Training and choosing kayaks

We initially began training on standard plastic hulled kayaks with the intention of using these on the mekong. However, it soon became clear that organising shipping to thailand, and transporting them to the starting point, would be a major headache. Even buying kayaks their and then shipping them back was going to be prohibitively expensive. 

Rental options were not available either as

 no firm was going to let us rent a kayak in Thailand for four weeks and paddle 700km down into Laos. Furthermore, with transport costs it would have been nearly as much as buying one. So our attention soon come to rest on inflatable kayaks that we could take in and out ourselves.

We shopped around extensively in sydney, looking at all the general retail options and also what was available online. Eventually we narrowed it down to two options, the Sevylor and Airis inflatable kayaks. 

The Airis Kayaks we discovered at a great kayaking store on the Pittwater in Sydney's north called Paddlecraft. We were able to try out the Kayaks immediately on the water and see how they performed. I have to say I was extremely impressed!! They tracked very well, were comfortable and appeared durable. At the store we tried out the 10 foot version and I was initially hesitant for two reasons. Firstly I was worried about space as, unlike normal sit in kayaks their wasnt lots of obvious space inside sealed bulkheads for stowing gear like you find in standard touring kayaks. Secondly they were quite pricey. 

At this point  we decided to first try out the other option and see how the kayaks compared in the water. The high performance sevylor kayaks retail for about half the price of the Airis kayaks and I managed to find a second hand Sevylor SVXDS100 going very cheap  and bought it to try out. This kayak is advertised as the top of the line high performance inflatable kayak. It is 10.4 feet long and designed to handle white-water well and according to the Sevylor website can still be "easily paddled in a straight line". When we tried it out, it seemed very durable but was simply not suitable for what we had in mind. It did not track well at all and it required a lot of effort to keep it going straight. Furthermore it had much less storage space than the Airis kayak and weighed more (Airis sport 11 =9.5kg! and Sevylor DS100 = 11kg)

With this in mind we decided to go for the Airis Kayaks. They performed superbly when we tested them and with the 11 foot models we were able to alleviate any concerns about storage space.

The next stage was to load them up with gear and take them for a few training trips down the Hawkesbury river!!

After taking them for a day on the Hawkesbury with one fully loaded with gear (15kg of gear) we were very impressed and happy with our choice!!

Strapping down gear to the front and back is easy and does not noticeably affect the performance in the water. The great point about Airis inflatable kayaks is that, with a working pressure of 7psi, they remain completely rigid when in the water and track very well.

With time running out, we are now frantically organising the final logistics and checking our inventory before departing from Sydney on 31st December.

We expect to be on the water in far North Thailand by 3rd of January!