Last summer on Lake Travis, I learned a valuable lesson about inflatable kayak maintenance the hard way. Twenty minutes into what should've been a perfect sunset paddle, my trusty Sea Eagle started listing to the right. That sinking feeling in my stomach matched the slow deflation of my starboard chamber. If you've ever experienced that […]

I'll never forget watching my buddy Mike's face when his brand-new inflatable kayak bounced off a rock in the Guadalupe River like a rubber ball. While my hardshell scraped and groaned, his inflatable just shrugged it off and kept floating. That was 15 years ago, and it completely changed how I thought about blow-up boats. […]

I'll never forget the morning I had to choose. Standing in my garage at 5 AM, coffee in hand, staring at my 12-foot jon boat on one side and my fishing kayak on the other. The weather app showed 15 mph winds, and I had exactly 30 minutes to decide which one was hitting the […]

I'll never forget the morning I watched my buddy Jake flip his brand-new inflatable pontoon on Lake Chelan. One second he's fighting a smallmouth, the next he's swimming after his tackle box in 15-knot winds. Meanwhile, I'm sitting pretty in my fishing kayak, wondering if I should help or keep casting (I helped, obviously). That […]

Last Saturday started like any other overcast morning on Lake Travis. The clouds hung thick, and I almost left my sunscreen in the truck. "Can't see the sun in clouds," I thought, "so why bother?" Four hours later, my arms looked like lobsters, and I learned a painful lesson that changed how I approach sun […]

I'll never forget the look on that bass fisherman's face when I paddled up in my inflatable kayak, caught three largemouth to his zero, and casually deflated my boat to fit in my Honda Civic's trunk. "Wait, you can actually fish from those pool toys?" he asked, jaw still hanging open. That was 15 years […]

I'll never forget watching my neighbor's 12-year-old Sea Eagle finally give up the ghost at Lake Travis last summer. After more than a decade of Texas sun, countless fishing trips, and probably a thousand inflation cycles, the old warrior developed a seam leak that no patch could fix. That's when he turned to me and […]

Last Saturday morning on Lake Travis, I watched a guy flip his brand-new inflatable kayak three times trying to get in from the dock. By the fourth attempt, half the marina was watching – and offering advice. Sound familiar? Getting in and out of an inflatable kayak doesn't have to be a spectator sport. After […]

The rod bent double, and my 4-pound smallmouth launched itself skyward. That's when Ranger, my 65-pound Lab, decided he absolutely needed to investigate this splashing situation – immediately. In one fluid motion, he lurched from his spot behind me, the kayak tilted precariously, and I found myself making a split-second decision: save the fish or […]

Last spring, I watched my neighbor drag his heavy hardshell kayak across the parking lot at White Rock Lake, sweat pouring down his face. Meanwhile, I rolled up with my inflatable tucked in a backpack, inflated it in 10 minutes, and was on the water before he even reached the launch. That's when he asked […]