Inflatable Kayaks

Recently moved out to TN and there's lots of beautiful places to hop into the water. Got a new girlfriend and we both want to start floating. I have a roof rack and could do a real kayak, but storage in the home is more of the concern. I'm thinking about picking up a couple of these bad boys from Advanced Elements and wondered what you guys thought.
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I'm leaning towards this one, though. \/\/\/\/
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I live 2 minutes from a lake and a river and would like to do both. It'd be nice if I felt like I could do some decent whitewater, too, just some class 3 stuff. I know they're more than adequate for the lake, but worry about going over rocks in the rivers.

prolly tough enough for river rocks, they seem to think they are 'extremely durable'...the rigid frame w/inflatable over it will make for a lot better/stiffer boat than a Sevylor or similar. They'd probably be fine up to Class III, but obviously if it flips you're swimming. They'd be great on the Nantahala and other similar...

Save your money and keep looking, get a couple tubes in the mean time.

If you can wait, the end of season is not far away and local outfitters sell off rentals for good discounts. Pick a recreational kayak or maybe an Aire ik. I have a used Thrillseeker for my ducky needs.

Check your local CL or any whitewater clubs in the area.

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Originally Posted by scottyb

Save your money and keep looking, get a couple tubes in the mean time.

If you can wait, the end of season is not far away and local outfitters sell off rentals for good discounts. Pick a recreational kayak or maybe an Aire ik. I have a used Thrillseeker for my ducky needs.

Check your local CL or any whitewater clubs in the area.

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Keep looking for what? Some used inflatable kayaks? I have a friend that always has a couple for sale that are well used, still usable and cheap, but these things look like the real deal, especially with the spine you can throw in. Storage is my main concern, and these pack away in a weekend size duffel bag.

Edit: NVM, just googled the thrillseeker and Aire. So you're saying these are better than the Advanced Elements?

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Originally Posted by guroo270

Edit: NVM, just googled the thrillseeker and Aire. So you're saying these are better than the Advanced Elements?

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Yes, by far. Something else you may want to check out is the shredder. Its a high performance R2 which can be paddled solo.

If your thinking about doing any whitewater boating, get something that is self bailing. I have two IKs, a Sotar solo boat and an Aire Lynx II tandem boat, The Aire can be paddled solo if I want to by moving the seat to another set of clips in the center of the boat. IKs are not the best boat for flat water (slow, hard to keep straight, and get blown around by the wind) but I do use mine several times a week in the Puget sound without any problems other than one small cut from a barnacle on the outer skin of the Aire.

I had a chance in '07 to buy a new Advanced Elements at cost and I'm glad I did. It is still on active duty has been in many rivers and lakes and gone overseas and back by plane. It's held up really well through countless packing/unpacking, storing situations and never creased, kinked or developed a leak. It is the most comfortable kayak you will ever own and it does most of what you want to do admirably. Tracks pretty well and accepts a skirt. If you fab a post to hold up the deck (a liter bottle will do) you can keep the boat very dry.

Feel free to call me out, but I went ahead and bought a SeaEagle 370.
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It's probably a little too high profile and will get blown around a bit, but I thought about it, and the majority of the rivers here are shielded from wind, very tame, and I didn't have $1k for a SeaEagle Explorer series or Aire or whatever. I figured this has a little extra room for my pup and some camping gear, too, so now I can make a weekend trip and camp by a rope swing.

180 day return policy is a nice feature, too.

Returning said kayak. Gonna be keeping my eyes peeled for a sweet deal.

ya that's a piece of crap, good one to return...;)

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Originally Posted by Tye 1on

ya that's a piece of crap, good one to return...;)

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I just used one of those a half dozen times on a quiet ADK lake and it saved me from having to put a mount on the car. Easy up and down and perfect for use with my 10 and 12 year old girls. It has its place.

Look into a packraft.

^^ Alpackas are badass

I found a sweet video of some dudes doing some pretty rad shit in what I assume is an Alpaca pack raft... anyone know where that link is? I could be into that.

Packraft is a good vehicle for expeditions, lot of guys use them with fat bikes for distance trips to know where. Mostly for crossing rivers or bays. They can be real sporty running rivers. They is not cheap either.