SevylorQuickPak K5 24 Gauge PVC Polyester 1 Person Inflatable Kayak w/Hand Pump, Paddle, Double Lock Valves and Easy To Carry Backpack System, Gray

This is a cleverly design kayak and carrying/storage package. This brand, Sevylor, was bought out by Coleman who does not allow returns, so be sure this is the one you want. I would read all the reviews here on Amazon...they were very helpful to me. I like the zip in "apron" that covers your legs and prevents them from burning and also prevents water from collecting in the boat from splash and from the paddles. And because of it, the cockpit is nice and large and makes it easy to get in and out of. And since you really can't tip this boat over, you can really roll out of the kayak if you must. It will keep you afloat even if it is a bit of a dog in the water. Fast it is not. Stable it is. The backpak becomes the seat and has buckles to keep your back nicely supported. Like I said, it is cleverly designed.The attached skeg under the stern is worthless and really a detriment, as it bends over when the boat is rolled up for packing and even when you are inflating the kayak and it sits on the ground. It is difficult to straighten, even if you store it such a way to let it be straight...it just bends over again when inflating. Like another reviewer, I just cut it off with a big kitchen knife leaving about an inch and it tracks just fine.This is a wide kayak,34", so takes a long paddle. I recommend a 240 cm and I am only 5'2". I have a 220cm for my narrow river kayaking but using it with this boat meant I was paddling non-stop. I think the one that comes with it is only a 220...I never used it...looked too flimsy though it is designed to break down and slip into the side pockets of the backpack. Again, if you are hiking into where you want to kayak, this is a clever package.The outer skin does not fit the inner, inflated tubes tightly so don't expect that. It wasn't designed to. It does shield the inflated parts from the sun's heat and protects your arms as well from hot plastic when resting. You inflate the bow and stern first and if you have a gauge (I bought one for this kind of push-in valve), the right pressure leaves it feeling too soft, but once you inflate the inner tubes and the floor, it comes right. Be sure to use the hand pump to deflate the boat, to pull all the air out. It is easy to fold up then and the backpack is very ample and can even takes my vest.Others have asked and owners have answered that this model does not have self-bailing valves but in fact it does...two at your feet. Which means that the water "bails" out of the inflatable sections and is held by the outer skin. THAT MEANS that when it comes to drying your kayak before folding it up to store, you must either leave the kayak out in the sun and air, slightly deflating it of course, and flipping it over so the sun will bake the bottom of the outer skin evaporating the collected water, OR you must deflate all the sections after you have dried the inside and pull it out of the outer skin, flip it and dry the bottom and dry out the inside of the outer skin. If that sounds like a lot of work, it is, so leave it in the sun if you can. I live in a high rise apartment building, so unless I have the time to let it "bake" I have to do all this hand drying. I intend too seal up these little bailing holes because there is an indentation for your feet and that will hold what little water gets in when you enter the boat, hopefully solving the water between the skin and the inflated parts problem.Since I am a 73 y.o., fit, woman, all in all, this is probably the best kayak for the money and for my city life style. It is easy to get in and out of and I feel very secure in it, even in the fast current of the Mississippi (MN). Inflated, it is very light and easy to carry to the shore to launch. I have done fast river kayaking, so this much slower vessel feels a bit pokey but getting the right length of paddle, and cutting the skeg down has helped a lot. Since I could not return it, I had to find other solutions to make it more of a kayak and less of an inner tube....and I did. And now, I am glad.

