Operational Assessment: Test-Driving Oru’s Foldable Kayak in New York City
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In the Operational Assessment franchise, SPY agents test noteworthy products that are unusual, expensive, or both. These stories seek to answer a simple question: Is this worth the investment?
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Everything about owning a kayak is a hassle compared to owning an actual boat. They’re only marginally smaller than a small skiff; they’re clunky, heavy, and unwieldy; and between a rudder system, hatches, and sun damage, the general maintenance is no Saturday afternoon in the park, either. Oru’s line of kayaks (the Lake, Inlet, Bay St, Beach LT, Coast XT, Haven TT) answers for all of that and fits in the trunk of just about any if not every car on the market, with a couple of caveats.
I’ve been testing and reviewing kayaks for the better part of a decade, and throughout that time I’ve used several of Oru’s kayaks on everything from lakes and rivers to inlets and the open South Pacific, at one point having had a pair of them aboard a sailboat I was living on between Fiji and New Zealand. Compared with the inflatable offerings, they proved immeasurably sturdier, readier, and more maneuverable.
A Note On Other Portable Kayaks
Oru’s are far from the first portable kayaks, and there’s any number of inflatable models out there. Other folding kayaks I’ve tested were cumbersome to assemble, had fittings that fell apart or broke too easily, and often weighed a ton. Inflatable models also tend to be heavy with the added inconvenience of being the slowest option in water (lacking rigidity), and tracking about as well as a bleach bottle — or, suffice it to say, hardly at all.
How I Tested the Oru Inlet Kayak
This summer, I tossed the 20-pound, 42 x 10 x 18-inch folded Inlet into my trunk like a carry-on suitcase and drove it down to Sheepshead Bay, in south Brooklyn, where I challenged myself to assemble the thing without instructions. Nine full minutes later, the boat was ready to load, but I should add that there’s a QR code printed into the cockpit (along with a couple of assembly tips) that sends you to an easy-as-can-be Youtube tutorial by the brand.
Within another five minutes, I’d loaded the Inlet with fishing gear, food, and water to see how well it would handle incessant powerboat wash and 1 to 2-foot wind chop.
Paddling the diminutive 9-foot, 8-inch kayak out into late-summer weekend boat traffic, I wasn’t far from the boat ramp before I took the first breaking wake over the bow. The combing caught it enough to keep me dry, and there wasn’t any suggestion of listing or capsizing, despite a fully loaded cockpit. (Between myself and my gear, I was pushing the 275-pound maximum capacity.)
This, for an open-cockpit sea kayak, which prefers flat water, is generally sort of a nightmare. Their characteristic rounded bottoms make them much tippier than wider, sit-on-top ocean kayaks with lower freeboard, harder chines, and flatter bottoms.
A few more sets of wake and I’d find about a cup of water in the bottom of the cockpit, though it was no matter at all and my seat even managed to stay dry.
Worming my way through decrepit pilings wracked with bent, gnarled rebar, the wind, the boat wakes, and the tide seemed to all be working against one another and creating a veritable washing machine effect. I jostled between and bounced off more than a few pilings and errant pieces of rusty iron, figuring, after the first couple of points of contact, wouldn’t I want a tester to be this rigorous on my behalf?
Oru’s marketing team may receive this tester vessel a little worse for wear and tear by way of some rust stains and a scratch or three, but the integrity of the brand’s proprietary OruPlast — a sort of UV-proof, epoxy-treated, double-layered 5mm polypropylene structured a lot like cardboard (minus the paper) — remained entirely uncompromised as I fished for a good two hours until the tide fizzled out on me. Alas, fish dinner was not to be mine tonight. (Granted, neither Oru nor the Inlet were to blame for my angling incompetencies today, and it will float to let me try another day — or 19,999, according to the brand’s claim of 20,000 lifetime folds.)
I shuttled my way back between wind and waves for a mile or two, taking a moderate beating on both flanks, when the thrifty little foot brace (which would usually be pegs on most kayaks) came in handy.
Reaching the boat ramp, I was glad, at least for the sake of the boat itself (and the marketing team that would have to shape up the boat for the next sorry reporter) that there were a couple of tracking pads on the bottom — which, apart from explaining the relatively good tracking on the water, saved the bottom from the gravel-laden cement that constituted the terminally craggy excuse for a boat ramp I was washing myself up onto.
I made sure to catch a few pieces of shell, broken beer bottles, and scrap metal just to see how the hull could handle it, and I couldn’t identify a single scratch as I packed the boat up and tossed it into the back of my Toyota 4Runner — still with ample room for gear and fishing rods — and made for the fish market in consolation of my empty creel bag and wounded ego.
My Final Thoughts
No kayak will ever be the perfect kayak, least of which a portable one (and you really need between three and seven kayaks to check all of the boxes, if we’re being honest).
The Inlet could use a little better storage organization, for one thing, but the behind-the-seat storage is ample for a day trip. (If you’re packing for a bit more of a trip, ahead of the fore and behind the aft bulkheads offers a bit of extra space.)
The combing on the port rail was already starting to come undone out of the factory, though that’s strictly a cosmetic matter and can be fixed easily enough with a bit of marine-grade glue or epoxy.
Lastly, and I know this is a tall order, but with so many pedal- and electric-powered personal watercraft on the market these days, it would be really cool if the design team could find a way to allow you to retrofit Hobie’s or Wilderness Systems’ pedal drive or an electric trolling motor to their hulls.
All in all, the Oru Inlet is an impressively seaworthy kayak for something that breaks down into a suitcase-sized fold that you can take on the bus, subway, plane, or pretty much anywhere (especially with the separately sold carry pack). And, closet space permitting, it’s a worthy addition to any household.
Oru Kayak: The Inlet
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