An Inflatable Kayak Can Carry You Safely On Rivers, Lakes, Ponds, and Oceans

An inflatable kayak is another style of high performance inflatable boat that can easily be confused with inflatable canoes.

The high quality brands are rugged, sea worthy craft capable of exploring rugged coastlines, quiet lakes, raging rivers and shallow water too.

No other boat can match an inflatable kayak for convenience.

Carrying one of these boats is easy.

Setting one up is easy.

Packing one up is easy.

Carrying one on your yacht is easy.

Tucking one in a closet is easy.

The ability to store these boats in your closet make them perfect for apartment dwellers, yacht dwellers, full time RVers, Overlanders, and people always on the move.

Just like larger rafts or sport boats with a transom, kayaks vary from light duty boats useful for quiet lake travel, to heavy duty boats suitable for white water river running and coastal exploration.

Simply pump up the chambers, attach a couple accessories and you are ready to go.

There are many brands of inflatable kayak to choose from. I know the list is constantly growing so let me know if I am missing any.

• Achilles - Hypalon coated nylon construction for their kayaks - 5 year warranty on seams and fabric

• Advanced Elements - PVC bladder construction with Polyester covers and PVC hull material - some models with hybrid frame and inflatable tube construction - some neat ideas like a rigid backbone or rigid inflatable floors for their kayaks - only a 1 year warranty .... hmmm don't they believe in their product?

• Aire - welded urethane inner bladder - 1670 denier PVC coated fabric outer cover with zippers for bladder insertion - airecell floor design - best warranty in the industry! 10 years

• Airis - drop stitch rigid sit-on kayaks - PVC - made in China

• Bic - recreational or leisure boats with unique designs - the Yakka with a two piece rigid hull seems to have been discontinued, the YakkAir and Nomad have drop stitch rigid floors - both models use PVC bladders and outer cloth covers

• Gumotex - canoes and kayaks made in Czechoslovakia - made with Nitilon (rubber coated nylon), Hevealon (limited information - new product, Teflon coated outside, natural rubber coated inside - nylon base fabric - some sources say it is polyester base fabric), and Mirasol (Korean PVC) sold as Innova in the US

• Hyside - US manufacturer of Hypalon models of white water inflatable kayak - two models in 9, 10 and 12 foot lengths - they claim the strongest tear resistance in the industry with double denier construction

• Innova - web info claims their boats are all vulcanized natural rubber coated nylon (Nitrilon) - made in Czechoslovakia by Gumotex - Gumotex website shows some models are Korean PVC tubes (Mirasol) and Nitrilon floor - I find no information about vulcanized seams on the Gumotex website
  
  
• NRS - High quality polyurethane coated 840 denier nylon with radio frequency welded seams or Pennel Orca Hypalon coated fabric with glued seams depending on the boat - Leafield valves the best in the industry - whitewater focused boats

• Soar - multipurpose inflatable canoes - 840 denier Hypalon coated nylon - seat mounted on top of tubes gives higher sitting position than kayaks - made in Taiwan

• Sea Eagle - unsupported PVC models for the budget conscious and leisure paddler, and 1000 denier fabric core PVC models for more serious use

• Sevylor - a broad range of boats from cheap unsupported PVC boats to PVC bladder boats with fabric covers to fabric core PVC boats with high pressure drop stitched floors - a broad range of prices too

• Sotar - One kayak design with 3 lengths offered - proprietary Lextron fabric - six year warranty

• Star - I like the way this company does things - they have their boats produced in Korea and they are open about it - they chose a top notch company to do it for them - 1100 denier PVC for tubes and 4000 denier PVC in the floor - Leafield valves the best in the market - unique features and boat designs

• Stearns - for years Stearns offered kayaks with a PVC bladder and outer cover design - looking at the website today (2011) it appears that the Coleman/Stearns/Sevylor/Hodgman companies are now all part of the Coleman company - The Stearns name is now a lifejacket only brand

• Tributary - Aire's lower price line of quality kayaks - 1 year and 5 year warranties depending on model - if price is a factor then take a look at this brand