This is NOT a Good Kayak! | Intex Explorer K2 Review

Ken Whiting with PaddleTV with yet another unbiased in-depth gear review and in this video we are, well we're testing out this sucker right here. This is the Intex Explorer K2. It's an inflatable tandem kayak and it's not just any inflatable kayak. This is hands down one of the cheapest kayaks that you'll find anywhere. It's one of the cheapest kayaks on Amazon. It's one of the cheapest kayaks at Walmart but cheap doesn't necessarily mean good and that's what we're here to find out. How good is this thing? So I'm gonna get this thing pumped up and tell you a bit more about it. The Intex Explorer K2 comes with two paddles, two seats, a pump and a repair patch. It regularly retails on Amazon and Walmart for $150 US dollars. It's 10 feet 3 inches long. It's 36 inches wide. It weighs 37 pounds or 16 kilos and has a capacity of 400 pounds 181 kilos. Its primary use is for calm protected water. Well that was pretty darn easy to inflate. There's five chambers, a floor, the two side tubes and then these two ends pieces skirts. Actually seven if you include the two seats. Easy to put together but you know it is it's it all feels pretty soft and you know if I felt this soft I'd have to hit the weight room that's for sure. But looks and feelings can be deceiving and so let's get this thing on the water and see how it actually performs. Let's do it. So before I tell you about how the Explorer K2 performed I just wanted to let you know of a way you can save some money. Outdoorplay.com is offering my viewers 15% off almost everything in the store. Not everything but a lot of the stuff. All you have to do is go to outdoorplay.com and when you get to the checkout use the code PaddleTV15 and you'll get 15% off. I hope that's helpful. Really they've got a ton of paddling gear to choose from. All right the boat has been tested and here is what I can tell you about the Intex Explorer K2. Well first of all on Amazon there's over 27,000 reviews of the Explorer K2 and the average rating is 4.5 stars out of 5 stars. Like that is impressive. I mean that's a really good rating for this kayak and I have to say that it kind of surprises me but then again it doesn't surprise me and here's why. Before I get into what I like and don't like the pros and cons of this kayak, this is a gateway kayak. This is a kayak that lets people very very affordably try kayaking. 150 bucks for a kayak, two paddles, a kayak that has two seats. I mean all you need is life jackets and you can get some cheap life jackets as well. What an affordable way to test the waters to see if it's something you want to do and that's why we call gateway kayaks because if people like what they their experience they're going to keep going down that road and upgrade kayaks. So the question is how is this as a gateway kayak and well over 27,000 people give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars and so that's pretty darn good but I think people's expectations are really really low. When you buy 100 spend 150 bucks for a kayak you don't expect much and I don't I think for the purposes of just getting on the water you know whether you're at a beach you're at the cottage that kind of a thing you just want to get on the water and splash around and have a good time and with friends and family then you know what I totally get it. This isn't as simple as a pool toy but I think of it more like a beach toy you know or a cottage toy. I do think of this as a toy rather than a real kayak. It does its job for 150 bucks it puts smiles on people and gets them on the water and introduces them to kayaking but as a kayak it pretty much stinks. People are going to hate me for saying that people who bought this thing and love it and that I'm not saying you shouldn't love the kayak for the purposes that you bought it for but I'm here to review this kayak and compare it to other kayaks and what's it like as a kayaking experience as a kayak compared to all the other kayaks that you can get out there comparable price or much more expensive and what I can tell you that this really is not a good kayak. It doesn't provide a great paddling experience at all in fact it's pretty horrible paddling experience compared to other kayaks and with that said let me explain why I say that and it's not all bad either it just let me get into it. Let's start with portability and this is how I always break down kayaks. Portability of this kayak I mean it fits in that small bag and it comes with two paddles and that pack down into that bag it's only 37 pounds like awesome I mean highly portable this is one of the smallest packages that you can buy it's it's awesome so high marks for portability. Now stability when you're sitting in this thing in the water how stable is it it's stable this is a very stable kayak you feel very confident in this thing and so I can see why people like it for that reason and I think most people who buy this are buying it for stability over its performance so stable kayak absolutely. Now let's talk about comfort well it's so soft I mean it's so soft and it's almost hard for it not to be comfortable I mean you can sit cross leg like I am right now you can almost sit in every any position so it's comfortable in that sense but the seat itself the seat is comfortable because it's soft but that's about it there's virtually no actual support being given by the seat when I lean back it just collapses right over on itself so really there's no lower back support no back support at all I'm having to lean forward. Now the other issue about comfort too this boat is so soft and when I'm sitting in it right now in the middle it's sagging right down and where my all my weight is in the butt and when my butt sinks down that means my feet are up here are actually higher than my butt is and that is inherently an uncomfortable position the most comfortable kayaks are the exact opposite they have raised seats and so that your butt is higher than your feet puts less strain on your hamstrings you don't need to be as flexible it's just a more comfortable position a dramatically more