Mostly great
I took this inflatable kayak on a 7 days portage trip in the Algonquin Park. I’ve experimented with multiple paddling conditions and I think I can provide an honest review. First, I bought this two seat kayak with the intent of using it solo. It has plenty of room for gears and a large sized dog. It’s extremely stable. Having to lift it over multiple low beaver damns with the gear still in, I don’t think one could flip it unless they actually want to and try hard to do it. It’s very sturdy, good quality material and I wasn’t worried about perforating the kayak. It’s definitely not as fast as a hard shell, perhaps comparable speed to a solo canoe. It handles pretty well in mild current (lazy river speed) and I haven’t tried it in low grade rapids, although it is capable of handling them. Mediocre performance in the wind. Perhaps caused by the higher profile. For the portage, it holds pretty well even on longer portage. My number one issue is that it has to rest on the head, putting a lot of stress on the neck and the head. For a smaller portage (500m or less) it’s tolerable but anything more or multiple ones will cause huge strain. I haven’t heard back tried the paddles that were included with the kayak as I already had a 240cm one that I really like. Given the width, the long paddle is a must. I found that my kayak was pulling to the left and no matter how I reconfigured the gears or used it empty, it was still pulling. I will be reaching out to the company to trouble shoot the issue. Finally, it mostly held its pressure, having to only add a small amount of air every two days. The side compartments with 1psi of pressure were easy. The centre one, with 4psi was a little bit more problematic to reinflate. The one way valve would get stuck whenever I’d disconnect the pump letting a lot of pressure out. I found that being very gentle and making sure it was pulled perfectly vertical increased the success rate. Otherwise, I would have to pump again to the 4psi pressure. All in all, I think it’s a great inflatable for canoe/kayak camping trips, not so much for the portage part. I would recommend