Testimonials

(Note by Lee Arbach - Will Pederson (below) uses his boat for extended trips on a number of wilderness whitewater runs, as well as some day trips. Will is well over six feet tall yet he seems to have no trouble packing plenty of gear. If you pack your drybags up as high as the one behind his back, it's best to put only light items inside in order to not throw off your center of gravity. Following are some photos and comments from him, and we agree with his assesment of the foot pegs in our AIRE Force Expediton model, which is why we didn't have them installed on out last batch. We also think they are in the way on this model when you're trying to straighten your legs to get out of the thightstraps-)

Will Pederson comments:
Hi Lee- Here are a few pictures (above & below) from my recent paddling trip. I floated a 66 mile section of the Wallowa and Grande Ronde rivers in northeast Oregon with my AIRE Force Expedition starting on April 30th with a flow of around 4,500 cfs. This is a medium-high flow and the river was moving at 5-6 mph. I had a fun three day trip with warm weather and great camping, scenery and wildlife!
The Force Expedition kayak has proven to be a capable, tough and maneuverable boat even when loaded down with my camping gear, food and water. I've been using a large mesh duffle in the stern to hold my water, food, repair kit, foot pump, etc. Then I lash an aluminum pack frame on top which holds the duffle in and provides a good platform for lashing on the dry bags containing the camping gear. The pack frame can also be used to carry the folded up boat.
The only problem I've had are with the foot pegs moving when I don't want them to (using the dry bag in the bow as a foot rest works well though so I don't really need the foot pegs, at least on camping trips). I have tried (unsuccessfully) rolling the kayak but find it much harder to roll than my old Perception Pirouette. I have been able to flip the boat upright and get back in fairly quickly after getting dumped. Also found that I can even stand up in the boat to get a better view of the upcoming rapids (don't try that in a hardshell boat!). The boat's relatively low profile (at least compared to a raft) helps when paddling into a headwind. I also recently ran the 46 mile section of the main stem Eel from Dos Rios to Alderpoint in 3 days starting on May 12 with a flow of around 1,000 cfs. At this low flow there was a lot of paddling into headwinds (the boat's relatively low profile helped here) and some dragging the boat in shallow spots but on the plus side, the river was warm enough for some great swimming. So far, I've used the boat on up to class IV day trips and up to class III camping trips and am very happy with the performance. Thanks for all the great advice and support.

Lee -- By all means you're welcome to post the pictures -- not a problem at all. In terms of wind, it was a rare day when the wind was absent, and sometimes it really howled. But we were pretty lucky, and never had a day where we couldn't get out at some point. And, we also tended to be on the right side of the lake to paddle into the wind going away from shore -- so we were never panicked about getting back. So wind wasn't a real issue. Inflatables were clearly the right choice for what we were doing, in terms of ease of set-up and portability. I can't imagine trying to piece together a Folbot or Klepper at each site (we often visited two lakes in a day). We didn't see another boat the entire trip -- Mongolians are landsmen, and it's a rare Mongolian who knows how to swim, or who has caught a fish... Not that it's particularly exciting or a big deal, but I'll bet we were probably the first paddlers on some of these lakes (almost certainly on the small ones). Cheers, -- Jim

Thought I'd let you know that the equipment you put together for our expedition to Mongolia was conjoined vagabondsexactly what we needed -- I don't think I'd change one thing. Everything worked great -- more than once I appreciated the entire package, from the Innova canoes themselves to the 12-V inflator pumps, and even the foresight you had to make sure all of our paddles and handles were of compatible and interchangeable sizes. Attached are a few photos of the equipment in action (not quite as exciting as whitewater action photos, but just fine for us). I added the camel photo just as a reminder that we weren't in North Dakota or Kansas. Thanks again for your help and advice. Cheers,
James E. Almendinger, Senior Scientist
St. Croix Watershed Research Station
Science Museum of Minnesota
(photos below and at right) vagabond in mongolia

Lee: Attached is a picture of my wife and seven year-old son paddling on the Tuul river last Saturday, near a herd of Mongolian horses. The spot is about 50 miles northeast of the capital of Ulaanbaatar. The Sunny worked great! Had to take off the fin because the river is low in places, but although it was a little more work to go straight, it still was OK. (photo below) mongolia kayaking.
(Note from Lee Arbach - so far Scott is the only person who actually lives in Mongolia to have purchased a boat from us.)

I wanted to drop you a note and let you know how happy I am with my Innova Junior kayak (note this model is no longer available). Amazingly enough, it still looks brand new, even after close to two years of use. I just came back from a trip to Crystal River, Florida, where I averaged about 10 miles of paddling each day, and my Junior continues to exceed all my expectations. It's quick, comfortable, tracks well, and is small manateeenough to expore all sorts of out-of-the-way inlets that would be inaccessible to most any other boat. As a bonus, the endangered manatee who are native to the area seemed perfectly at home around my kayak. (Hhmmmnn, maybe it's the familiar rounded shape?) For fun, I'm enclosing a photo of a junenile manatee who was clearly intrigued by my Junior. He followed me around for the longest time and would come right up to the side of my kayak for a visit. The green you can see in the photo is the side of my Junior, so you can see just how close he was! He seemed to consider me his new green friend.