Thats whereOru Kayakcomes in: The company makes kayaks that fold up to the size of a suitcase.
Theres no inflating involved, but you do have to figure out how to do origami with corrugated plastic.
For this review, I tried out a 9-footLake+from Oru.
There are other foldable kayak brands on the market, notablyTuckTec, but Oru is the most established.
As noted, these foldable kayaks are no relation tothe inflatable kayaks Ive written about in the past.
How annoying is the Oru Lake to fold and unfold?
Once I had some practice under my belt, however, it reallywasquite quick to get the craft together.
My next try, during an actual lake outing, was closer to five minutes.
When switching from one to the other, you have to unfold certain lines (push hard!)
But itdoesall work, and the pieces fit together nicely.
Then you go to the front of the boat and cinch the sides together with buckle straps.
At the back of the boat, you do a similar procedure.
How does the Oru Lake fare on the water?
I took the Lake+ out for a spin on my local lake one chilly day.
Speaking of PFDs, Oru Kayak sent me one to test.
The Lake+ is pretty comfortable to sit in overall.
And, yes, the craft is lakeworthy as promised.
I suffered no leaks or surprises.
(I would expect the longer, more expensive models to steer a lot straighter.)
When I was done with my testing, I folded the boat back up.
Conveniently, the whole thing packs up into a suitcase-sized package.
