ve come to value more since the coronavirus outbreak of 2020. Inflatable kayaking delivers the same health and wellbeing benefits as walking or cycling and, as you’ll read, you can make it as relaxing or intrepid as you like. When your trip is over, you roll your boat up and chuck it in the car, or catch a train or even a plane home.
About Inflatable Kayaks
Kayak Or Canoe?
In the UK the word ‘canoeing’ is widely used to describe kayaking, but these are different boats. Traditionally, a kayak is a long, slim boat powered by a solo paddler using a two-bladed paddle. It sits low in the water to dodge the wind and gain stability, and a deck helps seal the paddler in so waves won’t swamp the boat.
Canoes are slower, wider load-carrying boats native to Canadian rivers. Paddlers sit on benches working single-bladed paddles. Canoes are undecked and aren’t suited to sea conditions, nor can a sea kayak manage rapids or bulky loads.
Inflatable Kayaks
Inflatable kayaks blur this distinction by usually being open like a Canadian canoe but paddled kayak-style. For first-timers this is a big attraction: getting in is easy – even from deep water (see p27) and steering with a kayak paddle is easier to master (see p20). Fears of entrapment are reduced and it’s more agreeable to be sat in the fresh air, not sealed in a plastic tube. For these reasons IKs were popular river rentals in Europe and North America before heavy, plastic Sit-on-Tops (SoTs) and SUP boards came on the scene.
Since the 1960s boom in recreational paddling, canoes have looked pretty much the same, but IKs and hardshell kayaks have evolved and specialised: short, agile whitewater playboats; easy-to-use SoTs; do-it-all river, lake and coast tourers; sleek expedition sea kayaks and longer tandems. As elsewhere, technology has made materials stronger, lighter, more durable and cheaper, but at the extreme ends of the activity, be it gnarly whitewater or big sea crossings, hardshell sea kayaks have the edge, while a good IK can easily match the technical abilities of a Canadian canoe, except payload.
They make inflatable canoes too
Size & Weight
IKs range from just 2.4m (8’) playboats up to tandems or sea kayaks exceeding 5 metres (16’). Boats with a longer waterline are faster, track better and are more spacious. An IK of over 3.6 metres (12’) has room for a second adult.
Nothing is more off-putting than a tippy boat, but because each side of a tubed IK is some 20-30cm (8-12”) in diameter, IKs are wide and stable which reassures beginners. You can get used to some tippiness and a kayak that initially feels wobbly may not actually roll over. Some boxy, full drop-stitch (FD-S) IKs suffer from this and on any IK, thigh braces (see p13) can help.
Most IKs will have a certification label like this
Because of their ‘family-friendly’ profile, some recreational IKs (particularly US brands) go all out to avoid tippiness which makes them slower.
In my experience even in rough water, an 80cm (31.5”) wide boat will fill up long before you get tossed out, and yet side-tube IKs up to a metre wide are common. If you’re just paddling about, width won’t matter. If all-day or overnight paddles are on your agenda, think about width.
Freeboard is the height between the water and the top of the sides. A loaded sea kayak has a few inches because, like an iceberg, it carries most of its mass below the water. Buoyant IKs sit mostly above the water. This stops bigger waves lapping into the open cockpit but, like a Canadian canoe, makes the boat more susceptible to wind. On open water (lakes, sea), wind is what holds light and buoyant IKs back (more on p39).
Once gliding on the water weight magically falls away, but getting there or portaging around locks can be another matter. A vinyl cheapie can weigh as little as 6 kilos (13lb) but expect around 13kg (29lb) for a long solo and up to 18kg (40lb) for a spacious double. Don’t forget there’s a lot of other clobber involved, so a boat over 20kg may be a struggle to manage alone out of the water.
IKs have maximum payload ratings on a certification label (left). An IK can’t sink but aim not to exceed 80% of that figure.
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Inflatable Kayaking: A Beginner’s Guide is written by Chris Scott. Chris is a travel adventurer and writer. His Adventure Motorcycling Handbook is now in its 8th edition. He has written various Overland books for Trailblazer Guides and co-authored several editions of the Rough Guide to Australia. He discovered inflatable kayaks in 2005 when rafting Idaho’s Salmon River and has since done many IK expeditions and developed the leading IK website inflatablekayaksandpackrafts.com.