Inflatable Kayaks Accessories

CALL - 925.820.2628 Back Saver Bilge Pump Kayak Bags Cargo Holds Thighstraps AIRE Footpeg Kit Skeg Kits

Thighstraps, sails, bilge pumps, and accessory seats for inflatable kayaks are on this page; other general whitewater knick-knacks are under "rafting accessories".
Note: Thwart backrests for AIRE kayaks are availabe for $150, though there is a cheap, simple way to increase the rigidity of your Cheetah seat. Call for information.
This page was updated May, 2008

Back Saver

Many inflatable kayaks have backrests that leave much to be desired. If you have a boat that uses a thwart or "pillow' style backrest, a Boat People Back Saver ($57) accessory seat may improve your paddling comfort. Made of heavy cordura with a large rear pocket, and padded throughout with 3/8" closed cell foam, they come in black, blue, teal, red, and purple. Back Savers can be leaned against & secured to the existing thwart or pillow, or possibly be substituted for whatever is in the boat. They do require two D-rings forward of the backrest for the snap clips (which are on the right, but hard to make out in the photo above), or something like hoopi lacing, to connect to. These snap clips are at the ends of the kidney straps, which wrap the sides of the Back Saver around you. There is also a large pair of rear straps not visible in the picture that will pull it tight to your thwart. These not only hold it in a firm upright position, but also prevent the Back Saver from moving forward.
There are some boats that won't work well with Backsavers, like Innova Helios', Sunnys', and Safaris; most Sea Eagles & Sevylors (since these brands have nothing to run the Backsaver straps to or around), or kayaks from Stearns and Advanced Elements. The following brands DO have thwarts and work fine with Backsavers: Wing, Riken, Momentum, NRS MaverIK's, Hyside, Soar's with thwarts, Achilles, Maravia, Jack's Plastic Welding, Sunrunner, and some models of Sotak. It might be possible to mickey-mouse one into working on an AIRE Force as well.

We also sell the AIRE Lynx/Cheetah series seats as an add-on. These are only $45 since they are made in China. These are superior to the Backsaver in rigidity and support but require four loop patches or D-rings to be installled, not just two. For a photo, see any of our three kayak pages. Grey only.

New!
I.K. Bilge Pumps

Since a number of folks who buy non-self bailing touring inflatables like the Innova's would like a simple way to get rid of accumulated water, we are carrying kayak size bilge pumps again. If you plan on going through a surf zone, or will paddle larger Great Lake-type bodies of water, this is a must. A sponge simply takes too long for any sizable amount of water. A Bilge Pump will make quick work of it. You can clip one in to your boat with a carabiner through the handle. The Bilge Pump runs $19 and comes with it's own little lifejacket.

Kayak Bags

There are two different carrying bags for inflatable kayaks made by AIRE. One is the all-pvc Outcast Float Tube bag ($57), which is probably the best one for air travel since it has no mesh and a minimum of straps to snag on airport conveyor belts. This bag does require that you fold your side tubes inward before you roll the boat up, otherwise it won't fit. The Outcast Bag measures 12" X 21" tall X 29" wide, and in will hold almsot any solo inflatable kayak, as well as most 12' to 13' tandems. Something a bit longer like an AIRE SuperLynx or Sea Eagle 420 is going to be too big though.
If you want to prevent your boat from getting stinky in the Outcast Bag you may want to leave the double zipper open a bit assuming it's not on a plane.
The other bag from AIRE is simply known as "the Kayak Bag" ($75, both photos just below). It can be used for air transport, but it still has just enough mesh along the top center between the lift handles to allow your kayak to dry somewhat. This bag measures roughly 48" long by 15" around. In other words, it is cylinder shaped. This is a big bag that will carry any tandem boat except a Traveler canoe, and if your kayak is a solo or smaller tandem model you can also stuff paddles, pump, and maybe a lifejacket or two in there. The Kayak Bag has a long removable shoulder strap as well as two regular lift handles. Additionally, there are also two pockets on the inside, and two more on the outside.
The last feature of the Kayak Bag is a pair of backpack straps on the bottom/rear side. These have a design flaw in that they connect to the bag's D-rings with plastic hooks, which can and do break. In fact, we have had customers break them on the very first use. If the backpack straps are a crucial feature for you, we would suggest trying to stuff your boat into a 3.8 River Pack (see our Dry storage page) instead. It will poke up out of the River Pack bag, but we have to assume anyone carrying their boat this way is hiking to a put-in, not carrying it to bagage check-in at an airport. If you are in an airport, better to use a luggage cart. If you do buy the Kayak Bag and the hooks break, understand that you have been warned and we will not take returns if this occurs.

