As many in the colder parts of the US near the end of summer vacation and start to send the kids off to school, many of us are just not ready to put all that summer gear away just yet. There are still plenty of good days left to get out on the water, and I’m sure not ready to concede. If you were like so many during those COVID days, you might have found it in yourself to buy a boat, kayak, or inflatable like a stand up paddleboard (SUP) or kayak to pass the social distancing time. The price may have been a little more than our standard fiberglass kayak, but our family pulled the trigger on both an inflatable kayak and SUP.
Personally, I was a little hesitant to trust my life to that of what I assumed was a soft raft like many of us grew up using in the neighbor’s pool. You know, the ones that had seams that could fillet a fish and corners that would temporarily blind you if you took one to the eye. If you were lucky enough, you’d get one with the smooth vinyl underside and a pleasurable felt material on the opposite side. Most of these either fell victim to the summer sun or to cousin Timmy attempting to surf with no success. However, I was quite surprised when unpackaging our SUP. The material now being used on these products is just top notch compared to years past. In addition to being durable, we no longer needed to have annoying roof racks or trailers to haul these around. These were perfect…but so I thought.
FIRST INFLATION ATTEMPT: Using the provided hand pump and efficient Halkey-Roberts style valve (remember this name), I began to pump away, excited to get on the water. I was still feeling pretty good after a few minutes of pumping, but then it became a tag team effort. My arms were exhausted, I was sweating, concerned about stroking out, and the board barely had the shape of board. My kids eventually came over and took over pumper role. They were able to get the pressure past the zero psi range and up to around 10 psi until their arms gave out. At this point, I was rested and enjoyed watching do some work for once. However, we still needed another 5 psi in this to get on the water. Let me tell you, the last 5 psi are miserable. Do not try this unless you’re with your cross fit friend that enjoys a challenge or some other capable body. It definitely was not a good start to the day.
FIRST USE: Once inflated, this SUP was fantastic. The board material was firm and grippy and the attachment points for a shoulder strap made carrying the board to the water much easier than I thought. In the water, everyone enjoyed trying to stand, surf, or just paddle on their knees. The board flipped, held multiple adults and children, and provided many hours of enjoyment. At this point, we were all really satisfied with the purchase.
But wait, it needs to be deflated? Here we go again. After a slight panic, I released the valve and the air quickly came out of the board. After a couple folds and rolling around on the ground to get the air out, we were able to get the board folded up and back into the bag.
I thought to myself, there must be a better way to do this. Maybe an electric pump? Oh yes, there was a pump on the Bote website, but it was $200…a price that really was not in the budget for the day. So then the search began for something easier but not as pricey. What I found was a rechargeable high volume pump on Harbor Freight’s page. At the time, I was able to get the pump, battery, and charger for about $50. This was a little more affordable at the time and sounded like the perfect solution. I picked up the pump, charged the battery, and thought I was ready to go…No go. The fittings that came with the pump did not fit the SUP. Not good. So off to Amazon I went. For what, I wasn’t sure. Just knew it was valve for a SUP. Then I found the name. HALKEY-ROBERTS! Oh yes, the flood gates opened. So many options were now available. I picked up the valve on Amazon that attached to the new Bauer Pump, one that had a bike pump stem, and also a pressure gauge. I was ready now.
2ND INFLATION ATTEMPT:
To say I was excited to use this new pump was an understatement. After experiencing near death on my first inflation attempt, I was hoping this would make short work of the inflation. Well, it did, but then it didn’t. The board itself took form in less than a minute. FANTASTIC!! But wait, it stopped inflating. What? After checking the PSI (with my new pressure gauge), it only reached 0-1 psi. It might seem like not much, but it did pump a lot of air in a short period of time. However, the remaining 15 psi needed to be pumped up by hand, which I must say was much easier than my first attempt. Granted, the last 5 psi were difficult as expected, but the pump really did help and didn’t require a car or house plug. Probably the most helpful part of the pump was deflation. The pump had the entire board sucked free of the air in less than a couple minutes. This made packing up so much easier and didn’t require me flopping on the ground to squeeze out every bit of air.
Since the initial SUP purchase, we also purchased an inflatable BOTE kayak. Like the SUP, the Bauer Pump from Harbor Freight really comes in handy. One boater can be using the battery powered pump, while another person can be using the hand pump to bring the seats and boat to the required PSI. It saves a ton of time and energy.
The pump we purchased from Harbor Freight can be used on basically every inflatable. Obviously, we’ve used it for our kayak and SUP, but have also pumped up tubes, rafts, and inflatable islands.
If you have access to electric, I would highly recommend getting the electric pump from BOTE or similar product. The one offered by BOTE pumps up to 20 psi and has an easy-to-read digital gauge. Personally, I would not buy any electric pump that couldn’t reach the 15-20 PSI range if you have an inflatable SUP or kayak. Ryobi and Kobalt also make similar rechargeable high volume inflators and provide similar performance to the Harbor Freight Bauer model. If you have other Ryobi tools that use the same battery, get Ryobi and the same for Kobalt. Stick with what works for you.
In conclusion...are these new inflatables worth the cost? I would have to say yes. The SUP can easily be carried by any able body and doesn't require a large truck, trailer or roof racks. The kayak is definitely a little heavier and certainly makes good use of the wheeled bag. The bag will fit in a small SUV or trunk of a sedan, but it will take up every last inch of space. Whatever you may decide to buy, I would invest in either the battery powered high volume pump to help out or a more expensive electric one like the one BOTE has on their website.
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