Whitewater inflatable rafts,
catarafts, rowing frames,
oars, and
rafting accessories from AIRE,
Hyside, Maxxon, Tributary, NRS,
Incept, Carlisle, footcones &
Boat
People specialty items are
found in
these sections of our site. Our
whitewater rafts include self
bailers
and "bucket" boats from Hyside,
Tributary (AIRE's import
line), and
Incept.
Got questions? We have rowed,
paddled, or sold just about every
brand out there, so don't
hesitate to
call or come by. We love to "talk
boats," and would be happy to
answer your questions. Time
can be
tight for typing lengthy emails
though, so if you have more
than a
couple questions please phone
us.
Please note that photos of
AIRE's 130, 143, and 156
series are
not discernable from one
another in
photos since they all look
alike -
they are merely scaled up or down
from each other. AIRE also has an
optional upgrade on all American
made rafts to a Sealed Floor
Pocket; more about that in
the
boat descriptions. Also new
for 2008
on the R and D series rafts is
a grey
rowing frame chafe panel, though
some of our photos still show the
older models.
We try to offer the highest
values, which is why many of the
inflatable rafts in this part
of our
website are from AIRE, and
Tributary, which is AIRE's import
line. We were the first AIRE
dealer
in California and we knew AIRE's
owners long before the company
existed. Greg Ramp, AIRE's prez &
chief boat designer, used to make
inflatable kayaks out of his
detached
garage in Grants Pass, Oregon way
back in the eighties. They were
some of the best designs you
could
buy at that time. From there he
moved to Idaho to work for
Maravia
Corp, continuing to develop his
ideas and setting up the huge
"urethane encapsulation" spray
booth they use to this day. A
couple
years later he co-formed AIRE
with
Kris Walker, and Alan Hamilton
who
we knew from his days as NRS's
manager. Kris has since left
AIRE to
market his high performance
marine
cat designs.
For us and for our customers,
it's very important that the
crew at
AIRE are easy to work with. It is
even more important that they are
impeccably honest people who
always cover their products
just like
they say they will.
AIRE is the only inflatable
raft
builder out there offering a
warranty
with coverage for damage you
do to
your boat, not just defects
that are
the fault of the manufacturer.
Most
of the other boat builders
claiming
ten or twelve year guarantees may
only cover the hull material
for that
period, or have exclusions that
make the warranty far less
impressive than at first glance.
AIRE's ten year guarantee works
like this: If there is any
problem
that is "AIRE's fault", you
pay the
shipping charges to them and they
cover the return freight. If the
problem is "your fault", you pay
shipping both ways as you would
with just about any other brand.
Why cover your damage too? AIRE
would rather fix the boat
properly
with their welders than having
one
of their products looking
awful due
to a mickey-mouse repair job, and
it's also simply part of their
service
policy.
AIRE's whitewater rafts
tend to
be in line with, or priced
lower than,
the majority of other makes, and
their line of imported
Tributary's
offer what is likely the best
value
around. They are great performing
rafts with no glue used in their
construction, unlike
similiarly priced
Chinese and Korean pvc rafts.
When
you purchase a raft you are
really
paying for two key things:
quality -
specifically how long the
product will
last and what it will cost per
year to
own, and handling. A"good
handling"
raft or inflatable kayak will be
responsive through a wide
variety of
river conditions.
Unfortunately, almost all
brands
of rafts and inflatable kayaks
have
increased this year by amounts
ranging from 5% to 20%. There is
little that inflatable
builders can do;
the dollar continues to be
unstable
and weak against a number of
other
monetary units, and all boat
material relies on oil for it's
production, even urethane. AIRE
has promised that if they can
possibly drop the pricing a
bit on
their Tributary line (which
increased
18 to 19% for 2009) in the second
half of this year, they will
do so. In
the past we only saw one price
change, if any, at the
beginning of
the year, but that may be
changing
in the future with all the
instability in
the global market.
All of AIRE's models are
extremely well designed from a
hydrodynamic standpoint, and they
self-bail as fast or faster
than any
other brand. Some brands that a
few elitists insist are better
handling
may in fact take longer to drain,
effectively making them slower to
respond since they might be
carrying 6" of water in
continuous
rapids.
What about quality? In the
simplest terms, quality really
boils
down to how long the boat will
last,
or how long you can maintain
it in
functional condition. With AIRE's
internal bladder design there is
nothing that can permanently
disable one of their rafts. If
a couple
main tube bladders start
developing
pinholes after say, 15 years, you
can replace them for around
$350 to
$400, or one tenth of the boat's
value. The outer hull of an AIRE
could in fact be nearly worn
down to
the base fabric all over and
the raft
will still hold air just fine.
On the
other hand, if a
non-bladderized pvc
boat becomes leaky at every
crease, or a hypalon raft
accumulates so many patches it
won't hold air for two hours,
what do
you do? Boat sealants may help
with
some of these problems but
it's not
a long term solution, and if
your raft
needs multiple, expensive repairs
and is only worth $700, do you
pay
a repairman another $700? In most
cases the boat either ends up
fetching next to nothing at a
garage
sale or taking up space in a
landfill.
There is no reason an AIRE boat
can't go 30, even 40 years with
upkeep, a lifespan matched by few
other boats. For the same
reason an
AIRE can be made to last
forever, it
is also the most easily
serviced in
the field if something should go
wrong. With all these
considerations
we don't feel there is a better
whitewater raft than an AIRE or
Tributary at any price.
AIRE PRICING-
Traditionally, ever
since our
website has been operational,
we've
had AIRE kayaks, rafts, and
cataraft
Tubes priced at about 5% off the
retail. AIRE had requested
quite a
while ago that all dealers
list their
Products at the regular retail to
"level;" the playing
field
- though we've been successfully
resisting for a couple years now.
Due to crabbing from a certain
dealer the issue has been
more or
less forced, and being friends
with
the good folks at AIRE we don't
want to create headaches for
them.
The AIRE and Tributary pricing
here is at retail, however
in most cases you will not pay
any
more than you would have before
we made the change. What we are
doing is to give you 5% of the
boats
price, rounded up to the nearest
dollar, toward UPS fees or any
accessories you may get with the
boat now or later. If you
need no accessories and your UPS
is less than 5% of the boat's
cost -
which is often the case with the
more pricey U.S.-made AIRE's - we
will work something out for you
that's agreeable.
Additionally, if
you want to pay with a cashier's
check you will save even more.
This
can be substantial on rafts in
particular, though less
significant on
something like an import kayak.
Email us with your zip code for a
quote. There is no obligation,
and
we will not spam you with follow-
ups.
As an example for the Puma
raft in this section, you will
get a
$145 credit. If your UPS fee
would
be $75, that will be included
in the
$2,899 price, and you will
still get
another $70 toward any pump, pfd,
oars, throwbag, cam straps,
clothing, or frame you might
want.
If all you needed was the boat
and one other item that ran $70
after your accessory discount,
you
would pay a grand total of $2,889
(plus tax if you are in CA, and
possibly some additional UPS
if that
accessory item had to be
shipped in
a separate box). delivered to
your
door. If you did not need any
other
items, we'll work something
out with
you that's fair.
For more information about
multiple boat discounts, and
discounts on accessories that are
purchased with your boat, please
see the F.A.Q. page of our
website.
This section was updated in
May of
2009.
