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Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2024
I purchased this for a summer boat to use when my friends go kayaking on muddy, dirty Rivers.It has performed admirably thus far. Seems extremely durable. I think you would have to try to damage it. Anything short of a knife probably won't do anything to it. AThe skeg was extremely durable and was drug through the mud and gravel many times during its maiden voyage.Once inflated it is large and a bit too cumbersome for one person to easily deal with, I got many compliments on the features and stability of the craft .With the incredibly high weight limit and bulbous sides, getting in and out is easy as is standing up and moving around.I bought the electric inflator that they recommend and it made the whole process easy, I was ready to go just as quickly as the folks with hard shell kayaks were once we got to the water.
Diane Kiszonas
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2022
We love this kayak. It is made of a thick material but is not heavy. With the hand pump it inflates in about 15 minutes. We have used it on smooth water and choppy water and it handles both perfectly. The bottom fin does help in keeping the kayak steady. The seats are perfect. They are strong, comfortable, and help the paddler stay upright, therefore keeping the stability set. The skirt helps to keep the person who is paddling dry. We have used this on Lake Michigan. Due to the strong material, it will last a long time. It deflates easily. There are paddles which are easy to use. There is also a bag that is waterproof and once the kayak is folded the bag hooks on all four sides. I highly recommend this kayak!
Luis
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2014
I own this boat since a year now. It comes with all the stuff advertised on the picture (do not be missleaded by very old reviews from 2008 or 2010). To my understanding, even if you order from a 3th party seller, it is shipped by Sea-Eagle from New York.Anyway: If you buy it from the sea eagle website, then you get a 180 day free return option if you are not satisfied (but the boat has to be in a excellent re-sellable condition, so I would not count too much on that return option).What you receive: The boat looks excellent, it is made of PVC, don't let you misslead by all the different names. PVC is a compromise in durability and rigidity and lower price. Boats with better material might cost a few thousands. The pro seats are perfect for us (whitewater). The paddles are okay, they are heavier and very hard to deconstruct after usage (maybe you better put some oil to the connections). The bag is important. The repair kit is also essential, we already had to use it(!). The pump on the other side is a joke, because it is the WRONG pump for this boat. "Bravo" does construct very good pumps, but this one is the cheap version for boats up to 3 PSI pressure. The floor can be inflated up to 10 PSI. If you try to inflate the floor over 3 PSI with that pump, it will break into parts. Ours already broke. Why do they put the wrong foot-pump to the pro-package? This boat needs a "Bravo 9 Pump" for high pressure, and it should include a pressure gauge for only 5 bucks you get one.Oh, the skeg is also very usable, a must have item. We have two now, will tell you why later.Lets continue on the boat and its usability:We used the boat on lakes, rivers and the sea. We ran down the Rio Grande for 4 days and used it in higher waves in the Pacific Ocean (Mexico), we used it for whitewater (but only up to class II, maybe one or two class III rapids).On lakes the boat can be paddled very fast, it goes straigth with the skeg, and in circles without any skeg. It is extrem stable, of course you can stand up if the floor is inflated to around 7 PSI. On lakes a sail could be very useful, we once had so much wind that we only had to hold our paddles up above our had and the wind blew us fast into one direction on that lake. Back it was hard of course...but doable.On the sea: This boat is stable, little waves wont push it over. It was fun paddling straigth into a wave and virtually jumping over it. We had 3 people in the boat, and one person was swimming, but holding its hand on the rear (we pulled him trough the sea). So yes, the PVC itself can be used in salt-water. But be aware, that this salt will dry on all the other stuff. The seats will be soaked with salt, all that salt dries in the paddles (they are very hard to open then) and the salt water will dry in the metal clips of the seats which makes them hard to open later (yes, water goes INTO the clip, there is a hole with a spring). Anyway, it wont rust. you just need to shower the boat and all other stuff for at least 20 minutes with clean water.On mild Rivers: We paddled down the Rio Grande, just the Class I section. We packed up the boat with all our gear, including a tent, 8 gallons of water, sleeping backs, clothes, food, extra live vests...you need a lot of stuff. We had 3 sea-bags, two of the on the deck of the sterns. It looked very packed, but the boat was still easy to move around, and of course more stable than ever. A big problem on that rivers is, that they are very low (down to 2-3 inches). So we could not use our skeg. If you just float and you are not careful, the boat will start to turn around without a skeg. So the idea is that you buy a 2nd skeg, and cut it down to about 1 1/2 or two inches (make a mini skeg). This will help a lot and you can still float over the lower areas.On whitewater: This boat is definately made for whitewater. But you are sitting in a 2-person kajak, so do not expect to be as quick around some courves than those people in short single kajaks. One of my first tries was to capsize the boat (to see how stable it is), we moved to a small waterfall (2-3 feet), from down the river upwards. There I turned to the side and into the fall, to see how the boat will either be flipped over or filled with water. It got filled with wather to 1/3 and pushed away, but it never turned over.When going trough rough sections of whitewater you take in a lot of water. The boat is really missing some protection cover (spill cover). We also bougth the extra inflatable stern part, it makes the boat much more maneuverable (its lifted up in the front), but water is still coming in enough. Anyway, if you have opened all the drain valves then the water will run out in about ~30 seconds. Of course, if the boat is filled up to 60% with water, it is hard to maneuver for those first 15 seconds. Some part of the water can never run out, so you are sitting in cold water if you have the lower pro-seats.Is the material super durable?I have mixed feelings now. Of course, this is only PVC, so you can not expect this to be 100% secure. On the Rio Grande we were sitting with the boat on those little round rocks a few times (its more sand than rocks), even there we already collected a lot of smaller scratches, 1 or 2 of them going deeper into the first layer of the black material.On a Class II rapid, already when we left the rapid area, we gently (really slow) slid by a rock around a corner. the rock had a lot of alges on it, so I thought it is not dangerous (we had hit other rocks before, looking much sharper). But we already had our first puncture, air came out. (the puncture was so small that it would have taken many hours to deflate the boat, so we paddled on). We repaired that part with the repair kit. But I have mixed feelings about that repair kit, because it is not a 2-componet glue I do not expect this to hold very long (most people say ONLY 2 component glue will hold, everything else is crap). Maybe I have to buy a better glue somewhere.So if you hit a sharp rock at normal speed, you might have your first puncture very soon?4-stars:Foot pump is unusable with that boatA spill-protector for the front would be great (add-on part)Repair-glue is questionable (we will see...)