comfortable position so this boat isn't comfortable to paddle because you're always in this weird crunch position and you have real no back support it's it's a lounge boat it's a it's a kickback I'm on the water enjoying the sunset having enjoying the sun beautiful day that's the kind of boat it is and it's pretty darn comfortable in that regard. Actually you know what the other thing about comfort I'm going to mention that I have to mention the first thing I noticed about this kayak when I was paddling this seam right here it's about a I don't know like a quarter inch seam that sticks up on the side of the kayak and it's right on the top and so as you're taking the stroke my thumbs were just constantly hitting it and and it's like this really annoying thing that's why no other kayak I've been in has something where your hands are hitting you're just constantly now it's not cutting me but it's just annoying it's that's all the best way to put it so performance this thing is so soft that it acts like an amoeba in the water and that just kills all your speed as a rule the stiffer a kayak is the more it acts like a hard shell kayak the better it will cut through the water there's no cutting through the water with this boat this boat kind of slinks its way through the water because there's no v in the bow real v in the bow it the bow is moving aggressively side to side you lose so much of your forward stroke to the boat turning rather than propelling you forward the fin that you put in the removable fin helps keep it going straight a little bit but i mean this thing uh is definitely not is one of the slowest kayaks i've ever paddled so low low low marks for performance on the flip side it is one of the most maneuverable kayaks i've ever paddled you can spin this thing on a dime one stroke and you're almost able to do a 360 with one stroke if you take the fin out you definitely can and that's kind of cool but it certainly doesn't help you move anywhere so now i typically talk about value and i've kind of touched on it already 150 bucks 150 bucks for two paddles a kayak that has two seats i mean how can you get cheaper than that i just don't it's amazing and so it is amazing value for what you get you just have to understand the real limitations of what this thing is this is not a kayak designed for paddling uh really going for paddling trips it's designed for getting on the water and just having an a water experience and discovering is kayaking something i want to pursue and if it is you will very very quickly uh replace this kayak with a better kayak and that is if you try a better kayak if you don't want to spend the money don't try a better kayak stay in your world stay in this world because if you try a higher performing kayak you will understand more what i'm saying the wow what a difference a you know a few of these features make continuing on the topic of value the paddle actually is a good representation of what the kayak is and who it's actually for it's amazing that you get two paddles with this thing for 150 us dollars but you have to know what kind of paddle you're getting in this paddle it's aluminum i mean it is look at how much i can bend it just with my just like that but on top of that so much flex so you're really getting very little power from this this paddle almost no power at all then there's the blades themselves well how much power do you think you get when you pull on that paddle in the water and the blade just gives away you're not getting any power from that in fact when i tried to dig in a few times to get some strokes i lost power because the blade folded in half so that is representative of what you get with this whole package you don't get a paddling machine you get a water experience so who is it for well very simply it's for people that are looking for to test the water to see if they like hiking are they comfortable going out on the water do they like the motion do they find it hurts their shoulders do they want to do it and 150 bucks is an absolutely incredible incredibly cheap way to test that that too this is for it's also for people who want to um this is all they want from a kayak is to just get on the water and enjoy an evening or an afternoon or an hour to spend times with friends and family splash around with their kids fantastic you know this does a wonderful job of that it's a k2 they say a tandem kayak it comes with two seats but something you need to know is that they say the capacity is 400 uh that's what you see on the website but then what on the the writing on the back what it says is well actually the capacity for two people is 330 pounds for two people plus gear you can put up to 400 pounds so two people at 330 pounds i mean it's not two adults no it's not or it's too small adults it's going to be more this is more of a an adult with a child uh kind of boat and it's not just because of the weight capacity it's also because of the size there's just two adults would be crammed in this thing an adult and a child no problem this is actually more i think of this as a single kayak and it's a it's well sized for someone who wants to to paddle solo or wants to put a kid in the front or another small adult so there you go a full review of why i love but kind of hate the Intex Explorer k2 i hope you guys have enjoyed this view i'm sure i'm i'm going to strike a nerve with some people here but i hope you can appreciate where i'm coming from with this that i have to review this from the perspective of what you get as a kayak because that's what i do i'm not reviewing water experience crafts i'm i'm reviewing kayaks i got a lot more tips coming your way a lot more gear reviews a lot more paddling adventures stay tuned for those leave a comment down below with your experiences with this 27 000 people gave reviews about it i'd love to hear what you like about this kayak where am i off base where am i wrong and um where am i right share that with other people who are shopping because a lot of people are trying to make the decision is this the right kayak for them and you can help thanks for watching we'll see you again soon