Kayaking and innovation — The Folding Boat Company
What are the easiest ways to learn kayaking?
The best way is probably going to talk to a local store that specialises in kayaking and sign up for a few lessons.
Paddling appears pretty intuitive but taking lessons can teach you about the stuff that isn’t intuitive and some day that may come in handy and could save your life. Learning to paddle properly will also make your experience much less painful and hopefully you’ll want to continuing kayaking for a little longer.
You can often find packages including lessons and a rental boat, sometimes for not much more than the cost of a rental boat alone.
For those that have paddled before here’s a little product we found that you might like
To the left is the K-Pak.
It’s a boat created by ‘The Floating Boat Company’ who were looking to offer hassle free access to the water.
You won’t find many places offering an entire kayak that can fit inside a backpack.
The boat itself only takes a few minutes to assemble and you’re good to go whatever your adventure.
All featured photographs from The Floating Boat Co.
We spoke to founder Pete Flood about the company to find out more about the product.
Why couldn’t you use a boat that would be easier to transport? What if you had a folding boat that you carry on your back? Think of all the places you could get to where others couldn’t…
How was the company founded, it was clearly to solve a problem but was it a passion for the outdoors as well
It involves a strong passion for the outdoors. I’ve been lucky enough to have traveled to many remote locations in Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho and others. I’ll load two boats in the back of a small airplane with our other gear and airplane camp in remote river valleys. There is always a body of water somewhere that would normally seem out of reach. With our K-Pak boat in a backpack it’s a pretty hassle free process to get there now.
What are the short term plans, any new products we can be expecting?
YES! Within our patent we have a provision for what we call a “Butterfly Frame” or BF. We now have a wonderful working prototype that we are putting through her sea trials. This advancement eliminates the need to install the two cross frames, the only parts of the K-Pak that were not already inside the skin. The BF allows you to basically just “pop” the boat open after advancing the (8) sleeves.
It reduces assembly time from 4–5 minutes down to 2–3. It also allows for a smaller disassembled package.
The packed height of the boat will remain at about 37” but the width will reduce to roughly 15–16 inches. This advancement also provides the opportunity for a longer, sleeker, and faster boat model. We hope to roll out the Butterfly Frame with a Kickstarter campaign later this year.
It may just involve starting with something like kayaking, but developing a unique system that allows you to take your boat anywhere has definitely helped in pushing paddling forward.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about The Folding Boat Company, we want to start sharing more stories of innovation like this.
You can find The Folding Boat Company online here.
And contact them directly on their twitter @FoldingBoats
As usual you can get in touch via any social @FieldworkUK
If you want to get in touch here: FIELDWORK
Feel free to comment we’d love to hear about your kayaking adventures or about other innovations you know of!
