About this product
The reason most people in Dar es Salaam never own a kayak is not the price of the kayak – it is where to keep it and how to move it. A hard kayak needs roof bars, a place to store three metres of plastic, and two people to lift it. An inflatable solves all three at once: this one comes out of a bag, takes a few minutes on the pump, and goes back in the boot when you are done.
It is a one-person boat, 275 cm long and 81 cm wide, with a closed cockpit. That closed deck matters more than it sounds – it keeps water from slopping in over the sides in chop, so you stay dry and the boat stays light. The seat is inflatable with a backrest, and it can be moved to trim the boat depending on how much you are carrying.
Two removable fins clip on underneath, and they are what makes an inflatable behave. Without them a light boat with a flat bottom will wander with every stroke and every gust; with them it tracks straight and turns when you ask it to. The hull is Bestway’s Inflata-Shield fabric over three separate air chambers, with an I-beam floor that stiffens under pressure so you are sitting on something solid rather than a soft mattress.
It suits Msasani Bay, the creek at Mbezi, lagoons at Kigamboni and Bagamoyo, Zanzibar and Mafia, and the calm side of any of the lakes. It is a recreational kayak for sheltered water – not surf, not open ocean crossings, not whitewater. Wear a buoyancy aid, tell someone where you are going, and watch the offshore wind, which on this coast can push a light boat out faster than you can paddle back.
Bestway Cove Champion X1 Inflatable Kayak