ADVANCED ELEMENTSAdvancedFrame Inflatable Kayak with Bag and Pump

I have always enjoyed kayaking and have been paddling for over 5-6 years now. Every time there was weekend plan for a beach or a river or any water body, I'd spend a lot of time looking up places where you could rent a kayak without having to go through the trouble of lugging it on top of my car. I also hated the fact that most of nice little remote, but beautiful spots for kayaking had no kayak rentals for miles! Hence, the search of a kayak of my own began a few weeks back and because of all the obvious reasons (portability, performance vis-a-vis other inflatables, the whole hybrid factor, space constraint to store a hard-shell and of course, affordability) - I zeroed in on the AE AdvancedFrame Inflatable Kayak.I got a good deal on Amazon.com - the whole package, 96" paddles, kayaking friendly PFD (life vest), AE dual-action hand pump along with the kayak so it made sense. No backbone.Sure enough, the entire stuff reached within 3 days of my ordering it. I was tracking it online so I made sure I left work a tad earlier so I could take it out for a quick test-run in river close by. Reading from reviews online, it made sense to set up the whole thing within the apartment once - so I don't spend time figuring things out in the open. Definitely a good idea and I familiarized myself with the whole process in about 15-20 minutes. Instructions are pretty comprehensive and it comes all assembled, just lay it out and inflate! After this I deflated the kayak and hauled it to the river nearby and in set it up again in under 10 minutes. I chose a spot with at least a 1 ft depth to launch my kayak so I can take the whole rocks/tree branches thing out of the equation.This thing is really stable, sturdy and the paddling experience - at least in a mild river, was pretty close to a hard-shell. The seat (without any additional cushion) is comfortable (max. I tried till now is 2 hrs or so). The ease of maneuverability and tracking is quite decent. Once I got in to a rhythm, the kayak moved very effortlessly. Overall experience on the first time on water - extremely positive!After waiting it out due to really windy conditions, I decided to take the kayak out on the same river but on a different stretch of water slightly down stream. The first thing I noticed was the choppy waters due to the wind and the rocky bottom at the launch site. The last thing I wanted was to damage the kayak or the tracking fin because of the rocks but then I decided to wade a couple of meters towards slightly deeper water before getting in to the kayak. Again, the AE AdfancedFrame kayak performed well in very strong winds and choppy waters. Of course, had I been in a hard-shell, am sure paddling against the wind would have been relatively easier but honestly, I don't think that's a fair comparison. Still, I guess the loss of performance could not be more than 15-20% at the most. Considering that it is NOT a hard-shell, that is perfectly acceptable to me. Now as I was nearing the shore to exit the kayak, I ran over some very nasty rocks that I could literally feel them underneath. Expecting the worst, when I turned the kayak over - there was absolutely no damage barring a few tiny surface scratches - which even a hard-shell would have suffered had it run over those rocks. Nothing at all in terms of any damage, which speaks volumes of the quality of the construction I believe. I had loads of fun once again.Observations,1) Make sure you get long-ish length paddles (96" / 230 cms or more)2) Get a pump with a gauge to make sure you don't over inflate the kayak chambers3) While this kayak is pretty sturdy, why launch it in a place with sharp rocks etc?4) The area behind the seat is decent to store stuff but I can see the utility of a deck-bag5) The life vest (PFD) should allow good arm movement - greatly affects overall experienceThis seems like a very good buy based on the first 2 runs and I am now really looking forward to the summer :)

Really happy with it!For the price point, this is a very good kayak!When it is inflated it is very rigid, it is easy to handle, and very maneuverable.We are casual kayakers, usually traveling in an RV. The kayak fits in its own reasonably sized bag and stows easily. It weighs less than 30lbs.I like the highly visible color!It’s big enough to fit our medium sized dog in it too.Ample storage space for tackle, camera equipment, cooler, etc.So far, it’s been very durable too.We like it so much we bought a second one so we can go out together!

This boat met all my expectation and then some. I used to do some white-water kayaking but these days mostly want to paddle around on lakes and such. I just got this kayak about 10 days ago. Did a quick float on a lake and then took it on a week-long river trip. On the lake trial run, I realized a couple useful things. First and foremost, I really like the kayak! You should know that the 12V electric pump, will not be able to fully inflate the kayak. It says that in the Kayak manual, but I didn't know that when I ordered it and didn't have anything else to use on this first attempt. I also didn't have the backbone in on this first float. Still even though it was somewhat under-inflated, it performed pretty well on the lake. I didn't like sitting down that low, and my butt sank even further down than normal due to the under-inflation. Also made the paddle angle kind of weird - every stroke kind of like a sweep. It tracked well on the lake and was still fun.So for the week-long raft trip, I had a hand pump, the backbone installed, and a 3" canoe cushion to sit on. The kayak was well inflated and I was sitting up higher, which is more comfortable for my back. It was a blast! We were on a pretty flat stretch of the Colorado River, but there were still a few class 2 rapids to play in. As one might expect trying to surf waves in a kayak with a keel is pretty challenging, but still fun to try. It did great just running the class 2 rapids. The only problem was that I didn't have a spray skirt in and took on a lot of water over the bow in the waves. It still performs great even with a fair amount of water in it. It is very stable. Emptying it is a little tricky, but the standard kayak rocking on the shore will work pretty well. I am definitely going to get a spray skirt for it. BTW, the canoe on our trip took in even more water on the same level of rapids and didn't handle well at all until we could get it pulled over to the shore and bailed. No big surprise there, but definite points for this kayak.The other cool thing about it that even though it performs well as a kayak, it is so stable, that I could slip out of it on the river and lay down on the top like a lounger or hang my feet over one side and relax. Also, I could put one of the kids on the trip sitting on the cargo area in front of me and paddle them around. I love this boat!With all the internal pieces parts, it is a little hard to get all the the river sand and debris cleaned out of. I totally took it apart after the trip. For my more typical lake kayaking, this won't be as big a problem.------------------------------------Later took this boat on a week-long sailing trip in the San Juan Islands. Because it packs into such a small package, some friends tossed it in the back of their car for me to get it out there. I stowed it in the dingy while I wasn't using it and took it out early every morning to paddle around the areas where we anchored. Strapped my morning tea to the front cargo area. Because it is so stable, I sometimes just slipped into it wearing my pajamas. Always smooth water, so I don't know how it handles in rougher seas. It tracks so well, I could take a couple strokes and then silently glide in the morning San Juan quiet while sipping my tea. Had to top it off every couple days, so make sure you take you pump with you for multi-day adventures. No surprise. The manual mentions you may have to adjust inflation. Hard to dry out thoroughly at the end of the trip. Count on having to completely disassemble it to get it completely clean and dry. Not that big a deal once in a while.