Oru collapsing kayak

[Marvinlungwitz]

Anyone with experience? The lightweight and portability are huge pluses. Any significant reliability/quality issues?

I just want to slowly paddle around a calm lake to watch the beavers, otters, ospreys, etc.

[robin3mj]

Anyone with experience? The lightweight and portability are huge pluses. Any significant reliability/quality issues?

I just want to slowly paddle around a calm lake to watch the beavers, otters, ospreys, etc.

I’ve seen those but have not looked into them deeply.
I have a Kokopelli inflatable pack raft that we really enjoy. Mine is the Twain, their biggest which is a good size for me and two small kids or the dog. It packs down to about the size of a carryon suitcase, whereas their other ones are even smaller.

Their website has a section called Lake Series that is suited more for calm waters.

https://kokopelli.com/collections/lake-series

Looks like the Oru may run a bit cheaper apples to apples.

[steve garro]

Anyone with experience? The lightweight and portability are huge pluses. Any significant reliability/quality issues?

I just want to slowly paddle around a calm lake to watch the beavers, otters, ospreys, etc.

I've seen them in action, they have an odd origami-esque look so you know when you see one, and they appeared to be floating just fine = I can see it if you have a small car for sure - I don't have one, closest I have in my fleet is a 4lb Alpacka raft

- Garro.

[Marvinlungwitz]

Looks like I will have to pick between inflatable versus folding.

Probably less paraphernalia with the folding, and I’ve always enjoyed origami. But I will see if I can try both before buying.

[steve garro]

Looks like I will have to pick between inflatable versus folding.

Probably less paraphernalia with the folding, and I’ve always enjoyed origami. But I will see if I can try both before buying.

It would save you from a pump, inflation and deflation but I wouldn't use one for fast water as they don't look like they track super well, but on flat lakes the ones I've seen seem to work very well.
I'd try one first, they look that niche.

I do own a 17' "folding" sea kayak which fits in three bags and carries up to 900lb - their ultralight boat is *so cool* it's lighter than the Mark I - Feathercraft makes some cool ones as well

https://longhaulfoldingkayaks.com/pr...-ii-expedition

I've seen a few of these ones too, with small electric motor:

https://portabote.com/?srsltid=AfmBO...PgDyYaHzCd7K9B


- Garro.

[steve garro]

One of these came up on the Sedona CL for $450 today actually

- Garro.

[j44ke]

Sister-in-law and her husband have two of the Oru boats. They were early adopters - I think they bought them through Oru's Kickstarter project. They like them for what they are, and the Oru boats actually sold them on kayaking in general. They ended up buying some non-foldable models (can't remember brand) because the increased efficiencies in paddling and steering were noticeable. And they bought a house on the water. So now the Orus are in the shed and the other boats are out on the dock. They have recently looked at some of the newer Orus and told me that the newer ones are much improved in terms of usability. Sounds like the originals could be fussy with the rubber straps and folds, but once together they did fine. The newer boats benefit from several iterations of development and feedback from users.

[open roader]

I've paddled a Tucktec fold out canoe/kayak in zero wind conditions.

No experience packing it up or indeed assembling it but for photography on calm water with gentle paddling to move about short distances it was perfectly adequate and I'd paddle one again no hesitation, however in the wind I suspect tracking / wind cocking would be a pain.

[Bobonli]

It depends! It depends on how and where you will use it.

I sea kayak fairly regularly. There is a paddler in our group with an Oru and he struggles with it at times. It can get pushed around in wind. It's not as easy to maneuver and edge as a "solid" boat. Watching him paddle, you can't help but think, "this thing was made for calm water where there's little chance of capsizing." Capsizing is a thing in kayaking. The saying is "you're only a paddle away from your next swim." You either learn to swim (wet exit and re-enter) or you learn to roll. I don't think you can roll the Oru, at least not the one I saw which is made from the same material as a US Postal Service white letter tote that you see in the back of mail trucks. I've seen that same paddler struggle to get back in his boat and IMHO it's not the guys fault, the boat was not designed for sea kayak use:wet exists, over-deck re-entries etc.

Any collapsible boat is a compromise. Know that going into the purchase and know how and where you intend to paddle. Please wear a PFD, unlike the ads on the Oru website which until recently showed people paddling without a PFD.