Ultimate Inflatable Kayak

I've waited ages for this to come along! An inflatable Kayak that doesn't fold up around your ear when you hit the waves with it! I subscribe to the inflatable kayak because it's easy to store and cart around. Years ago, I inherited a Sevylor and that was the best there was. The Airis is way different from anything before.

I spotted this while at the Miami Boat Show and what caught my attention was that it was almost as hard as a rigid boat. To inflate a 'normal' inflatable to this level would end in disaster. What Walker Bay has done is to create a whole new skin technology. It's hard to explain but when you look in the Air-Web window, you'll see millions of fibres linking the deck skin to the hull skin. The fibres look to be aramid in nature, i.e. lightweight and super-strong.

The Air-Web allows load to be dispersed across a wider area... sort of like the trellis frame does on the Ducati. It's light and stiff, and allows the Airis to carry 4 x the inflation pressure of the average inflatable.

It comes complete with double action pump, fits in its own backpack, weighs about 8 kgs and will go anywhere and do anything.

So how does it go?

We tried it in flatwater on a lake 20 minutes north of KL and it glides effortlessly across still water. It tracks true and straight, mainly thanks to the tandem twin fin arrangement on the back. But it does behave more like a rigid boat than a blow-up!

Then I put it in the back seat of the Ford and drove it to Kuantan. Kuantan, at this time of the year, is relatively flat water but come September, well, the surf starts rolling in. On the day in question, there was a small beach break...small being the operative word. 7 minutes with the pump and it was ready to go.

The Airis was real easy to get on to the small surf and, as the photos show, besides being fun, will support the weight of a man standing in the middle of it. If I tried that on my other kayak, it would simply fold in the middle and go nowhere!

Having it backpack-able is great for me as it does mean that conceivably, it will fit on the back seat of the Ducati - although it would look real weird! Malaysia has got some great rivers that are just begging to be explored. I came across a couple of old Aussie diggers that had re-opened a gold mine in Kuala Lipis (geographic centre of Malaysia) and they had built a raft to go down the river there for weekend entertainment.

There's also the huge river at Pekan, the old Royal Capital. I was riding the Duc' through Pekan on one of my many sorties up the East Coast. Two things struck me - 1) it was far cleaner than the average Malaysian small town and 2) it has the Watercraft Museum there and that's a real treat as it has virtually the complete history of Malaysian watercraft dating back 1,500 years. The Pekan River is just begging for an 'exploratory' trip, but for that, we'll need to have a few RIBs on hand as it's probably a week-long venture!

Simply put, now that we've had a try of the Airis, we're off in search of some more action. There's 4 kayaks in the range - 2 'Play' and 2 'Sports' models. The Play models are shorter and designed for mucking about in waves or otherwise. The Sports are longer and have more carry capacity, including 2 racks with a bungee net arrangement and a bag like whitewater rafting bags built right into the back section of the hull.

A lot of thought has gone into the making of this kayak. It's light, robust, packs up small and, price-wise, is a bargain, considering the quality. It costs US$ 850 - 1,000, depending on the model.

The next adventure is to hit some decent waves with it, but I'm thinking of wake surfing with it, i.e. endless wave..!