I’m headed to sunny Florida for the holidays and want to try my inflatable tandem Air Strike kayak in the bay around Fort DeSoto park.
Has anyone ever tried a whitewater inflatable as a sea kayak? What was your experience?..
Inflatables in open water
There are some protected bays at Ft Desoto, and you will be fine there. On a calm day, you could easily paddle in the gulf. The danger is the amount of windage you have, and if a strong offshore breeze blows up, can you get back to shore.
About 15 years ago and father and daughter were blown offshore near St Joes State Park and never recovered. They were in an inflatable vinyl rowboat, the next step up from a pool toy, and not nearly as seaworthy as your boat, but…
Another option is rentals
Ft Desoto has onsite rentals of solo and tandem rec boats; costs a few nickels but it is an option.
You can also email me. It doesn’t take much to convince me to go out for a paddle if our schedules mesh; as an addicted paddler I of course have more than one boat .
3hrTour
Probably sluggish
White water IK’s are usually sluggish at sea or on flat water. I can’t give a first hand opinion on the Aire Strike because I never paddled this particular boat.
Here are some comments that might address your question :
http://www.theboatpeople.com/iks_tandem.html#airestrike2
(copy-paste this line because pnet cannot interpret it as an url)