My experience hasn't lined up much with many of the reviews that ultimately swayed me to purchase this little kayak. In my mind I thought I would be taking a big step up from my Intex Challenger K1 which, while a quite fun and easy to use bargain, never seemed like much more than the most entry-level of inflatable kayaks. Unfortunately, I found most all of the practical aspects of this boat to be inferior to the Intex, which at 1/4 of the price is a steal.I took this boat out twice, once for a 3 hour calm lake paddle, and then the next day for a 6 hour lazy river float with a couple of class I-II rapids. I had taken the exact same river float in the Intex K1 a month prior.First off, this boat really, really wedges you into a confined seating position with zero leg room, one that I could never get entirely comfortable with. Even after inflating & deflating three times, completely taking the bladder out and making sure it was precisely aligned within the tarpaulin outer shell, trying many different seating alignments, pumping it up yet again trying two different inflation sequences (which I thought was important, because the manual blatantly contradicts itself about this within the first five pages)--this thing is just not fun to be in. I'm 5' 9' with a 30 inch inseam-- not exactly giant material, and much more average than some of these 6 ft + tall people claiming it's practically a lazy-boy. I found the Intex to be much more open and accommodating, especially on the long river float. I could see a 6 footer in the Intex, but I wouldn't recommend more than 5' 6' or 5' 7' in the Quikpak.I swear this is not an Intex plug, just my objective comparison of the two, perhaps slightly colored by my overriding feeling of disappointment with the Coleman Quikpak.My next issue is the tracking on this boat was atrocious. The non-detachable rubber skeg molded onto the taurpaulin outer shell was very lopsided out of the box, and many attempts to right it never met with lasting success, as the pliable rubber always seemed to come to rest ultimately askew. Even with careful packing in its backpack, the way the skeg is designed it seems like this would be a recurrent problem. The hard plastic skeg on the Intex is detachable, and so is always perfectly straight when installed. In the Quikpak I couldn't even float for 5 seconds without veering sharply or turning circles. This made casual coasting, sipping a beverage, wildlife/bird watching, or trying to take a picture frustrating--and again, just not that fun.Then there's the seat. It is super thin with very little support, and the bright neon green color seems primed to show contrasty mud and other stains almost immediately. Since the seat is also the backpack this seems like a poor choice. I couldn't make it more than an hour in this seat without lots of fiddling around and repositioning, and then still being uncomfortable. The very simple if slightly PITA inflatable seat of the Intex was definitely more comfortable, especially for the longer float.And then there's the outfitting. This is where I found the pictures to be somewhat misleading, as I think the bungees and D-rings on the zip-on spray skirt are purely for show. The skirt decking has no tautness or inflated structure at all, such that anything at all you put on top of the kayak droops down and essentially sits right down in your lap. I wouldn't want to keep much of anything on it, certainly not a small cooler or anything above a single small pair of binoculars or a waterproof cellphone. You combine that worthlessness with the claustrophobia wedge that the skirt really, really traps you into, and I soon found myself keeping it uninstalled and shoved between the bladder and the outer shell. And if it's at all hot and sunny, as it was on both days I went out (low 90s), then forget about it--insta-sweaty leg/crotch city right there.Okay, this screed is too long already, so I'll just jump to the last salient issue that annoyed the crap out of me: the 2 part bladder/taurpaulin shell design is a real SOB to deal with. Think long and hard about how important this level of portability/ease of storage really is to you, because you're going to spend a whole lot of time post-use drying and wiping this thing out. And if you do it right you're basically doing it twice: taking the inner bladder out and totally reinflating it so you can wipe it out and leave it in the sun to dry out for a day, and then separately dumping the water out of and wiping out the outer shell before you find another large area in the sun to dry it for a day. If you don't do this every time you use the boat it will mildew inside. And then after that day in the sun, you're still not done. You then have to reinsert the bladder and make sure it is properly aligned, which isn't a 30 second job, and then after that fold everything perfectly enough that the whole package fits in its little backpack. For me this kinda zaps the fun out of using the Quikpak, and I think it would dissuade me from using it as frequently as I had hoped.All of this negative critique aside, with the complete exception of the paddle (POS) the quality of the materials at least seemed to be pretty high. The outer shell seemed sturdy and the canvas top is definitely a step up from the Intex. And the whole backpack idea is pretty cool.If you are an exceedingly patient women or petite man of below average height for whom easy storage and transport are paramount and you have no qualms about maintaining a high paddle cadence to compensate for dismal tracking--I could maybe recommend this boat to you. What I would probably do instead is recommend you take your money and sit on it until you have enough to buy a used one-piece hardshell or a modular hardshell if you absolutely have to keep it small.I've returned this boat.

Love the compactness and the ingenuity to wrap it all into a backpack. It inflates easy enough but I use a rechargeable air pump to get me to 70% and then I top it off with the hand pump. The leg room is a bit snug around the sides. I'm 5'7", 160lbs with a slim but athletic build. I imagine heavier people would not feel very comfortable inside this. It's lightweight, which is both a plus and minus as it tends to drift with each stroke, unlike heavier and longer kayaks that cut straight through the water. Don't expect to break any speed records in this thing. Also, ditch the provided paddle. It's a joke. Grab yourself any decently rated paddle on Amazon and you'll be so much better off. All-in-all, I do like this kayak and have used it a number of times already. It's a fun little toy that I can easily store in my apartment until it's needed.

I am pleasantly surprised, like this more than I thought I would. I have had a Perception Carolina for close to 18 years and my wife has had an Old Town Otter for at least a decade. Long story short we bought a pair of these to make it easier to bring Kayaks while camping. Very nice in that they are entirely self contained, although there is the possibility (remote) of losing the skirt but since it is an integral part of the backpack I consider that pretty slim. As a backpack it is rather large but the the weight is manageable. Seat instructions are a little confusing at first but overall set-up is very easy. In the water they are adequate, definitely suit the purpose but will not win any speed races. They are very comfortable while paddling (you are sitting on and surrounded by air after all ) and worked out better than I thought they would. My one complaint is the lack of foot space in the cockpit, I am 6'1" with size 12 1/2 feet and there was essentially room for one foot. I paddled with my legs out so it was much like using a sit on top, my wife preferred that position anyway so it was all good. I did not try the included paddle as I already have a very nice Werner paddle and can't speak to the quality of the included one. For what it is, it is a nice package, I will not compare to the Carolina as they are entirely different animals and this is between 1/3 and 1/4 less than the cost of the Perception 18 years ago. I love the portability and ease of set-up, breaking down into the backpack is straightforward just take your time and be methodical. Tt took me about 25 minutes per kayak to pump the air out, clean them up and fold them into the backpack.

This is the third inflatable kayak I've owned. It's also the most I paid for one, and the worst of the 3 I've had. To start with the pros:* It's fast to set up* Very comfortable while allowing a variety of seating preferences.* The storage compartment doubles as a cooler* Drain ports are easy to use* Should be able to handle some pretty rough waters well* Backpack feature opens this to more adventurous trips* Rides pretty straight for an inflatable* The hand pump blows up on both the push and pull, which makes a big difference in how quickly you can get it on the water.A lot of that sounds pretty good, but here's what brought the score down:* The cloth exterior gets wet very easily, and stays wet. I tried to spray it with something to make it waterproof, which hardly helps at all.* The paddles are practically useless.* While the backpack feature is nice, it's way too much of a hassle if you fold it back up right after getting out of the water, which to me, defeats the purpose of it being a backpack.* The valves, while not bad, are not as good as the Boston valves that some other inflatables use.* The biggest con is how slow this is. I can't figure out why this is so slow compared to others I've used.