Cargo Holds

AIRE Cargo Holds for AIRE & other i.k's are designed to strap or rope down to either AIRE's factory installed tie-down loops, or to have rope alternately lacing through the Cargo Bag's loops and floor bail holes. If your kayak is not a self-bailer, or only has bail holes at the front and rear of the inflatable floor instead of along each side of it, these won't work. They are made of grey pvc (the top and bottom) and strong mesh (the sides). They come in three sizes, each of which is roughly 11" square at the wide end, and taper to about 7" at the narrow end, which points toward the rear or front of the boat. The Small is 18" long and runs $22, and it is really intended to be used in the front, possibly with a second medium size hold in back. The Medium ($28) is the most usuable size by far at 29" long and it fits a one person Lynx or similiar sized boat nicely. The Large is 41" long & $35, but it really is only meant for the AIRE Superlynx and Sea Tigers. If you aren't sure what size to get just ask us.
The item on the left in the photo is a Waterproof Cargo Hold for kayaks, available by special order ($125, photo at near right). It is small and expensive due to the use of a drysuit zipper. It doesn't hold much, and when the watterproof drysuit zipper eventually fails, the bag is garbage can fodder since this zipper is 85% of the price. Our humble opinion is that you would be much better off with a duffel style drybag, even though it is somewhat less convenient to open and close. These come in grey, plus the five AIRE kayak colors. Please have a second choice when you order in case the first color is out of stock.

Thighstraps

We have several varieties of thighstraps for inflatable kayakers, and two of them can also be used with sit-on-top plastic kayaks:
2" Unpadded (bottom in photo, $20/pair), 2" Straight Padded (middle in photo, $31/pair), and Curved Padded (top in photo; $37/pair). The Curved Padded straps now have more curve and more of an hour-glass shape, wide at the ends and narrow in the middle, with a longer padded section than what is shown in the photo. Additionally, we also carry the imported AIRE Thighstraps ($27, not shown but very similiar to the Curved Padded ones above), which need to be laced in, take longer to remove, and are more trouble to adjust. However, the AIRE's are the longest of all that we carry, so if you are over 6'2" or just have really long legs, they may be the best choice. Conversely the 2" Straight Padded straps are the shortest. They tend to stay on your legs better than the other padded types, but if you are over 5'9" they likely won't work well.
Thighstraps allow you to be more effective with brace strokes in whitewater and are definitely the simplest & cheapest way to improve your paddling. They work the easiest with AIRE i.k's, but they can also clip or loop into into other boats with bail holes running full length (take a small piece of rope out thru one bail hole and back up thru the next hole, and tie a knot to form a loop, then repeat this for the other three attachment points), such as Incepts and Hysides, and older air-floor Maravias. In some boats four D-rings may need to be installed (small D-rings run $5 to $7 each depending on what your kayak is made of) to connect the thighstraps to.
Thighstraps are removable, and only take a couple minutes to install. If you leave them in your boat, expect to have thighstrap-shaped mildew stains in short order. The Padded Straps (in black) have quick release friction buckles but the Unpadded (in either blue or rainbow) just have a single 2" side release buckle and are more difficult to disengage if you become entangled.
Should you get thighstraps for your flatwater i.k? You can but it is probably a waste of money. In whitewater, when the upstream tube of your i.k. starts to get sucked down by the current, quick reaction time and an upward jerk of the knee can save you from a flip. However, in the ocean, generally even the quickest reacting folks will not be able to save themselves from overtunring on the face of a large wave if they get sideways. If you want to somehow "connect" your body to your boat for lake use, it's better to rig a footbrace of some sort.
If you are not clear on how to use thighstraps, please don't think for a minute that asking will make you look dumb.

