Hi,
I came accross this model in 1 person & 2 person.
I’ve never seen something like this before. They seems to be around for quite a while in Europe but never heard of them in the US. On the paper, it looks awesome. Did any of you test it and can provide feedback?
1Person
2 person
Decathlon makes private labels sports products and has retailers throughout much of Europe. We had a couple of their stores in the SF Bay Area, but they shut down a year or so ago.
Kind of like EMS or REI if they were still around/focused on their own private label stuff. They cover lots of different sports, from team sports to water sports.
Many of their products would come in 3 different levels - they called it something like like good, better, best - with corresponding price increase. Not sure I always saw a benefit to the higher price for the higher levels. I do have some products here of theirs (no inflatable boats/boards) and they seem OK.
Can’t comment specifically on the boat in question. Looks interesting to see it is covered deck, like a sea kayak. But I suspect it still would act like an inflatable kayak in how it paddles (floats on water so slow and very impacted by winds).
With 15 years in with inflatable kayaks, I don’t have to test it to tell you it’s a good choice as far as being an inflatable tourer goes(I’ll let others here make their case for hard boats/folders) mainly because of two reasons: Drop stitch technology and a V shaped hull. (I’ll skip the weight/portability aspects/price aspects.)
About a dozen years ago, I had an inflatable kayak that got one side of it’s PVC tubes slashed on some razor wire that some idiot discarded in our local river. Previously the boat had stood up to all kind of sharp rocks, bangs, and drops without any kind of damage. But steel razor wire was a whole 'nother smoke. After my discovered slashing, the boat’s only saving grace was it’s drop stitch floor ( a relatively new technology at the time). The tubular hull was unsalvageable. Being marooned in the middle of a boulder filled bear country stream, with my partners now far ahead of me, I had only one option to rejoin them and make it home: I abandoned the damaged hull, cut out the very stiff drop stitch floor, and body surfed the remaining miles to the take out.
At the time I thought, “Someone should make an entire kayak out of this drop stitch technology.” And with the model you’re enquiring about, looks to me some smart people did.
