Inflatable Kayak Review - Advanced Frame Inflatable Kayak

Here is a customer review of the Advanced Frame Inflatable Kayak - look how much he wrote!

"Emily:
It was fantastic experience for using the Advanced Element kayak. After a few padding trips in the Bobbin Heads I know how to handle the kayak.

Every time I dropped my kayak into Cowan Creek in Bobbin Head , a lot of people ask me about the inflatable kayak, How good it is? Where to buy it?
Of course I told them to order from OZ inflatable kayak web site and the kayak is a very good one and perform very well in water.

The family having fun with fishing on the shore asked me about the kayak.
A guy with a hard body kayak stopped me in the middle of the river and asked me a lot of question about the kayak and touched it and asked me to give him a try.
A group of bush walking team from the shore asked me to stopped and asked me about the kayak and took a photo of my kayak.

Just to share some experiences that may help you to sell the Advanced Element Frame kayak :

1.        Do not buy any electric bump , use the large Hand double action pump, it costs about $35-65 It only took 2-3 min to pump it up. I used 2 electric pumps and never able to pump it up in full. Because of that, I gave up 1 or 2 trips and had brought 2 electric pumps, 1 foot pump before I was told by my friend in Queensland to use the Double Action Hand bump.

2.        Tell your buyer to make sure to inflate the inflatable "floor" last and make sure put it into the centre of the kayak, otherwise the kayak will go  more to right or left all the time  depends on the wrong position of the inflatable floor.  This tip has been mentioned in the User manual. Once it is at the correct position, the speed of the kayak is extremely  good. It is similar to the hard body kayak. I had a 200 M competition with a guy with a hard body sit on top kayak at the river and I won!

3.        The user manual does not describe the "right" way of using air valve.  Do not push  the middle pin into the valve or turn it for air pumping. The pin should up right for air pumping such that the air can be  pumped into the kayak.  Otherwise we will never bump the air into the kayak in full. You can imagine by using a wrong electric pump plus do not understand how to use the valve, I took 2 weeks with multiple experiments  to find out the right way to do it. Only pushing the pin down for releasing the air only. It may need to turn the pin (right or left ) and push down at the same time to release the air out.  Because of the valve design, we do not need to buy a hand pump with the air pressure gauge.

4.        If we pump too much air into the kayak, we cannot  zip up the zippers. This issue has been mentioned in the Advanced Element Web Site in US so just release the air out from the kayak will fix the problem.

5.        It is better to sell the kayak with a right Double action hand pump (and paddle, PDF) as  a package so that people do not need to buy those items from the shop separately and having the similar problems like me. The electric pump on your website does not work for Advanced Elements

6.        Last Sunday I took the kayak out to the "Sea", it cut through the waves very well.        

The kayak is a very good product and I enjoy very much with it every weekend with my wife and my son, We have 3 inflatable kayaks , the other 2 are the Stearns one. They are also very good as well, but slower than Advanced Elements.

Regards, Donald"

Advanced Elements Straitedge2 Inflatable Kayak Review

"Hi Emily,

The Straitedge 2 Inflatable Kayak.....

    We find this kayak well suited to our needs. We are not serious "heavy duty" kayak adventurers, but rather like taking our 4 wheel drive / camping "set up" to a beautiful, remote location and then enjoy "mucking about" on a river, lake or beach in our kayak. Often we find ourselves in a location that requires some walking to the water's edge and then a difficult launch. The Straitedge is ideal for this, as we can carry it in through the bush uninflated, and being a little flexible when inflated can be easily launched over a slippery, muddy embankments.

    Often we are away on these trips for weeks (or months) at a time travelling large distances, and having the kayak safely, securely stowed away in the back of the 4 wheel drive is a huge advantage over having an awkward, vulnerable and expensive, "hard" kayak strapped to one's roof.

    The Straitedge is extremely comfortable for either one or two persons, extremely easy to assemble and inflate. The inflation process is much easier than we expected, although having no pressure gauge we found getting the correct pressures took some experience (we are still not sure we have it absolutely right). The Straitedge is easy to handle and furthermore, our dog loves it! She sits up the front, nose to the wind asserting her majesty over everything and anything. She has even, on occasion, taken a nap curled up against the front bulkhead. The Straitedge is great for lying around in whether on water or land.

    Our only criticism is that we find making the Kayak go straight difficult. We have found that increasing the air pressure has helped, as has our paddling technique. Each time we launch ourselves upon another "kayaking adventure" we find that our paddling has improved a little (mind you, our first attempts in this regard were embarrassingly feeble)"

- John & Brenda, Melbourne