AIRE Footpeg Kit

Although other manufacturers like Hyside and NRS sell rubber-mounted glue-on kits for their boats, we don't stock those. This one is only for AIRE kayaks. The patches go inside the boat, where the two long ones are glued on (newer Lynx 1's already have the patches welded in from the factory). Small smooth headed stainless bolts pass through from the inside to threaded holes on the footpeg rails. The pegs themselves slide along the rail, locking into the square depressions. This system can slip sometimes, but unlike the more secure old-style aluminum peg & rail versions, they won't chew your legs up if you slip off them in a big drop or send you to the hospital for stitches. The AIRE Footpeg Kit is $52, and unlike the Skeg Kit below, it does not come with a hole punch for some reason. You will need to either use an exacto knife to make the six main tube holes, or make a punch yourself out of something like a sharpened 22 caliber bullet casing.

AIRE Skeg Kit

We're still waiting for AIRE to get their act together on a functional removable fin system for their longer kayaks, specifically the SuperLynx, Tomcat II, and Strike II. The one we describe here - the only one AIRE has at the moment - requires some hassle to install and remove each time, if you choose to remove it, and the actual fin is about the size of what you migth find on a toy bathtub shark.
The white diamond shaped plate is placed under the floor bladder, which you do by opening the floor zipper most of the way. There are two little pre-drilled holes in the plate. You mark through them with a pen onto the bottom layer of the floor envelope, and hammer holes through the marks with a little punch that AIRE provides. Watch your pinkies because the punch is tiny. Once this is done, you pass two allen screws through the plate holes and into pre-threaded holes on the edge of the fin, which is all that is seen on the exterior of the kayak. You can either remove the whole thing each time you deflate your AIRE kayak, or you can just leave it and roll the boat loosely. The interior diamond shaped mounting plate must be lined up straight when you punch the two holes, since having it canted a bit left or right would cause the fin to be crooked and your 'yak to spin in circles.
Since the actual fin surface area is small (see the pack of cards in the photo for reference), this kit works best with little boats like the Force, and that was what AIRE intended it for. The longer the boat, the less tracking it will provide. Boats like the Lynx I track very poorly because they were not designed for flatwater at all. AIRE likely would not expect their customers to be mounting a fin to a Lynx. Quite a few people have bought the Tomcats for non-whitewater use though, and the Skeg Kit might help somewhat with the solo Tomcat, which tracks better than the Lynx I to begin with.
AIRE's system won't work with any other brand of kayak that has a conventional inflatable floor since you couldn't punch through an air chamber. It will work with Innova's little Junior, since that model has a non-inflatable floor with a secondary inflatable buttrest on top, but the mounting plate might wobble a bit.
The AIRE Skeg Kit is $30

Innova Accessory Fin Kit

We also carry the larger Innova's Fin Kit ($49, no photo) as a separate item. This one is big enough to help even larger, longer kayaks track straight. The Innova fin patch, which mounts to the exterior of the kayak, needs to be glued to the bottom of your boat. Since all Innova touring boats are made from rubber fabric, the patch is too. Therefore, if your boat is made of pvc or polyurethane rather than hypalon, nitrylon, or neoprene, you will need to make a duplicate patch out of material that is compatible with the type of glue your kayak requires for patching. In other words, you cannot glue the rubber Innova fin patch to your pvc kayak because no one type of glue sticks well to both materials. Depending on the design of your inflatable floor, you may also need to modify the Innova fin cleats that connect the actual fin to the patch. This is easy to do but requires a vise. We'll explain on the phone if you are interested.

Photo: Canyon de San Jose on the Guatamala / Mexico border, Rio Uscamacinta, vintage 1989