Kayak, anyone?

That looks amazing! Last summer, we got out a couple of times with my sister in law and her family. They have a pair of small single seat kayaks and it was nice just paddling in a small calm area. I showed my wife your pic and she loves it, and the fact that it's inflatable means it would be easier for us to cart around. We have no intention of becoming serious kayakers, just want something we can push out into calm waters while taking a break from fishing.

I own a inflatable kayak, I’m gonna put it soon in one of my bicycle trailers and take it to the Ohio River, haven’t used it in a while.

They are harder to sink due to the air, but go slower. I got mine in San Diego when on my first leave just after Iraq, from a marine shop just across the airport, lugged it to a hotel and spent a few days paddling as old 18th century galleons shot cannons around me. I honestly thought I was suffering from PTSD while paddling hearing mortars going off behind me, saying it was all in my head, all in my head, and was really pissing me off as they kept getting louder and louder, then saw the two old fashion ships come on either side of me firing above me. I threw my paddle down and started cursing.

I’ve also carried it to creeks and gone down them- right after winter ends is a bad time because trees like to jam up the creeks in a tangle of logs and branches and I’m always afraid of losing a eye or popping the kayak. But once I arrive to where I want to be I deflate and carry it back no issue. Just 「fluffernutter」 washed away trees, they are your enemy.


Know the inflatable ones move slower than the normal ones. And unless it has a closed top it is technically a canoe. Don’t do any barrow rolls with little kids on board. I’m having a issue with my mountain bike I don’t know hot to fix (I got a rear storage attachment above the rear tire that won’t sit properly) so I don’t use it much. Until I figure that out I’m walking.

I live in the only town in the US that borders 3 states, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I did live in Cincinnati for a year, but didn’t really kayak there. They had a nice 5 story used book store though. My long term plan is to go to Youngstown and get dropped off and Kayak down that river to the Ohio, then head to my town. I am more likely to take my bicycle to Ohiopyle in PA and ride it back- the Pittsburgh to Washington DC bike trail ends in my town too. I gotta go find wherever transcontinental bicyclists go online to tell them the pedestrian walkway on our bridge is out, they gotta detour like- 15 miles to the north to enter Ohio now. I used to leave detailed instructions at the end of the trail (slag heap with a no trespassing sign) saying how to detour but this is much more complex.

Google wrong, think of it this way: you hit rapids, and loose your paddle, be it singular or double…. do you now enter into a existential crisis because you suddenly don’t know what to name the watercraft you are in? If someone calls 911 to report your dire straits is the operator going to demand to know the paddle type in order to get the description of the boat, saying without knowing the paddle they can’t tell the rescue team what to look for?

Kayak is a single seater (multi seaters have a different name I can’t recall) with covered tops. Typically used in Coker weather climates. In Alaska you can die from water exposure due to fresh water always being glacier fed or from a water table near the permafrost, and the oceans are rarely warmed. So they like Kayaks. I’m more southern climates it is more personal choice, a canoe is actually smarter. I know a danish guy who made a canoe out of a tarp and twigs, he is thinking of putting a tent heater he made from a pipe into it, something you can never do with a kayak due to much less storage. Commercial River fishermen historically would of looked at a kayak as something bizarre, unable to carry much gear or storage space.

So unless you are far north it really doesn’t matter unless doing a very specific sport. We just associate kayak as being more sporty for the same reason some think brown eggs are better than white- nutritionally they are identical. Someone just sold the west on the idea Kayaks are cool. But the inflatable versions as they currently stand are less cool than the solid versions when you go to paddle and keep up. I even bought this giant kite to attach to the front to throw up in the air and ride off a expanding fishing pole to act like a sail- it just plops in the water no matter how I did it. It is a disappointment in the socially cool department, but is fun solo for going places I expect to walk back home from carrying the bag.